Packers Give McDuffie A One-Year Extension
The Packers now have their top four linebackers locked up through 2027.
The Packers, in an unexpected move, have extended Isaiah McDuffie through 2027. McDuffie gets a $500K raise in 2026. That comes via a $1.5M signing bonus which is offset partially by decreasing his base salary for 2026 from $2.4M to $1.4M. The move only reduces McDuffie's cap number this year by $200K. It does mean he now has $1.5M in cash, which otherwise he would have needed to do some pesky things to get like earning a roster spot this August. Here are the details:
| Year | Base | SB | Roster | GA | W/O | Cap |
| 2026 | $1.4M | $2.025M | $750K | $450K | $100K | $4.725m |
| 2027 | $2.9m | 750k | $750k | $600k | $100k | $5.1m |
McDuffie will now earn $3.75M plus a game active bonus of $450K. He is scheduled to earn $4.35M in cash in 2027. None of his money is guaranteed in 2027. That means the Packers have Edgerrin Cooper, Zaire Franklin, TyRon Hopper, and McDuffie all under contract through 2027. Cooper and Hopper are still on a rookie contracts. Franklin and McDuffie are on a pay-as-you-go contracts with easy outs. The Packers will have a lot of flexibility in 2027. Depending on how the linebacker room performs in 2027, the team can replace some of these players or add outside talent to the room without adverse cap affects. Or, they might be able to leave it alone for 2027 while concentrating on improving other areas of the team.
Some pundits wondered about how well McDuffie will fit in a Gannon defensive scheme. It would appear that the Packers think he will work out just fine as envisioned or perhaps Gannon is going to change his scheme a little.
Photo courtesy of Jeff Hanisch, Imagn Images.
Contract details courtesy of Overthecap.
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Comments (20)
Thegreatreynoldo
July 13, 2026 at 02:23 am
I view this move mostly as a housekeeping chore but perhaps I am missing the forest for the trees?
Guam
July 13, 2026 at 07:43 am
Financially it is certainly just housekeeping. Also makes it less likely the Packers will need to look for linebackers in the 2027 draft (depending on how Zaire works out).
golfpacker61
July 13, 2026 at 09:00 am
With so many picks available to GB in 2027 Guam, I can't see them not drafting a LB, probably middle rounds. Franklin is a bridge, and Hopper, the last drafted LB, is almost non existent.
Starrbrite
July 13, 2026 at 06:19 pm
Exactly what it is. Well said.
stockholder
July 13, 2026 at 06:13 am
After Walker got his Free Agency.
I can understand why Gute
is willing to pay more.
GregC
July 13, 2026 at 07:24 am
Yet another move demonstrating that the Packers have zero confidence in Ty'Ron Hopper.
BuckyBadger
July 13, 2026 at 08:15 am
This isn't some contract that stakes he is our guy going forward. It is a pretty modest salary by NFL standards and can be cut at the end of the season.
PackerAaron
July 13, 2026 at 08:58 am
Exactly. Extension gives them a $5.1m cap charge in 2027 with $4.35 million in savings if they cut him. This doesn't have anything to do with Hopper.
GregC
July 13, 2026 at 10:57 am
Good point. My comment was a knee-jerk reaction and an overstatement. But I do think the McDuffie extension makes it more likely that McDuffie will stick around next year, which means that Hopper will be no better than #4 on the LB depth chart (unless they move on from Franklin after one year and do not replace him). I'm not sure to what extent Hopper and McDuffie play different LB positions. They are virtually the same size.
Thegreatreynoldo
July 13, 2026 at 10:29 am
It seems weird to me how they have used Hopper. I thought he put out some decent film in the 144 snaps the team has let him play.
I think they know exactly what they have in McDuffie. Going with just McDuffie (and Hopper?) to back up Franklin and Cooper is kind of interesting. Should I put a question mark after Hopper's name or not? I am not sure.
Hopper played 278 ST snaps last year. Welch and Niemann also play mostly STs. ILB is an interesting room.
Coldworld
July 13, 2026 at 08:36 am
I don’t know if I like this in terms of ambition, but it’s pretty clear we don’t have a MIKE to back up Franklin. McDuffie is a key ST player however and Hopper was never built like, or a style of player suited to be, a MIKE. I wonder if Gannon sees a situational sub package role for McDuffie in run heavy scenarios?
I’d have preferred we have sought to bring in youth to develop behind Franklin this year, but we just bought time to do so next year. By that point, we will probably need a higher pick candidate to replace Franklin who can provide that initially, so the extended timeline is at least logical.
golfpacker61
July 13, 2026 at 09:02 am
Does this officially take McDuffies name off all of the Packers "Most likely to be traded" lists and articles?
Coldworld
July 13, 2026 at 09:07 am
Probably, though if a MIKE candidate they love became available, it’s still not completely implausible.
Leatherhead
July 13, 2026 at 09:38 am
He played almost half the defensive snaps and added another 300 on special teams.
Solid , dependable veteran. A good guy to have around.
GreenandBold
July 13, 2026 at 10:57 am
Agree LH , the guy plays his butt off and has a great veteran presence in the locker room .
lou
July 13, 2026 at 01:00 pm
Agreed, you have to have a solid base of these kinds of players to balance the team. I would have liked to have had them keep Enegabare too, he did not have huge sack totals but he was as good as a tackler as they had, his stops in the Bears games on 3rd/4th and 1 were tone setting.
dobber
July 13, 2026 at 10:44 am
Again, depending on if you buy into the rankings, PFF liked McDuffie more than we seemed to a year ago (27/88 in coverage w/ 89.3 passer rating, 39/88 run defense, 20/88 pass rush). That ranks him as a starting quality off-ball LB...which makes his contract very affordable. I actually thought of McDuffie as one of "Hafley's guys" and wondered whether his roster spot was tenuous with a new DC in town.
IF...the defense really is moving toward a true 3-4 and away from a 4-3, it seems he would be on the field less than a year ago. I suspect we'll see Collin Oliver also getting some off-ball LB snaps in passing situations, so it makes snaps for anyone not named Cooper a little more uncertain.
Coldworld
July 13, 2026 at 02:16 pm
What I see from PFF is not quite that good, though still somewhat hard to credit, particularly in coverage.
Run Defense Grade: 69.0 (39th among LBs)
Pass Rush Grade: 71.4 (20th among LBs)
Coverage Grade: 63.0 (27th among LBs).
Overall, McDuffie is decent depth, particularly in run heavy scenarios, but not someone I’d want starting regularly. He was not as good as Eric Wilson while he was with us or after. That should be something of a grounding thought. In summer last year, he didn’t seem as good as Welch, who didn’t even make the initial roster.
Starrbrite
July 13, 2026 at 06:25 pm
That’s how I see it CW. Wilson was better, but not by much. Neiman is very similar.
Leatherhead
July 13, 2026 at 05:11 pm
Opposing QBs had a 79.3 QB passer rating when they threw at him. He gave up 1 TD in 17 games.