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3 final Packers predictions before draft as clear offense and defense priorities begin to emerge
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- 3 final Packers predictions before draft as clear offense and defense priorities begin to emerge
Green Bay enters the draft with eight total picks, and it's a big year for general manager Brian Gutekunst to round out a strong roster after losing pieces in the offseason.
The Green Bay Packers will go through a different experience in 2026. For the first time since 1986, the team enters the draft without a first-round pick - the team didn’t make first-rounders in 2008 and 2017 either, but those trades happened during the draft.
After acquiring Micah Parsons for two first-rounders
, the Packers start the process without nearly as much draft capital as usual, but general manager Brian Gutekunst kept prioritizing the volume of picks. He traded Dontayvion Wicks
away for a 2026 fifth and a 2027 sixth, and the Packers also got a compensatory seventh-rounder
for losing center Josh Myers to the New York Jets in free agency last offseason.
Therefore, the Packers have eight total picks - and there’s a lot of action waiting to happen. Let’s try to predict three likely outcomes for Green Bay in the process.
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The Packers finally take an early cornerback
Early in his tenure as a general manager, Brian Gutekunst didn’t shy away from taking cornerbacks early. His first two picks were at the position with Jaire Alexander and Josh Jackson. But since taking Eric Stokes with the 29th overall pick in 2021, the Packers have not selected a cornerback before the seventh round. Over the past three years, that’s just what the team did, getting Carrington Valentine, Kalen King, and Micah Robinson. Without much success there in the last two of those choices, the depth at cornerback has suffered.
The Packers understand the weak-link nature of the position
, but it’s time to improve both the ceiling and the floor at cornerback. The front office did a lot of pre-draft homework on cornerback prospects
, so taking one or two during the draft
is certainly the most likely outcome.
Defense is the priority to start
The Packers have surprisingly been more active to add offensive players early - including the past two first-rounders in Jordan Morgan and Matthew Golden. But for the most part, the Packers have used high draft capital to prioritize the defense, and reasonably this will be the approach once again.
With a new coordinator in Jonathan Gannon
, the Packers need more high-end talent on the defense - and there’s a reasonable argument to add players to almost every defensive position, outside of safety. Cornerback, defensive tackle, and edge defender are particularly pressing needs, and it’s much harder to find prospects with a high upside at these positions later in the process.
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Offensive depth on Day 3
Whenever the Packers use their high picks to select defensive players, the front office goes out there and takes developmental offensive players later in the draft. This could very well be the case again in 2026. Green Bay traded Dontayvion Wicks to the Philadelphia Eagles potentially with the idea to draft a wide receiver in mind
- that would be replacing a one-year deal with a four-year potential, even though the level of the player is uncertain after all.
The Packers also have an obvious problem along the offensive line in terms of depth. As we’ve already mentioned here, Gutekunst loves to take multiple offensive linemen on the same draft class, so it’s reasonable to expect this to happen again.
