The Miami Dolphins came to Green Bay and took part of the blueprint.
Defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley is gone, hired as the Dolphins' new head coach. Vice president of player personnel Jon-Eric Sullivan followed him south to take the GM job in Miami. Backup quarterback Malik Willis signed with the Dolphins in free agency. In one offseason, Green Bay lost a key architect of its defense, a core front office voice, and a developmental quarterback that the organization had invested in.
That is the backdrop for the 2026 Green Bay Packers: a team that is still talented, still built to compete, and now tasked with proving it can win without some of the people who helped build it.
At the center of all of it is Jordan Love. This is his prove-it year.
Jordan Love: Time to Take the Next Step
The argument for Jordan Love is real and the numbers back it up.
In 2025, Love completed a career-high 66.3% of his passes for 3,381 yards, 23 touchdowns, and just six interceptions. He was efficient, he was accurate, and he was everything the Packers needed him to be after years of building patiently around him. The Packers made the playoffs. The trajectory was pointed in the right direction.
But there is a next level, and everyone in Green Bay knows it. Love has been good. The question that defines 2026 is whether he can become great. The NFC North is a division with Caleb Williams in Chicago, a loaded Lions roster in Detroit, and the Vikings with genuine playoff ambitions. Good does not win the NFC North. Elite might.
The weapons around Love are better than they have ever been. The offensive line is intact. The coaching staff, though changed on the defensive side, is still built around giving Love what he needs to operate. The infrastructure is there.
Now he has to use it.
Christian Watson Is Locked In, and Matthew Golden Is Arriving
The most important piece of the receiver room is settled: Christian Watson signed a four-year, $110.5 million extension, cementing himself as Love's No. 1 option for the foreseeable future.
When healthy, Watson has shown he is exactly what a No. 1 receiver needs to be in this offense. He recorded 611 yards and six touchdowns in just ten games last season before an injury slowed him down. His combination of speed, size, and contested-catch ability gives Love a target that defenses have to account for on every snap. The contract is the organization saying plainly: this is our guy.
Alongside him, Matthew Golden is the name to watch. The Packers' first first-round receiver since Javon Walker back in 2002 had a quiet rookie regular season, finishing with 361 yards and no touchdowns while dealing with injuries and inconsistency. But he announced himself in the postseason with four catches for 84 yards and a touchdown against the Bears in the Wild Card round. He is entering his second year with a full season of NFL reps and a growing chemistry with Love. If Golden takes the leap that his talent suggests, Green Bay's receiver room becomes one of the most dangerous in the NFC North.
Jayden Reed continues to provide speed and reliability in the slot. Tight end Tucker Kraft is back in the mix after coming off the PUP list, while Luke Musgrave gives Love another high-upside option if his neck issue settles down. What walked out the door with Romeo Doubs departing for New England is real, but what remains is more than enough to operate with.
The Micah Parsons Problem, and the Promise
The biggest story of the Packers' offseason was the blockbuster trade for Micah Parsons.
Green Bay sent two first-round picks and defensive tackle Kenny Clark to Dallas to acquire one of the most disruptive defensive players in football, then signed him to a massive four-year deal worth roughly $186 million to $188 million. That is one of the largest non-quarterback contracts in NFL history, a clear statement about where this franchise believes it is, and exactly the kind of investment that turns a good defense into a great one.
There is one problem: Parsons tore his ACL in December. He also had a meniscus procedure. He will not be available at the start of the season, with a return date somewhere in the September-to-October window and mid-October still a realistic target. The Packers are following a strict nine-month recovery timeline, and the plan is to have him back and healthy for the stretch run and the postseason, not to rush him back for a meaningless early-season game.
That is the right call. But it means Green Bay opens the year without the player it built the offseason around. The defense, already adjusting to life without Hafley calling the shots, will need to hold things together without its most important piece for the first month-plus of the season.
If Parsons comes back healthy and at full strength in October, the Packers become a different team. The pass rush transforms, the secondary is suddenly playing behind one of the most disruptive forces in football, and a legitimate Super Bowl run becomes a real conversation. The whole back half of the season changes.
That is the bet Green Bay is making. It is a big one.
Rebuilding the Defense With Jonathan Gannon
Losing Hafley is not a small thing. He built a defense in Green Bay that was among the most consistent in the NFC over the past two seasons, and his fingerprints were all over the culture of that unit.
The Packers replaced him with Jonathan Gannon, the former Cardinals head coach and former Eagles defensive coordinator. That is an experienced hire, and it gives Green Bay someone who has built a high-level defense before. But changing coordinators still means changing language, responsibilities, and weekly tendencies. Even good transitions take time.
The Packers have addressed parts of what they lost. Benjamin St-Juste was added in free agency to bolster the secondary, and Brandon Cisse was selected in the second round of the draft to give the cornerback room another young piece to develop. Chris McClellan and Dani Dennis-Sutton add more front-seven depth. But replacing a coordinator who built a playoff defense while also waiting on Parsons is a real early-season test.
The good news is that the core pieces are still there. The bad news is that they will need to perform without Parsons for a significant portion of the schedule.
The NFC North Picture
Green Bay is not in a soft division. The Bears won the NFC North last year. Detroit is a perennial contender. Minnesota has its own ambitions and just added Kyler Murray to a roster built around Justin Jefferson.
The Packers went to the playoffs last season. They added one of the best defensive players in football, even if he will not be available immediately. They locked in their franchise quarterback and their top receiver. They are a legitimate contender.
But the early weeks of the season, before Parsons returns, are where this team's resilience gets tested. If Green Bay can stay in the NFC North race through the first six weeks without its best defender, the back half of the schedule with a healthy Parsons could be very dangerous.
Crystal Ball Prediction
Win total: 10-7. NFC North contender, Wild Card.
Love takes the next step. Watson stays healthy. Golden emerges as a legitimate WR2. Parsons returns in October and transforms the defense. The Packers get to January and are dangerous when they get there.
Ten wins accounts for a slow start without Parsons and the adjustment to new defensive leadership. But this roster, fully healthy, is one of the most complete in the NFC. If everything comes together in the second half of the season, Green Bay is nobody's idea of an easy out in the playoffs.
Love has been good. Now it is time to be great.
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