Every Key Packers Player Entering Contract Year, Plus Key to Next Payday

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Led by their 2022 draft class, the Green Bay Packers have several key players set to become free agents next month. An arguably more powerful group will be free agents next year.

Here is a look at the 13 key players who will be free agents after the 2026 season.

C Elgton Jenkins

Elgton Jenkins’ place on this list probably deserves an asterisk because it would seem more likely than not that he will be released before the start of the league-year. He is set to earn an $18.5 million base salary and have a salary-cap charge of more than $24.33 million. The Packers are over the cap; the $19.53 million in cap savings will take care of the deficit.

The Packers had high hopes that Jenkins would be a hit in his move from left guard to center, but that was not the case. The 30-year-old didn’t play to his usual standard through nine starts before a season-ending injury. Of 36 centers with at least 250 pass-protecting snaps, Jenkins finished 22nd in PFF’s pass-blocking efficiency.

Key to next contract: There’s nothing Elgton Jenkins can do. If the Packers release him, his track record will instantly make him one of the top guards on the market.

WR Christian Watson

Christian Watson suffered a torn ACL in Week 18 of 2024. As he was working his way back, the Packers gave him a one-year contract extension worth $11 million. It seemed like a win-win at the time. It certainly was a win for the Packers, who will get their best receiver back for a relative bargain.

In 10 games in his comeback season, he caught 35 passes for 611 yards and six touchdowns. That’s a 17-game projection of 60 catches, 1,039 yards and 10 touchdowns. He ranked second among receivers with 17.5 yards per catch and fifth with 2.51 yards per route. He caught the ball well and blocked like always.

Key to next contract: The Packers haven’t had a 1,000-yard receiver since Davante Adams in 2021. Maybe Watson will hit that mark in 2026 to set himself up for a colossal payday. Staying healthy, obviously, will be the starting point.

WR Jayden Reed

After an impressive first two seasons in the NFL, with team highs in receiving yards in 2023 and 2024, it looked like 2023 second-round pick Jayden Reed was poised to be Green Bay’s first 1,000-yard receiver since Davante Adams. Instead, he suffered a broken collarbone while making a diving catch in the end zone in Week 2 against Washington. When he returned to the lineup, he caught 16-of-17 passes over four games.

Green Bay Packers receiver Jayden Reed (11) scores a touchdown against Chicago Bears linebacker Tremaine Edmunds. | Wm. Glasheen/USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images

According to PFF, his passer rating when targeted in the slot was 131.9. Of 75 receivers who had at least 17 slot targets (Reed’s number), that ranked fifth. He was fourth in 2024 at 137.1 and 13th in 2023 at 129.8. According to league data, the run game was 1.49 yards per carry better when he was on the field and the passing game was 0.63 yards better.

Key to next contract: Reed is incredibly talented and has put together extended streaks of superb play. At about 5-foot-11 and 187 pounds, he’ll have to prove he can take a licking and keep on ticking in a featured role.

WR Dontayvion Wicks

A fifth-round pick in 2023, Dontayvion Wicks had 39 catches as a rookie, 39 catches in 2024 and 30 in 2025. That’s consistent production, but his yardage figures went from 581 in 2023 to 415 in 2024 to 332 in 2025. He scored a career-low two touchdowns this past season.

Of 100 receivers who were targeted at least 35 times, he ranked 90th with 2.3 yards after the catch per catch. At least he cut his drop rate from 17.0 percent in 2024 to 9.1 in 2025 and he improved from 3-of-14 on contested catches in 2024 to 7-of-11 in 2025.

Key to next contract: Christian Watson, Jayden Reed and Matthew Golden will be the top receivers next season. He’ll get his opportunities, though, and will have to catch the ball with greater consistency and get back to being a run-after-catch threat.

TE Tucker Kraft

An asterisk can be put alongside Tucker Kraft’s name. Assuming he doesn’t have any setbacks in his comeback from a torn ACL and is back on the field for Week 1 (or thereabouts), he should be at the front of the line of Packers needing a contract extension.

Green Bay Packers tight end Tucker Kraft (85) runs for a touchdown against the Pittsburgh Steelers. | Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

Kraft caught 32 passes for 489 yards (15.3 average) and six touchdowns in eight games. Even with that abbreviated eighth game, that’s a 17-game pace of 68 receptions for 1,039 yards and 13 touchdowns. He would have ranked ninth among tight ends in receptions, second in yards and first in touchdowns. Kraft was 38th among tight ends in targets but eighth in yards after the catch. Talk about absurd: His 10.8 YAC per catch was 3.4 yards better than any other tight end.

Key to next contract: Successfully coming off a torn ACL, which shouldn’t be taken for granted.

TE Luke Musgrave

Luke Musgrave, as a second-round pick in 2023, was supposed to be the No. 1 tight end and Tucker Kraft, as a third-round pick, should have been the capable sidekick. Instead, Kraft is the star and Musgrave’s career has fallen off a cliff.

During the eight full games without Kraft, Musgrave caught 15-of-21 passes for 164 yards and zero touchdowns. Among tight ends during that span, he was 35th in catches, 36th in yards, 33rd in YAC per catch (3.2) and 34th in drop percentage (11.8). He hasn’t scored a touchdown since the 2023 playoffs at Dallas.

Key to next contract: With Kraft to be sidelined through the offseason practices and most, if not all, of training camp, Musgrave will have a golden opportunity to show he is worthy of a season-long role in the offense. Having failed to take advantage of that opportunity last season, it’ll be up to Musgrave to prove his worth starting in May.

DE Lukas Van Ness

The 13th pick of the 2023 NFL Draft, Lukas Van Ness has 8.5 sacks in three seasons. The fifth defensive player off the board, Van Ness is 16th in sacks and 15th in tackles for losses (17).

A foot injury limited Van Ness to nine games in 2025, including his first two starts since high school. He had 1.5 sacks and three tackles for losses. He played 151 pass-rushing snaps, which ranked 109th among edge players. From that group, he was a respectable 28th in pass-rush win rate. Plus, he had a sack/strip in the playoff game.

Key to next contract: The production shows the arrow, maybe, is pointed up. He will be given every opportunity to continue that progression with the uncertain outlooks of Micah Parsons (injury), Rashan Gary (contract) and Kingsley Enagbare (free agent).

DT Devonte Wyatt

Devonte Wyatt was the 28th pick of the 2022 draft and the 13th defensive player off the board. He is eighth with 16 sacks, ninth with 30 quarterback hits and 14th with 21 tackles for losses. In 10 games in 2025, he had four sacks.

Green Bay Packers defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt (95) sacks Minnesota Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy. | Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

He missed a month with a knee injury sustained in Week 4 and the end of the season with a broken fibula and torn ankle ligaments when teammate Warren Brinson fell on him at Detroit on Thanksgiving. He expects to be ready for training camp. They need him; the Packers were 6-3-1 in his 10 games and 3-5 when he was out.

When he’s played, he’s been incredibly impactful. Last season, 97 interior defensive linemen had at least 200 pass-rushing opportunities. Wyatt ranked 12th in pass-rush win rate and 20th in PFF’s pass-rush productivity, which measures sacks, hits and hurries per pass-rushing snap. That’s pretty good but was actually a step back from previous years; he was 10th in win rate and fourth in PRP in 2024 and sixth in win rate and second in PRP in 2023.

Key to next contract: Wyatt is set to play the 2026 season under the fifth-year option. Given his talent and the Packers’ precarious salary-cap outlook, a contract extension would not only lock up him beyond the 2026 season but take a bite out of his $12.938 million salary-cap charge.

DT Colby Wooden

Colby Wooden, a fourth-round pick in 2023, went from being a healthy scratch to start the 2024 season to being “The General” of the defensive line in 2025 following the free-agent defection of T.J. Slaton and the trade of Kenny Clark. After starting one game during his first two seasons, he started all but the meaningless Week 18 game against Minnesota.

After playing 487 snaps during his first two seasons, he played 587 in 2025. So, not surprisingly, he set career highs with 50 tackles and six tackles for losses. The run defense was 0.13 yards per play better when he was on the field. He’s a nonfactor as a pass rusher with a half-sack in his career. Of 97 interior defenders with at least 200 pass-rushing opportunities, he was next-to-last in PFF’s pass-rush productivity.

Key to next contract: Doing it again will solidify his next contract; getting after the quarterback at a greater level will mean a significant bump in pay.

DT Karl Brooks

A sixth-round pick in 2023, Karl Brooks has played in 50 of a possible 51 games during his three seasons. In 2025, he started the first seven games of his career. However, while he played more (618 snaps in 2025, 442 in 2024 and 380 in 2023), the production didn’t follow suit.

Although he set a career high with 28 tackles, he had career lows in solo tackles (eight; 26 his first two seasons), sacks (one-half; 7.5 his first two seasons) and tackles for losses (one; 10 his first two seasons). He has produced 25 pressures each of his first three seasons, but he played 101 more pass-rushing snaps in 2025 than in 2024.

Key to next contract: Rediscovering the pass-rushing ability that gave him a role on defense his first two seasons.

LB Isaiah McDuffie

A sixth-round pick in 2021, McDuffie started all 17 games in 2024 and was rewarded with a two-year contract before free agency last offseason. In 2025, he played in all 17 games with 12 starts and finished with 80 tackles on defense and 12 more on special teams, with those 92 total tackles just five off his career-high mark from 2024. He added his first full sack and his first interception.

The past four seasons, he’s played in 67 of a possible 68 games.

Key to next contract: McDuffie’s future in Green Bay is tied to a couple things. First, will the Packers re-sign Quay Walker, who is set to be a free agent this offseason? Second, will new defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon install a 3-4 defense (what he ran at Arizona) or a 4-3 (what he ran at Philadelphia)? A 4-3 requires three linebackers in the base defense; a 3-4 requires only two.

Nobody will ever confuse McDuffie as a coverage stopper. However, of 69 off-the-ball linebackers who played at least 200 coverage snaps, he ranked a decent 32nd in completion percentage and was 11th in yards allowed per completion, according to Pro Football Focus. Plus, he had the fifth-lowest missed-tackle percentage. An encore season in 2026 will mean another nice contract in free agency in 2027.

CB Keisean Nixon

Keisean Nixon talked of being “CB1” from the moment the 2024 season ended, which was a silly notion because No. 1 cornerbacks follow No. 1 receivers and that’s not how defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley ever intended to play in his zone-based scheme.

Green Bay Packers cornerback Keisean Nixon (25) breaks up a pass intended for Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Deandre Hopkins. | Tork Mason / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

While he wasn’t “CB1,” he was an every-down player for the first time in his career. The results weren’t bad – or they weren’t as bad as you think. He tied for sixth in the league with 17 passes defensed, including the game-saving interception against Chicago at Lambeau. Of 85 corners who played at least 300 coverage snaps, he was 41st in completion percentage allowed (61.0) and 11.4 yards per catch and 14th in forced-incompletion percentage (17), according to PFF. He had the seventh-lowest missed-tackle percentage.

On the other hand, he was 67th in passer rating allowed (105.2), tied for 78th in touchdowns allowed (seven; including the game-ending touchdown at Chicago) and was guilty of a league-worst 12 penalties.

In four seasons in Green Bay, Nixon has played in every game with 43 starts.

Key to next contract: Turning pass breakups into interceptions.

CB Carrington Valentine

Carrington Valentine was a seventh-round pick in 2023 and the 46th of 56 defensive backs off the board. He is tied for 12th with 30 starts – only one Day 3 defensive back, the Chiefs’ Chamarri Conner, started more (31). He is tied for 14th with two interceptions and 11th with 18 passes defensed.

In 17 games (11 starts) in 2025, Valentine had zero interceptions and four passes defensed. He had nine PBUs in 17 games (12 starts) as a rookie and two interceptions and five passes defensed in 15 games (seven starts) in 2024. Of 85 corners who played at least 300 coverage snaps, he was 23rd in completion percentage allowed (56.4), 61st with 12.8 yards per completion and 74th in passer rating allowed (109.4).

Key to next contract: Get back to being a playmaker; only two cornerbacks dropped more interceptions than Valentine (three), according to Sports Info Solutions. Three or four interceptions will make the inevitable missed tackles easier to swallow.

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