Free Agency Could Start Right Now for Packers

Unrestricted free agency will start next month, but the Packers don’t have to wait to improve their roster. One big-time pass rusher is about to join the ready-to-sign list.

The Miami Dolphins are planning to release Bradley Chubb. | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst needs to improve his pass rush and has a history of taking shots on veteran reclamation projects.

An enticing possibility is about to become available with the Miami Dolphins’ decision to release Bradley Chubb, who has a salary-cap charge of $31.2 million for 2026. While NFL free agency won’t start until March, Chubb as a street free agent will be available the moment his release becomes official.

Green Bay’s pass rush disappeared following Micah Parsons’ torn ACL. With Parsons almost certainly set to miss the beginning of the upcoming season, Green Bay could have a significant problem on its hands. Moreover, Rashan Gary is a potential cap-saving roster cut and Kingsley Enagbare could leave in free agency. That would leave Lukas Van Ness, who has 8.5 sacks in three seasons, and 2025 Day 3 draft picks Barryn Sorrell (1.5 sacks in 14 games) and Collin Oliver (zero sacks in one game) to rush the quarterback from the edge.

Bradley Chubb Could Buy Packers Time

Chubb was a first-round pick by the Broncos in 2018. He had a career-high 12 sacks during his debut season to finish third in NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year voting. Injuries limited him to four games in 2019 and seven games in 2021, and he missed all of 2024 with a torn ACL. When he’s been healthy, though, he’s been productive. In 16 games with Denver and Miami in 2022, he had eight sacks. In 2023, he had 11 sacks and led the NFL with six forced fumbles. In 2025, he had 8.5 sacks in 17 games.

“I didn’t play at all last year and being able to be back on this field, I don’t take [anything] or granted, no matter if we’re playing for the Super Bowl, or playing for nothing,” Chubb said last year. “We’re playing for something, playing for each other.”

With the state of Green Bay’s depth chart, a player like Chubb could buy the Packers some time for Parsons to find his groove and the young players to find their footing.

Including Van Ness, who was limited to nine games by a foot injury, 109 edge defenders played at least 151 pass-rushing snaps in 2025. From that group, Van Ness finished 21st in PFF’s pass-rushing productivity, which measures sacks, hits and hurries per pass-rushing snap, and 28th in pass-rush win rate, Gary was 40th in PRP and 56th in pass-rush win rate, and Enagbare was 80th in PRP and 75th in pass-rush win rate.

Chubb was 46th in PRP and 57th in pass-rush win rate. He had 10 pressures against Buffalo in Week 10 but only 17 in the final seven games.

“Physically, I’ve proved that I’m relentless,” he said. “No matter what I’ve been through or go through, I’m always going to bounce back. I’m going to be a better version of myself each and every time.”

In 2025, he was the Dolphins’ nominee for the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award.

“He is a man’s man,” then-defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver said. “Someone who comes in every day, just puts in the work.”

He will turn 30 not long after the offseason program wraps up in June.

More Miami Leftovers

No, the Packers are not going to sign receiver Tyreek Hill, who the Dolphins released on Monday. However, Miami also released veteran guard James Daniels, a former second-round pick by the Bears.

Daniels, who will turn 29 before Week 1, has a history at all three interior spots. He started at left guard as a rookie in 2018, played 500-plus snaps apiece at center and left guard in 2019 and all of his snaps at left guard in 2020 before moving to right guard in 2021, where he’s been anchored the past five seasons.

Daniels missed most of 2024 with a torn Achilles and all but a few snaps of 2025 with a torn pectoral. In his last season as a full-time starter, 2023, Daniels allowed only one sack, according to Pro Football Focus.

More Defensive Line Help

Packers GM Brian Gutekunst has taken shots on veterans before, including last year, with Isaiah Simmons and Mecole Hardman for training camp and Trevon Diggs at the end of the season.

Defensive tackle Justin Jones, who will turn 30 during training camp, started all 17 games for the Bears in 2022 and 2023, when he had a total of 7.5 sacks and 22 tackles for losses. He signed a three-year, $30.165 million contract with the Cardinals in 2024, when Jonathan Gannon was the coach.

Injuries limited him to three games in 2024 due to a torn triceps and zero games in 2025 due to a knee injury. The Cardinals released him late in the season.

Defensive tackle is a weakness on the roster. Jones, if he is past his spate of injuries, could improve the depth at a position group sorely lacking in it after Devonte Wyatt’s season-ending injury.

More Help (Potentially) Available

The Athletic picked one player for each team who could be a cap-saving roster cut.

Some options at Green Bay’s positions of need:

Cornerbacks: Baltimore’s Marlon Humphrey, Tennessee’s L’Jarius Sneed and Washington’s Marshon Lattimore. Of 108 corners who played at least 200 coverage snaps, Lattimore was 40th in passer rating when targeted, Humphrey was 45th and Sneed was 105th.

Defensive tackles: Baltimore’s Broderick Washington, Cincinnati’s B.J. Hill and T.J. Slaton, Minnesota’s Javon Hargrave, Carolina’s A’Shawn Robinson and Tampa Bay’s Anthony Nelson. Slaton, just like he did for the Packers in 2023 and 2024, started all 17 games in 2025. Hill has played in all but three games the past four seasons.

Center: New England’s Garrett Bradbury. The Patriots are almost $37 million under the salary cap, so this one feels unlikely. Bradbury, who has a reasonable cap charge of $6.9 million in 2026, didn’t allow a sack in his debut season with the AFC champs.

Street Free Agent Upside

The Packers are likely to be judicious with any forays into unrestricted free agency. With Malik Willis, Rasheed Walker, Romeo Doubs, Quay Walker, Kingsley Enagbare and Sean Rhyan set to be unrestricted free agents, the Packers should be able to receive the maximum of four compensatory draft picks for 2027.

Signing unrestricted free agents, depending on the size of the contracts, could impact the number of compensatory picks and the rounds of those picks. Street free agents, however, don’t count, so adding a player like Chubb wouldn’t impact the comp-pick ledger. 

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