Grading Packers’ Trade of Colby Wooden for Zaire Franklin

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers needed a linebacker and they needed a defensive tackle.

They got their linebacker but now they really need a defensive tackle.

The Packers on Saturday traded starting defensive tackle Colby Wooden for former All-Pro linebacker Zaire Franklin. Wooden was a revelation last season, going from seldom-used backup to 16-game starter and “The General” of the run defense.

“Colby, it starts with him. We call him ‘The General,’” Micah Parsons said in October. “He owns his role. He understands he stops the run. He comes in and he’s like, ‘I’m going to stop (the run), go do what you do.’”

Big Loss on Defensive Line

Wooden had seven run stuffs last season, defined as a tackle at or behind the line vs. the run. Green Bay’s other defensive tackles combined for eight, with none more than three. The run defense was 0.13 yards per play better when he was on the field.

Wooden wasn’t great – defensive tackle was going to be a focus in free agency, anyway – but a big need has turned into a huge need.

Devonte Wyatt, by far the unit’s best player both as a pass rusher and ascending run defender, has never played half the defensive snaps in a season. After starting only five games in his first three seasons, he started all 10 appearances in 2025. Because he missed seven games, he was limited to 33.8 percent playing time.

Cincinnati Bengals running back Samaje Perine is tackled by Green Bay Packers defensive tackle Colby Wooden (96) and others. | Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

As a backup in 2023 and 2024, Karl Brooks had 7.5 sacks and 10 tackles for losses. In 17 games with seven starts last year, he had a half-sack and one tackle for loss.

Warren Brinson, a sixth-round rookie, had a half-sack and no tackles for losses in 11 games. Nazir Stackhouse, an undrafted rookie, had zero sacks or tackles for losses in 13 games.

The situation was so dire in December that general manager Brian Gutekunst brought back Jonathan Ford. A seventh-round pick in 2022, he spent all of 2022, 2023 and the first half of 2024 on the practice squad without playing in a game. When the Bears released him late last season, Ford returned. He played 30 snaps in Week 18 and will be a free agent.

Free agency is filled with thirtysomethings. Of our top 14 free agents, nine will be in their 30s for Week 1. Gutekunst, builder of the NFL’s youngest roster each of the last three years, has shied away from signing past-their-prime veterans but might have to bite the bullet this year to get plug-and-play depth.

Waning Production for Zaire Franklin

Speaking of thirtysomethings, Franklin will turn 30 before training camp. With base salaries of $6.24 million in 2026 and $8.24 million in 2027, he might wind up being half the price of Quay Walker, the four-year starter who clearly will be joining another team when free agency opens for business on Monday.

Franklin has been a big-time player. During his four seasons as a full-time starter, he had 167 tackles and 12 tackles for losses in 2022, 179 tackles and three tackles for losses in 2023, an NFL-high 173 tackles and 11 tackles for losses in 2024 and 125 tackles and seven tackles for losses in 2025.

It’s not just the tackles and tackles for losses that fell off a cliff in 2025. He went from five forced fumbles to one.

Nobody in the NFL takes Pro Football Focus’ player grades seriously. For what it’s worth, of the 64 off-the-ball linebackers who played at least 500 snaps in 2025, Franklin had the lowest grade. A top NFL executive laughed at the notion that Franklin was the worst linebacker in the league, but did say he “had a rough year” under new coordinator Lou Anarumo.

PFF’s individual numbers are more tangible than the grades. Of the aforementioned 64 linebackers, he was 46th in missed-tackle percentage. Against the pass, he was 26th in completion percentage allowed, 48th in yards allowed per completion and 39th in passer rating. Against the run, his average tackle was 2.8 yards downfield, which ranked ninth, but was 38th in run-stop percentage, a metric that essentially measures impact tackles.

Walker’s average tackle was 4.0 yards downfield.

“He’s a dog,” Colts coach Shane Steichen said of Franklin in 2024. “He shows up every single day, he works his tail off, he prepares the right way. He leads in the locker room the right way and he plays with great intensity, great effort and energy. Obviously, (he) studies tape. You can see it: He's in the right spots making tackles over and over and over again every week.”

Grading the Franklin-Wooden Trade

The trade is just the first domino of the offseason on defense. The next domino will be at defensive tackle. If the Packers by the middle of next week can say they are appreciably better with Zaire Franklin and Joe Defensive Tackle than they were with Quay Walker and Colby Wooden, then Gutekunst will be off to a strong start to the offseason.

For now, if Franklin can stay healthy – he started all but one game the last four seasons – and use his 82 starts of experience to run the show and turn Edgerrin Cooper loose, that will be a major win.

Grade: C-plus.

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