Here’s What Will Make Tough Roster Decisions Even Tougher for Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Last year, the Green Bay Packers concluded the preseason with a Saturday afternoon, which gave general manager Brian Gutekunst almost three full days to make the roster decisions necessary to get to the 53-player limit by the Tuesday afternoon deadline.

It will be a much shorter turnaround this year. The Packers will conclude the preseason with a Friday night game against the Arizona Cardinals. He will have less than 43 hours to make decisions on the 38 players deemed not quite good enough for a spot on the initial roster.

Conjuring his inner John Wooden, Gutekunst will take the approach of being quick but not hurrying through the process.

That means getting a good night’s sleep before diving into the film from the bubble players’ final performance.

“We’ll come in on Saturday morning and break down the game,” he said before Wednesday’s joint practice against the Cardinals. “One of the things you’ve got to be careful of is not getting to it too quick. Allow that game to matter and take your time, just like you would the other preseason games and really break that down.”

Of course, Gutekunst and his staff of scouts and coach Matt LaFleur and his team of assistants have been monitoring the performances and trajectories of all the players starting from OTAs in May. And while these final performance will be important, they won’t take precedence over the full body of work.

“Over the course of the last few weeks with these guys that maybe we’re trying to make some decisions on, every team rep that they’ve had since the spring, we’ll watch them and compare them, and compare them to our guys and compare them to other guys around the league,” Gutekunst said.

The other guys around the league part will be a key part of the equation. While Gutekunst certainly wasn’t about to say where his roster was weak and where it was strong, the fact is the Packers are stronger at some positions than others. The same is true for other teams, meaning there could be deals to be made.

“There’s obviously going to be a lot of phone calls with other teams and kind of seeing where everybody’s at,” Gutekunst said. “But, at some point, I’ll get with Matt (LaFleur) and we'll kind of start going through it and try to get a good idea of what we’re going to do on Sunday.”

The NFL moved up the roster deadline from Tuesday to Sunday to help the Patriots and Seahawks, who will be kicking off the season on a Wednesday in Australia. It also moved back the deadline from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

“We don’t have to be righteous on Sunday until about 5 o'clock, I believe, which is a little later than usual,” Gutekunst continued. “So, we'll have some time Sunday to continue to work through some of those things.

“Get in a good night's sleep, hopefully (on) Saturday night, and have an idea. But, at the same time, there's so many phone calls going on between teams and possible trades and guys that might get cut. The three or four days going through this, it's just a lot of tape watching, a lot of guys getting let go you weren't expecting to get let go. Can he help your team? So you're just going through all those things. It's never perfect, but at the same time, I think it's a good process.”

The process will result in 36 players being released on Sunday. Up to 16 of those players – plus, perhaps, Australian-born tight end Thomas Yassmin on the International Player Pathway exemption – can be signed to the practice squad on Monday.

It’s not about a position coach wanting a certain number of players at a position group or special teams coordinator Cam Achord wanting as many core players as possible or coach Matt LaFleur wanting to go with experienced players over rookies.

It’s about doing “what’s best” for the Packers, Gutekunst said.

“There’s so many different areas of our organization that are part of this,” he said. “Obviously, our scouts, the coaching staff, the contract, the financial part of it, medical staff. Those things are going on nonstop.

“At the end of the day, it’s my job to take all that in and do what’s best for the Packers, knowing that what we do on Sunday and Monday may not be what it looks like for the first game, third game or whatever. It’s kind of a constant thing that we’re looking at as far as what’s best. Again, you want five of this, six of that. It may not look like that right out of the gate, sometimes, but you’re looking at it more over the total of the 17 games and the playoffs and how that’s going to look and trying to give your team the best depth to get through this long season.”

For Gutekunst, Wednesday’s practice and Friday’s game will be the final tests. On Sunday, he will determine who passed and who failed.

“I wouldn't say superseded but, yeah, it certainly affects it. No doubt about it,” Gutekunst said. “Obviously, injuries do that, as well. I always feel at this time we got more than 53 that are good enough to make it and we're going to have to make those choices. So, the practice and the game, they're really important.

“We’re so fortunate I think, not only at practice to have the fans that we have and then the game to have a full stadium that helps the environment and seeing these guys having to react and respond in that. This certainly could sway things. It doesn’t erase the things that happened in the past and you try to be careful of recency bias. You’re always fighting against some of that. But, at the end of the day, you’re just trying to make the best decision for the Packers for the season and moving forward. It’ll matter.”

Taking a look at the roster bubble, these players need big days for the Packers against the Cardinals at joint practice today and the game on Friday. ⬇️https://t.co/eYanQXR4ps
— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) August 26, 2026

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