How Many Packers Rookies Will Actually Make an Impact in 2026?

The Green Bay Packers are a draft-and-develop team but don’t necessarily count on their rookies to make instant impacts. Last year’s draft class provided a total of 14 starts. A total of 19 individuals around the league started more.

While there’s plenty of hype surrounding each of the six draft picks, starting with second-round cornerback Brandon Cisse and ending with sixth-round kicker Trey Smack, general manager Brian Gutekunst has been at it long enough to know he had to tamp down expectations.

“These guys are just starting their NFL journey, and there’s so much in front of them, and I feel really good about all of them, and I think they’re going to have a chance to have an opportunity to be very good players in this league,” he said after the draft. “But you don’t win the Super Bowl during the draft.”

How many rookies will make an impact this year? Here they are, ranked from least likely to most likely.

Sixth Round: Domani Jackson, CB, Alabama

Domani Jackson was a dart-throw selection to land a prospect with excellent measurables. At 6-foot 3/4, he certainly measures up compared to Keisean Nixon (5-foot-10 1/4), Carrington Valentine (5-foot-11 5/8) and Brandon Cisse (5-foot-11 3/4).

Green Bay might not be loaded in talent at corner but they are loaded in numbers with Nixon and Valentine the returning starters, the free-agent addition of Benjamin St-Juste and the draft picks. It’s going to be hard for Jackson to break through this year, but Nixon and Valentine will be free agents next offseason.

“I think if you played Domani Jackson’s college career 10 times, I think seven or eight of those times, he’s a first-round pick,” East-West Shrine Bowl executive director Eric Galko said.

Fifth Round: Jager Burton, C, Kentucky

Jager Burton would be the player the Packers would rather not have to play this season. No offense to Burton; keeping him stashed on the bench would mean the three interior linemen who are expected to start, left guard Aaron Banks, center Sean Rhyan and right guard Anthony Belton, are healthy, jelling and playing well.

Of course, the phrase “healthy offensive line” is practically an oxymoron, and Burton should be a solution to Green Bay’s 18 percent problem from last year. He will have a chance to be practically a universal backup. Obviously, that includes the interior positions, but if left tackle Jordan Morgan were to go down, the backup plan could be Belton moving back to where he played in college, a switch that would open the door for Burton at right guard. So, in a roundabout way, drafting Burton could be part of the backup plan at every position.

“It’s a blessing to come into a room with the caliber of guys that are in this room,” Burton said at rookie camp. “From top to bottom, these guys are, obviously, super-talented. They wouldn’t be here if not.

“Watching their film we went through last year, our O-line coach would use them as teach tape for some of the plays we were putting in. I’m just excited to get around them here in two weeks and be a sponge and absorb as much knowledge as I can and add it to my game. Super-grateful to be in a room with experience and great leaders.”

Green Bay Packers Dani Dennis-Sutton (51) and Jager Burton (52) get ready for rookie minicamp. | Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Second Round: Brandon Cisse, CB, South Carolina

As mentioned earlier, there certainly is strength in numbers at cornerback. With the veteran trio of Keisean Nixon, Carrington Valentine and Benjamin St-Juste, the coaches will not be under any pressure to get Brandon Cisse into the lineup.

That being said, the Packers didn’t use their first draft pick on a player just so he can be a gunner on the punt team. It might not be for Week 1, but Cisse needs to find his way into the starting lineup in order for the defense to take a big step forward.

“There’s a long ways to go before that,” he said at rookie camp, where he wore No. 2 in honor of Charles Woodson. “I think this cornerback room has a lot of great people in it, a lot of great players that I need to look up to and learn from. But I have a long way to go, and right now it just starts with putting my head down one day at a time.”

Fourth Round: Dani Dennis-Sutton, edge, Penn State

Edge defenders are not every-down players. Last season, for instance, Kingsley Enagbare was fourth at the position in snaps with about 27 per game. That’s a big workload for the fourth player on the depth chart. With Rashan Gary traded to the Cowboys and Enagbare joining the Jets, more than 1,100 snaps from last season were sent packing.

That’s a massive hole in the lineup, and it will be an even larger hole to start the season with Parsons coming off his torn ACL. It’s pretty easy to envision Lukas Van Ness, Barryn Sorrell and Dani Dennis-Sutton being the main characters to start the season before settling into the four-man rotation that plays most of the snaps for the rest of the season.

“I actually didn’t talk to Green Bay throughout my whole pre-draft process, so it was kind of crazy,” he said at rookie camp. “Once I got the call from Green Bay, Wis., I knew I was going to be coming here and I was super-excited, obviously. There’s a tradition of defensive players. Obviously, Micah’s here. Just the lineage of defensive players here, so I was super-excited.”

Third Round: Chris McClellan, DT, Missouri

The move to a 3-4 defense requires, A, more big defensive linemen and, B, a nose tackle. Enter Chris McClellan, who will be given every opportunity to be a Week 1 starter.

McClellan is more than just a nose tackle. He had six sacks during his final season at Missouri. That’s why he was called a “Sexy Fat Man” by Senior Bowl executive director Drew Fabianich, who was a national scout for the Dallas Cowboys for 14 seasons.

McClellan is big enough and strong enough to play nose tackle. He’s skilled enough to play other spots on the defensive line, which is what he did at the rookie minicamp.

“I’m excited, man,” he said after practice. “I’m excited, man. Every day I’m blessed to wake up and be in the NFL. It’s been my lifelong dream. Waking up and coming to work today, the first day, was just like crazy.”

Sixth Round: Trey Smack, K, Florida

Green Bay Packers Trey Smack throws a medicine ball during warmups at rookie minicamp. | Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Unless he kicks himself in the shins rather than kicking the ball through the uprights, Trey Smack will be the Packers’ kicker this season. Given how last season ended, with Brandon McManus missing three kicks in a four-point wild-card loss at the Bears, we all know the impact – positive or negative – a kicker can make.

It will be a three-man kicking competition with Smack facing veterans McManus and Lucas Havrisik.

“It’s just a different place with the same uprights,” Smack said at rookie camp. “That’s kind of like how I feel about it.”

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