Packers Free Agency: What They Got Right – And What They Missed So Far

The NFL league-year began exactly one week ago, signaling the official start to free agency and the date when trades could be made.

The Green Bay Packers have been active. They’ve traded two defensive starters, part of 95 starts from last season walking out the door, but acquired a defensive tackle, linebacker and cornerback and re-signed their new starting center.

Here’s what they got right and what they’ve missed.

Packers Got It Right at Cornerback

The four-year, $48 million contract given to Nate Hobbs last year was highly questionable from the jump.

The Packers essentially swapped one injury-prone cornerback for another when they signed Hobbs and moved on from Jaire Alexander. Among NFL scouts, there’s a saying. “Injured players get injured.” Hobbs played 11 games in 2022, 13 games in 2023 and 11 games in 2024. During those three seasons, Hobbs missed 16 games. That’s almost a full season.

The Packers not only were betting that Hobbs could stay healthy, they were betting he could be an every-down defensive back. However, in four seasons with the Raiders, he had been a perimeter corner only in 2022. Otherwise, the overwhelming majority of his snaps had come in the slot.

The Packers made Hobbs a top-20 cornerback in terms of annual pay. Based on what? Certainly not his four-year total of three interceptions and 19 passes defensed.

It was a bad contract, but at least general manager Brian Gutekunst didn’t throw good money after bad. Rather than trying again in 2026 after Hobbs was sidelined three times by injuries, lost his starting job and broke up only two passes, the Packers released him and signed Benjamin St-Juste to a two-year, $10 million contract.

This signing has a chance of really paying off. In four seasons with the Commanders and last season with the Chargers, he intercepted only two passes but had 41 passes defensed. St-Juste almost had more passes defensed in 2023 (17) than Hobbs had in four seasons with the Raiders.

In five seasons, according to Pro Football Focus, Hobbs has allowed a 74.4 percent completion rate with 11 touchdowns, three interceptions and a 104.5 passer rating. His missed-tackle rate is 15.4 percent.

In St-Juste’s five seasons, he was charged with a 61.6 percent completion rate, 14 touchdowns and two interceptions and a 99.6 passer rating. His missed-tackle rate was 10.1 percent.

However, in 16 games (two starts) with the Chargers, St-Juste in a reserve role was charged with a completion percentage of 50.0 with one touchdown, one interception and a 64.0 passer rating. His missed-tackle rate was 13.9 percent in 2023, 8.2 percent in 2024 and 3.3 percent in 2025.

St-Juste, who will turn 29 at the start of the season, seems to be trending the right way. At 6-foot-3, the worst case is he’ll provide some matchup options for defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon. The best case is he’ll win the starting job and be a major asset.

Nobody is saying St-Juste will be a No. 1 cornerback capable of shutting down Justin Jefferson. But the Packers are better – perhaps considerably better – at a fraction of the price.

There’s a strong draft class of cornerbacks available. Finding the right one would be huge for the short- and long-term future of the defense.

So Far, Packers Missed on Defensive Line

Green Bay Packers defensive end Kingsley Enagbare (55) reacts after stopping Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry. | Dan Powers/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

This offseason, the Packers traded defensive tackle Colby Wooden and defensive end Rashan Gary and let defensive end Kingsley Enagbare go in free agency.

Wooden was their best run-stopping defensive tackle, Enagbare was their best run-stopping defensive end and Gary, well, he pulled a Houdini. Were they great players? Obviously, no, they were not. However, Gary played 653 snaps, Wooden played 587 and Enagbare played 468. That’s a total of 1,708 snaps that must be replaced.

At defensive tackle, the Packers responded by signing Javon Hargrave, a 33-year-old with declining production. At defensive end, they have responded with silence.

Taken individually, it’s easy to see Gutekunst’s logic in each move. Knowing they weren’t going to re-sign Quay Walker, the Packers needed a linebacker. So, he traded Wooden for Zaire Franklin. Having traded Wooden, he needed another defensive tackle. So, he reunited Hargrave with defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon. With his end-of-season disappearance, there was no reason whatsoever to keep Gary.

However, as a whole, it’s absolutely, positively impossible to argue that the defensive line is better.

The phrase “addition by subtraction” is a lot like “next man up” in that it’s a shrug-of-the-shoulders way of trying to minimize the loss of talent.

Trading Wooden certainly isn’t addition by subtraction. He’s a 25-year-old, ascending player. No, he probably will never be a top-tier defensive lineman, but he was a reliable role player, the kind of dirty-work guy every team needs to be successful.

The pass rush will be better with Hargrave, a fact that will help Green Bay’s questionable cornerbacks. The run defense, obviously, will not be better. Last season, Green Bay’s run defense was 0.13 yards better when Wooden was on the field; Minnesota’s run defense was 0.12 yards per snap worse with Hargrave on the field.

Losing Enagbare certainly isn’t addition by subtraction. He’s a lot like Wooden in being a reliable, dirty-work player. The run defense was 0.42 yards per snap better when he was on the field. Down the stretch, no defensive end played more snaps for the Packers than Enagbare.

Obviously, losing Gary does fall under the addition-by-subtraction umbrella because they added cap space and a fourth-round pick. However, somebody’s got to pick up the slack in order for the defense to play at a championship level. Maybe that’ll be last year’s Day 3 draft picks, Barryn Sorrell and Collin Oliver, though there’s really no reason to believe that’ll be the case other than trying to manifest the cliched Year 2 jump into existence.

To start last season, Green Bay’s top four ends were Micah Parsons, Gary, Lukas Van Ness and Enagbare. To start this season as Parsons recovers from his torn ACL, Green Bay’s top four ends might be Van Ness, Sorrell, Oliver and Brenton Cox.

Added together, Green Bay’s defensive line won’t be as strong against the run without Wooden and Enagbare, a fact that more than offsets any potential of an improved pass rush with Hargrave.

The headline to this story intentionally used the words “so far.” In no world is the trio of Hargrave, Sorrell and Oliver better than Wooden, Gary and Enagbare. Whether it’s free agency this month, the draft next month or an end-of-camp trade, it’s imperative that Gutekunst adds a couple instant-impact defenders to the line before Week 1.

SIGN UP FOR OUR FREE DAILY PACKERS NEWSLETTER