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Packers Have One of ‘10 Best Draft Sleepers’ – They’ll Need Him ASAP

The Green Bay Packers got one of the biggest sleepers of the 2026 NFL Draft with Dani Dennis-Sutton.
Bill Huber|
The Packers used their fourth-round draft pick on Dani Dennis-Sutton.
The Packers used their fourth-round draft pick on Dani Dennis-Sutton. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

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Green Bay Packers

For the Green Bay Packers, this will be a recurring question until either there’s a positive answer or No. 1 returns to the field.

Who will sack the quarterback without Micah Parsons?

It’s not a new question. Parsons suffered a torn ACL in mid-December. After a season-ending five-game losing streak, the Packers traded Rashan Gary, lost Kingsley Enagbare and didn’t sign a veteran. The only significant addition to the edge-rusher group was fourth-round pick Dani Dennis-Sutton.

Justin Melo of NFL Draft On SI re-ranked the 10 best sleepers from this year’s draft. Checking in at No. 8 was Dennis-Sutton.

“Dani Dennis-Sutton is a pro-ready defensive end with a hard-nosed approach, especially as an early-down run stopper,” Melo wrote. “He's built to thrive in the trenches as an advanced hand-fighter with tenacity.”

Then came the key part in Green Bay’s quest to survive Parsons’ prolonged absence.

“Dennis-Sutton wasn't billed as a terrific pass-rushing prospect during the pre-draft process,” Melo continued, “but he's being underrated in that department after accumulating 17 sacks at Penn State across 2024-25. He also has more athletic upside than given credit for after leaping a 39.5-inch and 10-foot-11 broad jump at the NFL Combine.”

Dennis-Sutton had 23.5 sacks, 34.5 tackles for losses and seven forced fumbles in four seasons at Penn State. He had almost identical numbers during his final two seasons with 8.5 sacks and 13 tackles for losses as a junior and 8.5 sacks and 12 TFLs as a senior.

“Right now, I think, rush the passer,” Packers director of pro personnel John Wojciechowski said at the draft of what Dennis-Sutton does best. “He can chase them down, and he’s got the length and the height to also just get in passing lanes and just block the quarterback from being able to see him.”

In Penn State history – the school where Parsons once starred – Dennis-Sutton ranked sixth in sacks and tied for fifth in forced fumbles.

“Obviously we didn’t have a crazy relationship, because I was gone before he got there,” Parsons said during minicamp. “Just seeing him this week, I think we’ve got a really, really good football player. I knew he was good at Penn State. But I think specifically in this 3-4 system, he’s going to have a lot of success, just with his length, his speed, his violence that he plays with. He’s going to be a really good football player for us.”

In the draft class of edge rushers, Dennis-Sutton was 12th with 45 pressures. Of the 100 edges with at least 210 pass-rushing opportunities, he was 23rd in pass-rush win rate.

“It was fun,” Dennis-Sutton said. “Last year, it was a down year as far as winning games. We didn't have the season we wanted to have but, you know, it was my time and I feel like I had a great year. I’ll say things didn’t go the way we wanted it to, but I had fun, I tried to help the younger guys and just try to leave the program a better place than I found it. And I’m excited to see if they do this year.”

Yes, it was in college, but Dennis-Sutton’s 8.5 sacks as a senior were noteworthy. All of Green Bay’s returning edge rushers without Parsons – Lukas Van Ness (1.5), Barryn Sorrell (1.5), Brenton Cox (1.0) – combined for four sacks last season.

His all-around skill-set is why he was such a steal for the Packers.

“There’s nothing that my guys don’t know how to do,” Deion Barnes, who was Dennis-Sutton’s position coach at Penn State. told Packers On SI. “They’ll know how to play the run, they’ll know how to drop, they’ll know how to pass rush. It’s no part of the game that we can’t do.”

“He’s going to make a successful career because he’s going to learn the way to work on that next level,” he added.

With excellent size and elite athleticism, Dennis-Sutton has a chance to be the instant-impact performer the defense desperately needs.

“Just be ready to work,” was Parsons’ advice, Dennis-Sutton said. “It’s the biggest thing he said. Don’t worry about anything outside of working, man. So, I’m here for the team, whatever the team needs me to do. And I’m ready to work. So, that was really his advice.”  

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.