Six Packers Veterans Who May Have Just Lost Their Jobs to Six Draft Picks

Out with the old, in with the new.

It’s a reality in every facet of life. Buy a new couch? Put the old one on the curb. Buy a new pair of shoes? Put the stinky ones in the garbage can. Buy a fresh gallon of milk? Dump the questionable contents inside the old jug down the drain.

Draft six players in the NFL Draft, like the Green Bay Packers did over the weekend? Six players will have to go when it’s time for general manager Brian Gutekunst to cut the roster to 53 players for the season.

Here’s what the NFL Draft means for the returning players on the roster.

Round 2: No. 52: Brandon Cisse, CB, South Carolina

The Packers double-dipped at cornerback, with Cisse in the second round and Domani Jackson in the sixth round.

The Packers were short-handed at cornerback, so the downstream impact might be on the bottom of the depth chart with the likes of Kamal Hadden – who the Packers like but has a concerning injury history – Shemar Bartholmew and Jaylin Simpson.

That could change if Cisse proves he’s ready to be a Week 1 starter and Jackson shows he can be a contributor. Jackson, as the East-West Shrine Game’s Eric Galko said on Monday, has a first- or second-round skill-set and the Packers got him for a discount because of his rough senior season.

If those two are ready, Carrington Valentine could be on the trade market because he’s a young, experienced player with a cheap and expiring contract.

Round 3: No. 77: Chris McClellan, DT, Missouri

Virginia Cavaliers quarterback Chandler Morris (4) is sacked by Missouri Tigers defensive lineman Chris McClellan. | Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The Packers entered the offseason with Jonathan Ford and Nazir Stackhouse as the in-house candidates to play nose tackle in the new 3-4 scheme. Enter McClellan, who the Packers traded up to select in the third round.

“I’m feeling pretty good about our size right now,” Gutekunst said.

Chances are, the full defensive tackle group the Packers will take into the regular season will consist of Devante Wyatt, Javon Hargrave, Karl Brooks, Warren Brinson, McClellan and either Ford or Stackhouse.

Ford was a seventh-round pick in 2022 who didn’t play a single snap in about two-and-a-half seasons with the team before joining the Bears. He returned to Green Bay late last season and impressed. Stackhouse made the roster as an undrafted free agent last year and played sporadically. Ford is bigger and more seasoned. Stackhouse is younger.

Round 4: No. 120: Dani Dennis-Sutton, edge, Penn State

It’s been an offseason of tremendous change with Kingsley Enagbare leaving in free agency, Rashan Gary getting shipped to Dallas and the selection of Dennis-Sutton with a fourth-round pick.

Once Micah Parsons returns from his torn ACL, a decision might have to be made. Will an edge group of Parsons, Lukas Van Ness, Dennis-Sutton, 2025 fourth-round pick Barryn Sorrell, 2025 fifth-round pick Collin Oliver and Brenton Cox be too full? Oliver is going to have to prove his worth after being sidelined for months last year with a hamstring injury and not playing until Week 18.

Dennis-Sutton is a good player. And now he’s got extra motivation after lasting until the 120th pick.

“It definitely leaves a chip on my shoulder,” he said.

Round 5: No. 153: Jager Burton, C, Kentucky

The Packers drafted Kentucky center Jager Burton in the fifth round. | Photo courtesy Kentucky Athletics

The Packers were thrilled that Burton fell to them in the fifth round. If he’s as good as advertised, they’ll have a backup capable of playing all three interior positions – an incredible luxury considering the challenge of assembling a 46-player gameday roster and the lack of depth on the offensive line.

The Packers were hoping Jacob Monk would be that three-position backup. That hasn’t happened yet, though Gutekunst said a couple times this offseason that Monk played well in Week 18 against the Vikings. The pressure will be on Monk and Donovan Jennings to hold off Burton and undrafted rookies Dillon Wade and Josh Gesky.

Round 6: No. 201: Domani Jackson, CB, Alabama

See the Cisse segment and how Jackson’s growth could impact the names at the top of the depth chart.

Round 6: No. 216: Trey Smack, K, Florida

Last season, when Brandon McManus was plagued by an injury, the Packers signed Lucas Havrisik. Havrisik bombed a franchise-record 61-yard field goal at Arizona, then spent the rest of the season on the practice squad when McManus got healthy and hot.

McManus, however, was an epic disaster in the playoffs with two missed field goals and one missed extra point. The win-loss reality isn’t quite as simple as the math, but McManus left seven points on the field in a four-point loss.

After the season, the Packers signed Havrisik to a futures contract to lock in a spot on the offseason roster. Then, a few days after the start of the league-year last month, the Packers paid McManus his $1 million roster bonus.

On Saturday, the kicking competition went from McManus vs. Havrisik to McManus vs Havrisik vs. Smack.

Havrisik automatically seems like the odd man out just based on the finances.

“We can do that,” Gutekunst said of rolling into the start of OTAs next month with three kickers on the roster. “We’ll see how it goes but, yeah, we absolutely can. There’s nothing stressing our roster right now that would make us have to do anything right now. Even through training camp, unless we have more injuries than I want to have, I think we’d be fine to do that. But we’ll walk that through as we go.”

In 2023, Gutekunst treated then-rookie kicker Anders Carlson as if he were the next Adam Vinatieri. The job essentially was handed to him, and they stuck with him through thick and thin throughout his rookie season.

If Smack is even close to being as good as the Packers believe, he will win the job. The Packers didn’t give up two draft picks (and a contract that will include a signing bonus of more than $175,000) just for it to be a “competition.”

Even with capable veterans on the roster, Smack should be safe, so long as he doesn’t wilt under the pressure of kicking for a contender.

“Pressure is fun to me,” Smack said.

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