Packers 2026 Offseason

[homer]

Seems like a lot of off-season stuff is going in the 2025 in-season thread. 

[homer]

Packers hired Christian Watson's college receiving coach:

https://atozsports.com/nfl/green-bay-packers-news/packers-noah-pauley-wrs-coach-staff-christian-watson/

Noah Pauley spent the past three seasons as the wide receivers coach at Iowa State — in 2024, he was named the WRs coach of the year by FootballScoop.com. In the last two years, he was also a passing game coordinator.

[CheezWizHed]

5 hours ago, homer said:

Seems like a lot of off-season stuff is going in the 2025 in-season thread. 

But the 2026 offseason doesn't start until next Monday. 😛  

[GAME05]

Packers offseason started somewhere around Week 14.

[homer]

32 minutes ago, CheezWizHed said:

But the 2026 offseason doesn't start until next Monday. 😛  

hey we started last years off season thread in January! 😂

[JosephC]

Rob Demovsky was on the Wilde-Tauscher show on Friday, and it wasn't a big topic of discussion, but he brought up Hobbs name a couple times and talked like it is basically a foregone conclusion that he will get cut.

I guess I don't see that as a slam dunk.  I'm certainly not arguing for Hobbs to be retained.  They are already very weak at the cornerback position.  Also, I would think Gutekunst would definitely prefer to keep him, because cutting a guy after 1 year of a 4 year deal is not a great look for the GM, and we all know those guys in positions of powers will pretty often put appearances ahead of everything else (while it's obvious to everyone else on the planet that bringing a guy back for another season will look twice as bad if he underperforms again).

Overthecap adjusted the numbers after getting more clarity on the 2026 cap, and if the Packers cut Jenkins, Gary (post-June 1st designation) and Hobbs (post-June 1st designation), they would be about 44 million under the cap and that is after paying the rookie class and filling out the roster with minimum salary players.  Normally, that's generally about the area they like to play in, but one would think they would like that number higher this year considering they have many more holes than usual to fill and lack a first round pick.

[CheezWizHed]

My only thought about Hobbs is that if you cut him... you have to replace him.  And cutting him doesn't save much money anyway.  Post-June cuts save more this year, but who is left in FA at that point?  

This would be the year to go with the spaghetti at the wall approach. Sign a couple low-cost FA CBs that failed elsewhere (basically last year's Stokes) and let them compete with a high-ish draft pick, last year's returning CBs, and our three main CBs. If things look good early, maybe you let Hobbs go later?

[GAME05]

Packers would have to be asking themselves if a new defensive scheme would turn Hobbs around.

[LouisEly]

16 hours ago, CheezWizHed said:

My only thought about Hobbs is that if you cut him... you have to replace him.  And cutting him doesn't save much money anyway.  Post-June cuts save more this year, but who is left in FA at that point?

It frees up salary to be able to take on a player in a trade, or extend current players early with a signing bonus that can partially count towards that season's cap.

But Hobbs is really a slot CB and they have Bullard.  The need is more at boundary CB.  So, maybe they wait to see if they get a CB they really like in the draft and release Hobbs after spring camp.

[CheezWizHed]

3 hours ago, LouisEly said:

It frees up salary to be able to take on a player in a trade, or extend current players early with a signing bonus that can partially count towards that season's cap.

But Hobbs is really a slot CB and they have Bullard.  The need is more at boundary CB.  So, maybe they wait to see if they get a CB they really like in the draft and release Hobbs after spring camp.

"Frees up salary"... the problem is that it frees up less than salary than a vet minimum contract.  And I'll bet on Hobbs over a vet minimum salary guy.  You get over $8M for a post-June cut... but you also lose the opportunity to find guys work $8M/year too. 

So it ends up being a catch-22.  Hobbs wasn't great, but cutting him doesn't give you much of an opportunity to improve the position either. 

Given that cutting a player 1 year after giving him a 4 year contract looks bad for a GM and there is little upside to cutting him... I'd guess they stick with him. 

[LouisEly]

2 hours ago, CheezWizHed said:

"Frees up salary"... the problem is that it frees up less than salary than a vet minimum contract. 

You said "post-June cut".  That frees up $8.8M in cap.

23 hours ago, CheezWizHed said:

Post-June cuts save more this year, but who is left in FA at that point?  

 

[JosephC]

Hobbs has a 6.25 million dollar roster bonus due on March 13.  If he gets cut, it will be before that date.  If he makes it past March 13, he will be on the 2026 roster.

[CheezWizHed]

20 hours ago, LouisEly said:

You said "post-June cut".  That frees up $8.8M in cap.

 

Yes, I also said that acquiring a player after June 1st (i.e. use the $8.8M to fill the hole) would be very hard to do and risky since we have little control over actually getting someone.  Maybe you do it if you are very happy in FA/Draft on who we have...

14 hours ago, JosephC said:

Hobbs has a 6.25 million dollar roster bonus due on March 13.  If he gets cut, it will be before that date.  If he makes it past March 13, he will be on the 2026 roster.

Agreed. From a pure cashflow perspective it makes sense that would be why the Pack cuts him. It would be odd to pay him another $6.25M and then cut him in June.

[Joseph Zarr]

Can we all agree that Rich Bisaccia announcing he's stepping down on February 17th after the majority of the coaching hires are completed across the NF of L is legitimately high comedy. Maybe LaFleur one ups his Mennenga hire and sneaks someone in from the FCS circuit?

[patrickgpe]

There are a few experienced coordinators available. I’d like one with no connection to MLF

https://www.acmepackingcompany.com/green-bay-packers-coaching-staff/79477/names-to-keep-an-eye-on-as-rich-bisaccias-replacement-for-the-packers

Tom McMahon or Thomas McGauchey has an experience as a ST coordinator but the later seems to have some connections to MLF. I’m happy to see some decent options are out there because I also had the same reaction to @Joseph Zarr that it was so late in hiring cycle it would be hard to get a good replacement. 

 

[LouisEly]

Derius Swinton II (senior assistant special teams coach with the Steelers)

Ben Kotwika (senior assistant special teams coach with the Ravens)

Both have special teams coordinator experience.  

Not sure why the image is blurred, but according to Sports Illustrated's Bill Huber, the Packers ranked 20th in special teams in 2025:

https://www.si.com/nfl/packers/onsi/final-2025-nfl-special-teams-rankings-summarized-in-perfect-bisaccia

[Joseph Zarr]

 I mean at this stage I wouldn't mind a swing for the fences and see if Iowa's Levar Woods is interested in an NFL gig. Is this a stupid idea?

[patrickgpe]

2 minutes ago, Joseph Zarr said:

 I mean at this stage I wouldn't mind a swing for the fences and see if Iowa's Levar Woods is interested in an NFL gig. Is this a stupid idea?

You mean Michigan state 

[LouisEly]

11 minutes ago, Joseph Zarr said:

 I mean at this stage I wouldn't mind a swing for the fences and see if Iowa's Levar Woods is interested in an NFL gig. Is this a stupid idea?

Quite different rules on punts and kickoffs in college vs NFL

[greeg35]

Wild prediction: the coach wasn't the problem and the countdown begins until we want to fire the new special teams guy.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

The Packers would legitimately upgrade their special teams by simply doing the following:

-Fair catch every punt, and tell everyone not to hold because it's being fair caught. 

-If Whelan isn't trying to Coffin punt, hang it up and force a fair catch. 

That's it. Concede that we will never have a good return, which we don't anyway, and just eliminate the comedy of errors that our unit is completely, and things get better. 

 

 

[JosephC]

11 minutes ago, greeg35 said:

Wild prediction: the coach wasn't the problem and the countdown begins until we want to fire the new special teams guy.

Who was the last good Packer's special teams coordinator?  Do we have to go all the way back to Nolan Cromwell?

[Sixtolezcano]

1 hour ago, LouisEly said:

Derius Swinton II (senior assistant special teams coach with the Steelers)

Ben Kotwika (senior assistant special teams coach with the Ravens)

Both have special teams coordinator experience.  

Not sure why the image is blurred, but according to Sports Illustrated's Bill Huber, the Packers ranked 20th in special teams in 2025:

https://www.si.com/nfl/packers/onsi/final-2025-nfl-special-teams-rankings-summarized-in-perfect-bisaccia

Any of these coaches would be a significant improvement over Bisaccia. Have someone other than MLF make this hire, PLEASE!!!

[CheezWizHed]

A few thoughts on this whole situation:

1. It is very odd timing for him to suddenly step down... was his performance review delayed?? Not retiring, not fired... just resigning. 
2. I see the "NFL and college rules for ST are very different!" cry.  My response is "so what!" Can't a good coach understand the differences in a week of studying the rules?  Find a good coach and let him do the job. 
3. ST in the NFL is pretty much come down to "don't make a penalty!".  Blocked FGs seem to be the only area where creativity works anymore.  I think a few punts were returned for TDs, but were any kickoffs?  Seems to be a far cry from the Desmond Howard/Devin Hester - specialist returner days.   I'm with @OldSchoolSnapper, just keep it simple and don't make a penalty.  You will be better off than trying for the elusive massive return (that seems so rare now). 

[SeaBass]

I did not have Rich Bisaccia firing himself on my bingo card. Makes me really wonder what's been going on behind closed doors there.