Packer's 2026-27 Season

[OldSchoolSnapper]

21 minutes ago, homer said:

Nate Hobbs is up there

Yeah, yikes, he's probably #2. In looking back, Joe Johnson's deal had very low guarantees even for that time period. The Packers were pioneers in structuring that way before the rest of the league caught on. 

Given that, Banks might actually be the worst ever, with Hobbs not far behind. $16 million in guarantees for absolutely nothing on the field. Banks at least gave them a month or so last year. 

Dumpster fire of FA last summer.

[Jopal78]

2 hours ago, homer said:

Nate Hobbs is up there

Hobbs is ahead of Banks on the bust list because he got $16M (5% of cap) for 11 games and was released.

Joe Johnson relative to the cap at the time is still #1.

Then it is Jimmy Graham. The Packers: made him the highest paid TE in NFL. More than Kelce, Gronkowski, etc. but unlike the other busts he wasn't hurt, he just was washed up and gave them only 1000+ yards and 5 TDs in 2 seasons before being cut.

After Graham it’s Hobbs or Bennett.  Martellus got paid $6.3M for 7 games, before he was put on waivers. 

Jeff Saturday honorable mention, he got $7.75M, got benched in his first and only season with the Packers and then retired before being cut. 

Comparatively Aaron Banks might end up Top 3 if he loses his spot to Zeitler, but he’s played more (albeit poorly) than Hobbs or Bennett at this point. 

 

[CheezWizHed]

1 hour ago, Jopal78 said:

Hobbs is ahead of Banks on the bust list because he got $16M (5% of cap) for 11 games and was released.

Joe Johnson relative to the cap at the time is still #1.

Then it is Jimmy Graham. The Packers: made him the highest paid TE in NFL. More than Kelce, Gronkowski, etc. but unlike the other busts he wasn't hurt, he just was washed up and gave them only 1000+ yards and 5 TDs in 2 seasons before being cut.

After Graham it’s Hobbs or Bennett.  Martellus got paid $6.3M for 7 games, before he was put on waivers. 

Jeff Saturday honorable mention, he got $7.75M, got benched in his first and only season with the Packers and then retired before being cut. 

Comparatively Aaron Banks might end up Top 3 if he loses his spot to Zeitler, but he’s played more (albeit poorly) than Hobbs or Bennett at this point. 

 

Hobbs+Banks is easily our worst offseason plan...

I don't see Graham on the list that high.  Yes, we paid more, but he actually played and was decent (just not the "great" we expected).  Bennett was a locker room cancer and lasted less than half a season.  Plus, we let Jared Cook go in FA because we thought we were "upgrading".

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Yeah I don't see Graham cracking the top 5. He was just a lot of meh, but he tried. In hindsight, I think everyone suffered at that point of the Rodgers tenure unless you were Adams, Cobb, etc., one of his guys. So did Christian Watson. He had injury problems, but I wholeheartedly believe Rodgers would have stymied his development had he kept playing in GB. His first game going about as poorly as it could with that big drop.

He went full-circle Favre, having his trusted guys rather than just throwing the ball. Early in his career, he just threw the ball, much like Love does now. Late-stage Rodgers on the current team would be insisting on Cobb starting over Golden.

[Joseph Zarr]

Regardless of what we think about the Hobbs and Banks signings, I think the more interesting question to ponder is: How do the Packers and their greater Personnel Staff view those signings? Do they think they missed purely based on unfortunate injury or do they understand they missed on both unfortunate injuries and miscalculations in talent eval? I think we all see it as the latter but, man alive, they still continue to thrust Banks into that O-Line (injured groin and all) where he continues to absolutely fall flat. They also continue to insist on using a young behemoth at RT who is very clearly best suited as an OG in the NFL. The org and the staff, as a whole, just continue to demonstrate a strange inability to honestly self-scout. IMHO, this is not a new phenomenon. It's pretty convoluted but it goes back to, at least, the days of Dennis Kelly; Billy Turner; and Yosh Njiman. 

[Jopal78]

1 hour ago, Joseph Zarr said:

Regardless of what we think about the Hobbs and Banks signings, I think the more interesting question to ponder is: How do the Packers and their greater Personnel Staff view those signings? Do they think they missed purely based on unfortunate injury or do they understand they missed on both unfortunate injuries and miscalculations in talent eval? I think we all see it as the latter but, man alive, they still continue to thrust Banks into that O-Line (injured groin and all) where he continues to absolutely fall flat. They also continue to insist on using a young behemoth at RT who is very clearly best suited as an OG in the NFL. The org and the staff, as a whole, just continue to demonstrate a strange inability to honestly self-scout. IMHO, this is not a new phenomenon. It's pretty convoluted but it goes back to, at least, the days of Dennis Kelly; Billy Turner; and Yosh Njiman. 

It’s not hard to see why they wanted Banks: he’s big, explosive athlete, young (27), significant starting experience (and playoffs) on a quality outside zone team. 
 

If there was a mistake it was paying a premium to make sure they got him without bidding against other teams.

No doubt Banks playing with a chronic knee condition on top of other soft tissue injuries has sapped much of his ability. 
 

The reason he still plays is his original drawing card: size and experience. 
 

Hobbs was a Hafley system acquisition, because he was known for his ability to play the run and be a willing tackler, a trait the Packers corners lacked outside of Nixon. Like Banks Hobbs was an explosive athlete and only 25. Unfortunately he hurt his knee after four games and never was healthy after that. 
 

I think a better question is are the traits the Packers seek out: size, explosiveness and youth, the ones the most often correlate to winning?

[HarryDoyle]

9 hours ago, OldSchoolSnapper said:

It's Johnson. Banks is right up there, then probably Martellus Bennett.

I'm talking about the Gutey era.

[Jopal78]

1 hour ago, HarryDoyle said:

I'm talking about the Gutey era.

But who are the guys he signed that stayed healthy and simply were not any good? Generally speaking his expensive free agents who didn’t suffer an injury have been good: the Smiths, Adrian Amos, Billy Turner, McKinney, Jacobs

Calling someone a bust for getting hurt isn’t wholly fair. Hobbs suffered an MCL injury in Week 4 last season then tried to play on it all season and struggled then was cut. Nobody knows how he would’ve played had he not gotten hurt, 

Banks was underwhelming last year so it’s fair to call him a miss, and he’s awful  this year but also while trying to play through multiple injuries. 
 

The only one I can think of is Jimmy Graham. Gutekunst gave Graham a 3 year deal as the highest paid TE and Graham was a non-factor with middle of the pack production for two years before being cut. 

[JosephC]

The last couple days there have been rumors that the Packers offered the Colts a 4th round pick for Grover Stewart and then pulled the offer when the Colts dragged their feet.  Now the IndyStar is reporting it, which makes it legitimate in my book.  Stewart is a solid, run-stuffing DT that isn't great but isn't a liability against the pass.  From 2024 onwards, he's played in roughly 60% of the Colts defensive snaps.  He will be a free agent after this year, so it would have been a rental.

Jordon Riley appears like he would have been the odd-man out.  But still interesting because Ford and Brinson are likely to return, which would have again put them with 7 options...too many for the roster at this point of the year IMO.  But Stewart would have obviously been an upgrade over pretty much any IDL on the roster, and that may include Wyatt as I've started to hear some complaining about his play over the last couple of weeks.

It would have been an interesting add, although I wouldn't have been too crazy about giving up a 4th rounder for a rental.

 

[JosephC]

On 11/10/2026 at 4:39 PM, Jopal78 said:

Calling someone a bust for getting hurt isn’t wholly fair. Hobbs suffered an MCL injury in Week 4 last season then tried to play on it all season and struggled then was cut. Nobody knows how he would’ve played had he not gotten hurt, 
 

With Hobbs it's completely fair because he had missed a bunch of games with the Raiders due to injury.  He played in 16 games his rookie year but then 11, 13 and 11 from 2022-2024.  The year before he came to Green Bay, he was only on the field for 49.87% of the Raiders defensive snaps. 

[homer]

2 hours ago, JosephC said:

With Hobbs it's completely fair because he had missed a bunch of games with the Raiders due to injury.  He played in 16 games his rookie year but then 11, 13 and 11 from 2022-2024.  The year before he came to Green Bay, he was only on the field for 49.87% of the Raiders defensive snaps. 

I don't think you can knock an MCL. If it was a soft tissue injury like a pulled hammy or something like that, then yeah.

[CheezWizHed]

2 hours ago, homer said:

I don't think you can knock an MCL. If it was a soft tissue injury like a pulled hammy or something like that, then yeah.

Both Banks and Hobbs had an injury prone label before they got here but we still gave them $$ that reflected peak production from healthy versions of themselves (instead of having some protections for injury).  So seeing both struggle with injuries still shouldn't be surprising.  Sure, an MCL isn't a "preventable" injury, but some people aren't made for the wear and tear either. 

[homer]

34 minutes ago, CheezWizHed said:

Both Banks and Hobbs had an injury prone label before they got here but we still gave them $$ that reflected peak production from healthy versions of themselves (instead of having some protections for injury).  So seeing both struggle with injuries still shouldn't be surprising.  Sure, an MCL isn't a "preventable" injury, but some people aren't made for the wear and tear either. 

Yeah I also think if you get injured after signing a big contract you can be a bust even if it's not your fault. 

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Makes no difference to me if a guy is hurt, sucks, leaves to open a bakery with his grandma. If you pay a FA gobs of money and he doesn't give you results, he's a bust signing. I take no solace in thinking about how many Super Bowls we would have won if so and so never got hurt. You get results or you don't.

Micah is in the same category. If he's not the same player he was last season and we never see that player again, that trade goes down as a disaster.