Grading the signing: Packers stick to clear offseason trend by taking advantage of a divisional rival to address a major roster issue
Packers have signed Javon Hargrave.
The Green Bay Packers badly needed a defensive tackle. They got one from a divisional rival. In the first few minutes of the new league year, the Minnesota Vikings released veteran interior defensive lineman Javon Hargrave as a cap casualty, and the Packers immediately signed him to a two-year, $23 million contract. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Hargrave will make $13 million in 2026 — but the cap hit is certainly much lower than that.
It’s a millennial movement in Green Bay
After being the youngest roster in football for the past three years, the Packers decided to go in another direction this offseason. After trading for a 29-year-old linebacker in Zaire Franklin and signing a 29-year-old cornerback in Benjamin St-Juste in free agency, general manager Brian Gutekunst signed a 33-year-old defensive lineman.
“Anytime you have an opportunity to add a player that can help you, regardless of their age, very few years are we adding guys for one year,” Gutekunst explained right after the season. “We’re usually looking for a more long-term solution. And certainly if you’re up there in age, that may not be the case. But we’ve certainly done that in the past, and we’ll do it again.”
The Packers didn’t have much time to wait for long-term solutions at defensive tackle. Over the past two offseasons, the roster lost TJ Slaton, Kenny Clark, and more recently Colby Wooden, traded to the Colts. The presumed starters Devonte Wyatt and Karl Brooks are both in contract year, so the need was obvious.
Hargrave comes to help the rotation in 2026, and potentially 2027 if things go right, adding experience to a room that definitely needed it.
How Hargrave has performed lately
A former third-round pick back in 2016, Javon Hargrave played four years on the Pittsburgh Steelers and three on the Philadelphia Eagles (two of them with Jonathan Gannon as his defensive coordinator). Then, he signed a big contract with the San Francisco 49ers, which he didn’t live up to, before arriving in Minnesota this past season.
When the Vikings signed Javon Hargrave ahead of the 2025 season, they thought he would be a truly impactful pass rusher. He came out of the gate with a blaze of glory, racking up seven pressures and 2.0 sacks against the Chicago Bears in the season opener, but was quickly relegated to the bench in Week 3 with just 11 snaps due to his ineffective run defense.
He played inconsistently throughout the rest of the season for that reason, and he finished with 3.5 sacks and 31 pressures. He also threw shade at Brian Flores with a retweet on X after reports he was being released. The reality with Hargrave is very simple: he’s a gap shooting pass rusher who struggles against double teams, but will thrive if you have him penetrate and slant.
It’s not the long-term solution the Packers would ideally want, but it’s a stopgap option for a group that needs competent bodies. Better for Green Bay, because Hargrave was release, he doesn’t affect the compensatory pick formula for 2027.
Grade: B-
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