One aspect derailed the Packers in 2025, and the path to improvement is obvious heading into next season
It’s hard to get worse in this area than what the Packers had to handle in 2025.
You can say that the Green Bay Packers don’t have much room for improvement in 2026 outside of internal development, because the roster lost a lot of talent in free agency — Romeo Doubs, Rasheed Walker, Quay Walker, Malik Willis, Kingsley Enagbare — while adding just some low-end starters or depth pieces like Benjamin St-Juste, Skyy Moore, and a 33-year-old version of Javon Hargrave. Well, that would miss the point in several areas, though.
But nothing is more impactful than what the Packers already had on the roster but couldn’t utilize in 2025. Injuries were the biggest factor for the team getting worse down the stretch, and there’s no way around it. Sure, coaches will say there’s no excuses because they need other players to step up. But in reality outside of coach speak, the talent deficiency after losing so many key players is unrealistic to overcome.
Room for improvement
Last year, the Packers were third in most players to start a game, with 50. Just the Tennessee Titans and New York Jets (51) had more, and both will have top 4 draft picks because they were amongst the worst teams in football — and essentially tanked late last year, playing more young pieces.
The only other team in the top 5 that made the playoffs was the Los Angeles Chargers (48), and they lost 16-3 to the New England Patriots in the wild card round.
The two Super Bowl teams (Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots, 38) plus the other top NFC team (Los Angeles Rams, 36) started the fewest players. The Chicago Bears were close, with 40. This is not just conviction on the players who can start from the get go, it’s just those teams being healthy for most of the season.
The Packers finished last season with these players on injured reserve: Micah Parsons, Tucker Kraft, Devonte Wyatt, Elgton Jenkins, Savion Williams, Nate Hobbs, Zayne Anderson, John FitzPatrick, Travis Glover, Kamal Hadden, Donovan Jennings, MarShawn Lloyd, Bo Melton, Jordon Riley, Kristian Welch, and John Williams.
Jordan Love missed two games, Zach Tom missed several (including the playoffs), Christian Watson returned late from his ACL, and many others had their own issues. Sure, every NFL team has to handle injuries, but it’s undeniable that some are luckier than others in any given year.
Especially losing Parsons and Kraft affected the entire operation. If the football Gods can be a little bit more sympathetic with the Packers in 2026, the room for improvement will be natural.
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