The Green Bay Packers made a lot of moves early in the new league year, including two trades, free agent additions, and several pieces of the last few seasons going to new teams. Overall, you can say that more talent left than arrived, but the Packers have built a structure to replace those players ahead of time.

With that in mind, let’s discuss which players can be considered winners and losers for the Packers.

Winners

Anthony Belton

The Packers could have signed more depth on the interior of the offensive line, but they just decided to keep Sean Rhyan around while cutting Elgton Jenkins. More likely, the coaching staff still believes that Belton has what it takes to be a starting right guard despite his issues as a rookie in 2025.

If Belton doesn’t improve, the Packers have the option to draft a center and move Rhyan back to guard, but that’s more like a long-term consideration.

Javon Bullard

Green Bay released Nate Hobbs, who worked better in the slot last year, and decided to replace him on the roster with a boundary corner in Benjamin St-Juste. That tells you how confident the Packers are that Bullard can be a long-term full-time starter as a nickel. Right now, the team doesn’t even have an option to replace him — it would probably involve moving Keisean Nixon to the slot.

MarShawn Lloyd

The Packers lost their RB2 (Emanuel Wilson), whom they did not tender, and extended their RB3 (Chris Brooks). The team has Josh Jacobs as the starter, but another piece is lacking to the running back room. Theoretically, that piece can be MarShawn Lloyd. The Packers could have signed an external running back to fill the void, and they can still draft someone, but for now it seems like the Packers still believe Lloyd can be a viable rotational back — even after two years full of injuries that precluded him from getting on the field.

Losers

Carrington Valentine

Valentine is a good coverage corner, but he failed to establish himself as a true starting player for the Packers because he simply cannot tackle. Last year, he had to play by default because Nate Hobbs couldn’t consistently play due to injuries. Now, though, there’s more competition in the room with the addition of Benjamin St-Juste. While the Canadian isn’t a sure-fire starter, he played well on a limited number of snaps for the Los Angeles Chargers in 2025, which included an 80.4 tackling grade. If Valentine doesn’t develop this area of his game, he may just be a backup in a contract year.

Ty’Ron Hopper

The Packers seemed fine to let Quay Walker hit free agency, and that could indicate confidence in Ty’Ron Hopper to be in that role moving forward. The fact that the Packers were willing to trade Colby Wooden for Zaire Franklin, and then to give Franklin a pay raise, tells you they aren’t nearly as confident in Hopper. For now, Hopper is just a backup linebacker and special teamer on a roster that also has Nick Niemann and Kristian Welch.

Jacob Monk

Before the new league year, the Packers were expected to cut Elgton Jenkins and to lose Sean Rhyan in free agency, which would put Monk in position to be the starting center. The front office would always create some type of competition there, but if it was a rookie, Monk would have a bigger chance of keeping the job. That’s clearly not the case now with Rhyan back in the mix.

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