Packers GM Brian Gutekunst Nearing Perfection

GREEN BAY, Wis. – For Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst, only one domino stands between him and perfection.

With Gutekunst having handed contract extensions to receiver Christian Watson, receiver Jayden Reed and defensive tackle Devonte Wyatt, and with Lukas Van Ness’s fifth-year option buying some time, it should be a relatively stress-free free agency next offseason.

NFL.com’s list of the top 25 free agents for 2027 includes only one member of the Packers: tight end Tucker Kraft. With a contract extension for Kraft on the horizon, Gutekunst will have taken all his best players off the market.

“My head with that is, from my rookie year ‘til now, I’ve come into this organization and I’ve left it all in this building, on the field, on the practice field, in the meeting room,” Kraft said last week.

“Everything I have, I do it with 110 percent effort. I’m not someone to orchestrate a holdout, mostly because they can fine me but mostly because I know the value I bring to this team, and I think the best odds of us playing in the postseason are with me early on in the season.”

So, just like Kraft began practicing without a contract extension and then took part in contact drills during training camp and then participated in the joint practice against the Cardinals, Kraft will be on the field against the Vikings on Sunday, with or without a new contract.

“I’m just going to continue to attack everything the same way I attacked my rehab,” he continued. “I want to be out on the field, and I want to play every play that I can play. So, I’m really leaving now all this contract stuff … it’s in the hands of my agent now. I’ve done all I can do.

“This offseason, attacking my rehab, coming back, proving that I’m not afraid of any contact – I’m not afraid of anything. And I hope they see that. So, I’m not afraid to keep working and then keep trying to make this team better.”

After Kraft is signed, who’s left?

Top Remaining 2027 Packers Free Agents

Based on 2025 playing time with the Packers, here are their top free agents for the 2027 season.

CB Keisean Nixon

2025 playing time: 90.5 percent.

Nixon has played in all 68 games in his four seasons with the Packers and started all 17 games last season, when he finished among the league leaders in passes defensed but also was first in penalties.

Nixon will turn 30 in June. That alone seems to indicate he won’t be asked back. Gutekunst acted preemptively; he drafted Brandon Cisse in the first round and Domani Jackson in the sixth round and signed Benjamin St-Juste to a two-year contract in free agency.

CB Carrington Valentine

2025 playing time: 69.6 percent.

Valentine, who will turn 25 this week, was a seventh-round pick in 2023. He has played in 49 of a possible 51 games with 30 starts. He’s been solid in coverage, for the most part, but a terrible tackler.

Valentine needs a strong season to set him up for free agency but might be the fourth cornerback to start the year.

DT Karl Brooks

2025 playing time: 55.2 percent.

Brooks, a sixth-round pick in 2023, had 7.5 sacks and 10 tackles for losses during his first two seasons but just a half-sack and one tackle for loss last season despite making the first seven starts of his career. He has played in 50 of a possible 51 games.

Brooks, who will turn 27 in May, needs a bounce-back season. A strong training camp could foreshadow that being the case.

TE Luke Musgrave

2025 playing time: 40.7 percent.

A second-round pick in 2023, Musgrave’s career started with such promise. However, when the Packers needed him to rise to the occasion following Tucker Kraft’s injury last season, Musgrave fell short. In 17 games with 10 starts, he caught 24 passes for 252 yards. He hasn’t scored since his rookie season. Darian Kinnard forced more broken tackles in the playoff game (two) than Musgrave did all season (zero).

Musgrave, who turned 26 last week, is on PUP with a neck injury. The Packers believe he will play this season.

Other Free Agents

TE Jonnu Smith

2025 playing time: 52.0 percent with the Steelers.

Smith, who turned 31 in August, signed with the Packers last week. They are his fifth team in as many seasons. The Packers are hoping Smith remains the same player who caught 88 passes for 884 yards with the Dolphins in 2024 as opposed to last season’s 38 catches for an all-time bad 5.8-yard average with the Steelers.

QB Tyrod Taylor

2025 playing time: 24.0 percent with the Jets.

Smith, who turned 37 last month, started four games last season. He completed 59.7 percent of his passes with five touchdowns and five interceptions and averaged 5.3 yards per rush. He’s obviously not a long-term solution behind Jordan Love, but the Packers are thrilled to have him.

TE Josh Whyle

2025 playing time: 16.7 percent.

Whyle, a fifth-round pick in 2023 who will turn 27 this week, was the beneficiary following Kraft’s knee injury. While he caught only five passes, he played at least 20 snaps in six of the final eight games; he probably would have been 8-for-8 if not for a concussion. He will be TE2 to start the season but will have to hold off Smith, Mark Redman and, perhaps at some point, Musgrave.

WR Skyy Moore

2025 playing time: 9.8 percent with the 49ers.

Moore, a second-round pick by the Chiefs in 22, will turn 26 this week. He caught zero passes in six games with the Chiefs in 2024 and five passes in 17 games after being traded to the 49ers in 2025.

The Packers signed him to return kickoffs and punts, where he was a big difference-maker last season, and he could wind up with an upsized role on offense after averaging only 8.3 snaps the last two seasons.

Brenton Cox

2025 playing time: 7.1 percent.

At the trade deadline in 2024, the Packers sent Preston Smith to the Steelers. Cox was the big beneficiary. A healthy scratch during the first half of the season, he had a sack in four of the next six games. A groin injury limited him to only four games last season, with Cox recording one sack in Week 18.

He will have a key role this season; the Packers didn’t even suit him up for the final preseason game.

DT Jonathan Ford

2025 playing time: 2.7 percent.

Ford, who will turn 27 this week, was a seventh-round pick by the Packers in 2022. He didn’t play a single snap in almost three full seasons while languishing on the practice squad, but returned late last season and might be the starting nose tackle this season.

Nick Niemann

2025 playing time: 0 snaps on defense.

Niemann is the No. 5 linebacker but the No. 1 tackler on special teams. Niemann, who will turn 29 in December, had 11 tackles on special teams in seven games. That’s a 17-game pace of 27 tackles, which would have been the most by a Packers player in 40 years.

Financial Outlook: Not Good

While Gutekunst won’t feel stressed to re-sign a few big-money free agents, he might not have the financial ability to go out and sign any impact players, either.

According to OverTheCap.com, the Packers are barely above water for 2027. And that’s without Kraft’s contract on the ledger. Only eight teams are in worse financial shape than the Packers. Releasing Josh Jacobs would create an immediate savings of $13 million and help fund Kraft’s contract.

Making matters worse, the Lions are $50.5 million under the projected cap and the Vikings have about $32.0 million of cap space. The Bears are in about the same boat as the Packers.  

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