If the Green Bay Packers are going to achieve something close to their best-case scenario in 2026, the key factor will be younger players on the roster making a meaningful impact.
The Packers threw a changeup this offseason by adding some veterans, which isn’t their standard operating procedure. Players like Zaire Franklin and Benjamin St-Juste aren’t at the career trajectory or age that general manager Brian Gutekunst usually targets in free agency and the trade market. Both will have a say in how the defense shapes up. Still, if Green Bay wants to stand atop the division, the young guns will have to deliver.
Green Bay took Matthew Golden in the first round for a reason a year ago. While he wasn’t as involved as some frustrated fans hoped during his rookie campaign, he acquitted himself well when he got his opportunities, and his sophomore season will be very different now that Romeo Doubs and Dontayvion Wicks are gone.
The training wheels are coming off for Golden, who will be part of the headlining trio that includes Christian Watson and Jayden Reed. If Golden does what many believe he’s capable of, the Jordan Love-led offense can rise to a whole new level.
Golden isn’t the only young player on the offense whose performance, for good or ill, will have an outsized impact.
Anthony Belton is a tackle by nature, but the Packers will plug him in as the starting right guard this year. Belton went through some rough patches playing out of position as a rookie. However, with a full offseason under his belt in his new position, the hope is that his comfort level will lead to consistency.
Green Bay’s offensive line was a head-scratcher at times last year, especially in the second half of the season. A little more injury luck and a meaningful contribution from Belton would go a long way toward fixing that.
On the defensive side of the ball, the Packers will rely on veterans like Franklin and Xavier McKinney to hold things together. If both of them play up to their potential and Micah Parsons can get back onto the field and into form by the second half of the season, they will set a high bar.
How high they can fly will be dependent on young guys like Brandon Cisse, Barryn Sorrell, Lukas Van Ness, and Edgerrin Cooper.
It might seem odd to include Van Ness, who is entering his fourth year, and Cooper, who is entering his third, in this group. Still, both are young players testing the limits of their potential as they get ready to enter the prime of their careers.
Van Ness simply has to be better than he’s been in his first three years. Cooper was good in 2025 but didn’t quite have that Year 2 leap some fans and analysts expected. If he can elevate his game in Year 3, just like Golden with the offense, this defense takes on a whole different look.
Meanwhile, even as a rookie, Cisse has a real shot to push towards the top of the depth chart. Keisean Nixon will be Green BAy’s No. 1 cornerback, and it won’t be a surprise if Carrington Valentine is the second starter. However, both are entering the final year of their current contracts, and neither has made a strong case as a CB1. Don’t be surprised if there’s a passing of the torch sooner rather than later in the cornerback room.
The best-case scenario for the Packers in the regular season starts with winning the NFC North.
If these young players don’t step up, the Packers could still win the division through other means. If Love plays at an MVP level, for instance, or new defense coordinator Jonathan Gannon brings the kind of schematic wizardry to the defense we’ve seen Brian Flores achieve in Minnesota.
But instead of hoping for some individual magic, the Packers are better off relying on a collective effort from the younger players on the roster to sharpen their games and evolve. That rising tide will lift all boats and best help position Green Bay to win its first division title since 2021.
