Along with the arrival of new Green Bay Packers defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon comes an expected change in Green Bay’s base defense. With lots of options up front on the defensive line, what combination of players will he prefer?
Let’s get one thing out of the way: Devonte Wyatt will absolutely be one of the starting defensive ends in Gannon’s 3-4 defense. A former first-round pick out of Georgia, Wyatt has been really good when healthy. The issue throughout his first few years in the league has been availability. After exercising his fifth-year option last offseason, Wyatt is locked into a starting spot at defensive end.
The other certainty that exists is that Javon Hargrave will also be starting. The looming question is whether it will be at the other defensive end spot or at nose tackle.
Hargrave spent the 2025 season playing nose tackle in Minnesota. However, perhaps more importantly, he primarily lined up at defensive end for the Philadelphia Eagles. There’s some flexibility given Hargrave’s position last year with the Vikings, but the veteran will undoubtedly be a starter one way or another.
Other players vying for a chance to be announced as a starter as they jog out of the tunnel include rookie third-round pick Chris McClellan, Karl Brooks, Warren Brinson, and Nazir Stackhouse.
How the Packers deploy Hargrave will play a big factor.
If Hargrave lines up as a starter at defensive end, that likely eliminates Brooks as a starting option, because he features as an end and not a nose tackle. If Hargrave is penciled in at nose tackle to start, that likely takes Stackhouse out of the running, because he’s primarily a hole-clogging nose tackle. Brinson offers some flexibility with both, as does McClellan.
Green Bay prizes versatility. As general manager Brian Gutekunst hinted at after the Packers selected McClellan in April, it played a part in their desire to trade up and land the Missouri defensive lineman.
He played in the SEC. He’s a huge man. Has excellent length. I think for me, the combination of being able to play the nose, the three, and actually rush the passer. There’s a lot of these guys that don’t do that. He can. And that set him apart a little bit for us.
Regardless of whether McClellan starts or not, he’ll get run as a rookie so long as he can prove his worth to some degree this summer in training camp and the preseason. The Packers typically take a slower developmental approach with many of their rookies. Still, given the need to chew up snaps and get production on the defensive line, McClellan will have opportunities in 2026.
Whatever direction Gannon ends up going with the starting unit, there are plenty of reserve options that offer more than just being fill-in pieces.
Brooks played the most snaps of any interior defensive lineman for Green Bay last year with 664. Brinson, a sixth-round pick last year, logged nearly 300 snaps. Undrafted free agent Nazir Stackhouse finished with 173.
There are a lot of viable candidates for the lone starting spot up for grabs at either defensive end or nose tackle.
When Gannon was running the show on those Philadelphia defenses, he credited the various combinations he could plug in on the defensive front, which allowed everyone to stay fresh during the year he made a Super Bowl run with the Eagles. Before Super Bowl LVIII, Gannon said:
It’s really been one of our secret sauces. I do think that’s one of the major one of the reasons that we had the production that we had this year is because guys are playing less snaps, they’re fresher, they go in and they can compete at a high level.
We already noted that Wyatt will be one of the starting defensive ends. Given Hargrave’s familiarity with Gannon and his primary role at defensive end, we can probably assume he returns to defensive end after playing nose tackle in Minnesota in 2025. Gannon has seen Hargrave at defensive end in his scheme, and it’s worked. Hargrave’s only double-digit sack season in his career came in 2022, when he piled up 11 with Gannon at the controls.
That leaves nose tackle up for grabs. We will project that second-round rookie Chris McClellan does enough to win the job. There’s a reason Green Bay took McClellan so early on in the draft and traded up to do so. McClellan gets a chance to prove his worth early at a spot he played in college, but split time at with Missouri.
