Green Bay Packers: 3 Biggest Offseason Questions

With all 32 NFL teams preparing for OTAs and mandatory minicamps, Athlon Sports is going under the hood to see what key questions remain for each team before training camps open in July. These questions might not get answered at minicamps, but any opportunity for new coaches to get familiar with their roster, rookies to get a feel for life in the NFL and free agents to get comfortable with a new team can be helpful.

The focus today is on the Green Bay Packers. At one point last season, the Packers were considered a serious Super Bowl candidate, sitting atop the NFC North with a 9-3-1 record. That was after Green Bay made a major splash before the season by trading with the Dallas Cowboys for defensive superstar Micah Parsons. And Parsons was in the middle of Green Bay’s 2025 success — until he suffered a torn ACL in Week 15 and was lost for the season. It was no coincidence that Green Bay proceeded to lose its last four games, limping into the playoffs and losing to the rival Chicago Bears in the wild-card round.

So the Packers have some questions to answer, but none is more important than the status of their defensive linchpin.

Three biggest offseason questions for the Green Bay Packers

What is Micah Parsons’ injury status?

Even after missing three-plus games with the injury, Parsons led the Packers last season with 12.5 sacks and tied for the team lead with two forced fumbles. Reports are that Parsons is making good progress in his rehab, but it remains questionable that he’ll be ready for the start of the season. It’s possible Parsons begins the year on the Physically Unable to Perform list, which would require him to sit out the first four games.

Complicating matters is the fact that Green Bay this offseason unloaded Rashan Gary, who was second on the team with 7.5 sacks.

The Packers might not have done much to replace the lost pass rush, at least until Parsons is back. They didn’t have a first-round draft pick because of the Parsons deal, and they waited until the fourth round to draft an edge rusher, Penn State’s Dani Dennis-Sutton.

Instead, the focus was on bolstering the rest of the defense. A second-round draft pick was used for South Carolina cornerback Brandon Cisse. Green Bay strengthened the interior defensive line by signing DT Javon Hargrave. And the biggest addition was a trade for former Colts linebacker Zaire Franklin.

“Zaire’s been awesome,” head coach Matt LaFleur said during OTAs in May. “Just a real leader, an alpha. You can feel him. Does a great job communicating. He wears the green dot, so naturally you’re the quarterback of the defense. He holds himself to a high standard, and he holds those around him to a high standard.”

Franklin and the rest of the defense must also use this time to get comfortable with their new defensive coordinator. After Jeff Halfley left to become the Miami Dolphins new head coach, the Packers hired former Arizona Cardinals head coach Jonathan Gannon.