With less than a week to go until the start of the legal tampering period, free agency news is already starting to roll out. Earlier this week, the Green Bay Packers re-signed two of their own, linebacker Isaiah McDuffie and kicker Brandon McManus, to multi-year contracts. The team is also being linked to players like Seattle Seahawks receiver DK Metcalf and New York Jets cornerback D.J. Reed. Meanwhile, some players, like Dallas Cowboys defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa, are being taken off of offseason boards while former Packers like Davante Adams and Allen Lazard are finally becoming available on the market.

So before this news cycle starts to ramp up even more, we wanted to take one final look at where the Packers’ roster stands going into the 2025 offseason. Who is leaving? Who is coming back? Where is Green Bay lacking numbers to play a football game right now? We’re going to go through all that information and more.

Free Agent Starters

• C Josh Myers
• DT T.J. Slaton
• P Daniel Whelan (ERFA)

Until cap casualties are sorted out, which could end up moving cornerback Jaire Alexander onto this list, the Packers are only currently set to lose three “starters” in free agency. Two of those players, run-defending defensive tackle T.J. Slaton and punter Daniel Whelan, hardly count as full-time starters, though. Whelan is going to be an exclusive rights free agent, meaning Green Bay can lock him down to another one-year contract cheaply. They just have to file the paperwork. Slaton, meanwhile, played 39 percent of the Packers’ 2025 defensive snaps despite starting all 17 games last year. Center Josh Myers may not be a priority re-signing for the team, either, as his vacated snaps would probably mean 2024 first-round pick Jordan Morgan receiving a starter’s share of snaps in 2025.

Free Agent Backups

• RB Emanuel Wilson (ERFA)
• RB AJ Dillon
• WR Bo Melton (ERFA)
• TE Tyler Davis
• TE John FitzPatrick (RFA)
• T Kadeem Telfort (ERFA)
• T Andre Dillard
• DE Aaron Mosby (ERFA)
• LB Eric Wilson
• CB Eric Stokes
• CB Corey Ballentine
• CB Robert Rochell
• S Zayne Anderson (ERFA)

Many of the Packers’ backups set to hit free agency are exclusive rights free agents, players who will be retained on cheap, one-year contracts. They almost don’t count. The only restricted free agent out of the bunch is tight end John FitzPatrick, who is pretty interesting. If the Packers want to sign FitzPatrick to a right of first refusal tender, it would cost them $3.3 million to retain the special teamer. It’s more likely that they let his contract expire and re-sign him in unrestricted free agency, where his minimum contract would be much lower. Toward the end of the season, FitzPatrick began to out-snap Ben Sims, who subbed in for Tyler Davis — a free agent next week — when he went down with a preseason injury.

As far as the true unrestricted free agent backups go, the most likely players to re-sign with the Packers are linebacker Eric Wilson, a solid reserve player and special teams contributor, and cornerbacks Corey Ballentine and Robert Rochell, who have been decent spot players on defense and also are special teams aces. As you’ll learn in the next section, linebacker are cornerback are two positions where Green Bay is hurting from a numbers perspective.

Packers returning 2025 Roster + ERFAs

• QB: Jordan Love, Malik Willis and Sean Clifford
• RB: Josh Jacobs, MarShawn Lloyd, Emanuel Wilson and Chris Brooks
• WR: Christian Watson (injured), Jayden Reed, Romeo Doubs, Dontayvion Wicks, Bo Melton and Malik Heath
• TE: Tucker Kraft, Luks Musgrave and Ben Sims
• OL: Rasheed Walker, Elgton Jenkins, Sean Rhyan, Zach Tom, Jordan Morgan, Kadeem Telfort, Travis Glover and Jacob Monk
• DE: Rashan Gary, Kingsley Enagbare, Lukas Van Ness, Brenton Cox Jr. and Aaron Mosby
• DT: Kenny Clark, Devonte Wyatt, Karl Brooks and Colby Wooden
• LB: Quay Walker, Edgerrin Cooper, Isaiah McDuffie and Ty’Ron Hopper
• CB: Jaire Alexander, Keisean Nixon and Carrington Valentine
• S: Xavier McKinney, Evan Williams, Javon Bullard, Zayne Anderson and Kitan Oladapo
• K: Brandon McManus
• P: Daniel Whelan
• LS: Matt Orzech

Because of the Packers’ draft-and-develop plan that was thrust upon them following the Aaron Rodgers trade and his subsequent dead cap, Green Bay has done a great job backfilling their roster with cheap, long-term contracts. The list of players above is all the members of Green Bay’s 53-man roster who are under contract for 2025 or are exclusive rights free agents.

Outside of linebacker, where the team only has four players under contract, and cornerback, where the Packers could be down to two players following a potential Jaire Alexander release or trade, Green Bay can essentially play an NFL game if they were asked to today.

Due to the team’s situation, look for the Packers to take big swings in free agency and use the draft to attempt to find players who could push out veteran players they hope Green Bay doesn’t have to extend at their current price points. With so many players back, the back end of the roster will naturally be highly competitive. The focus this offseason should be spent on keeping the club’s ceiling high for 2025 and years to come.