In 2025, the Packers offense was many things. Somehow wildly effective, while still completely underperforming their own standard, might be a good way to put it. The lion’s share of the blame belongs to the offensive line, as has been explored a thousand ways by a thousand people. It’s there that I’d expect a good portion of the team’s attention to be spent over the offseason. But, in the interest of avoiding tunnel vision, I decided to take a look around the other positions on that side of the ball. In doing so, I recognized something pretty quickly. To me, the one thing that the Packers should avoid expending energy or resources into would be to acquire any more options at wide receiver.
In all likelihood, Romeo Doubs has already played his last snap as a Green Bay Packer (and what a way to go out, with 124 yards and a touchdown in the playoffs). We’ll miss Romeo, but it’s simple math that will force the Packers to show him the door. Spotrac estimates his next contract extension to be in the range of a $12 million dollar range (although I’d hazard a guess that he will get much more than that).
As an organizational practice, the Packers will tell us what they want to do a few years down the line, when making selections in the draft. We know that would likely be letting Rasheed Walker walk in free agency, after the selection of Jordan Morgan. We knew that the Packers could afford to let Aaron Rodgers leave after the selection of Jordan Love. By taking both Matthew Golden and Savion Williams in the 2025 draft, the team signaled the departure of Dobbs, and at least one other receiver to come next year when Christian Watson, Jayden Reed and Dontayvion Wicks are all up for extensions.
Conventional wisdom says that Watson will be extended sooner rather than later, which would leave Reed and Wicks as the last two receivers available for their own extensions. However, you have to remember that Tucker Kraft and Luke Musgrave will also be eligible for extensions as well. Again, this is an obvious choice: extend Kraft and let Musgrave walk.
According to Spotrac again, Watson’s market value is estimated at $15.6 million per year, and Kraft is at $15.5. Those numbers still seem a little low to me, so I found some close comparisons, for the sake of a more appropriate conversation.
For Watson, any conversation about a long term extension starts by comparing the contract that Jameson Williams signed with the Lions a year ago. Williams’ contract was a three year, $80 million dollar deal, for an average payout of $26.6 million a year. Should Green Bay choose to re-sign Watson before the season begins, I’d be interested to see what they do with the one year, $13.25 million contract that the two sides agreed upon in September. The team could choose to keep this year’s structure intact, and tack the new years onto the back end, thus keeping another year of below market pay for Watson. Alternatively, the Packers could sign Watson to the same $80 million dollar figure, make it a four year deal, and agree to void the current contract. This would spread Watson’s pay out a bit, making him $7 million more expensive next season, but $6.6 million cheaper for the subsequent three years. Food for thought.
For Kraft, the closest comparison should be Trey McBride’s four year $76 million contract, for an approximate value of $19 million per year, second highest among tight ends. I don’t think Kraft earns more than McBride’s contract (unless he goes nuclear next season and winds up more expensive, a great example of why it’s always smart to re-sign your star players as soon as possible). However, I do think Kraft has earned a contract that would top the third highest paid tight end, TJ Hockenson who is paid $16.5 million per year.Paying Kraft $18 million per year seems like a fair compromise, give or take some pocket change. That’d end up being worth $72 million per year, not bad for a player from a small town of less than 500 people.
It’s pretty obvious that Watson and Kraft will get their extensions from Green Bay, but the question will be where that leaves Musgrave, Reed and Wicks.
If we take the entire group of Doubs, Watson, Reed, Wicks, Kraft, and Musgrave, and suppose that only half of them will get extensions, then it comes down to either Reed or Wicks. Which one that will ultimately depend on the 2026 season itself, though it’s clear that Reed is the better player. Will that mean that he’ll be too expensive to re-sign? I doubt the Packers have an appetite for a third ~$20 million dollar pass catcher on the payroll. Even Wicks (assuming a similar statistical output in 2026 as he saw in 2025, 332 yards and 2 touchdowns), could earn a contract above $10 million. For reference Tutu Atwell is currently sitting on a contract with that value per year, despite his best season being 483 yards and 3 touchdowns in 2023. Could the Packers afford to pay ten million a year to their fourth or fifth receiver?
Musgrave’s contract is another question mark. It’d certainly be cheaper than a Reed or Wicks extension. The closest comparison I can find is Adam Trautman’s contract with the Broncos as a #2 tight end, at $7.5 million per year. Cheap enough for a contributing player, sure. The question would come from whether the Packers want to even keep Musgrave around. He’s struggled to really define his game with the Packers, or to develop from his college self, as Kraft has. Perhaps another year of development could be the ticket for Musgrave, who is still only 25, and we could finally see if he and Kraft form a two headed monster at TE. If he doesn’t see a significant breakout however, a change in scenery could ultimately be in both parties interests.
All that in mind, what should the Packers do about it? To me, the answer is two-fold. Avoid adding a wide receiver, add a tight end.
Adding a wide receiver in free agency would be unlikely to produce the results that some Packers fans seem to think it would. Since the departure of Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams, a key facet of the Matt LaFleur offense has been to overwhelm the defense with a plethora of receiving options at all levels. Those options are still at full capacity, even with the departure of Romeo Doubs. Watson, Reed, Golden, Wicks and Williams is a full receiving room, and adding a name at the top would only hamper the potential of the others. The time has come for the Packers to put full faith in Golden, and see if Williams has a place as an outside receiving threat, beyond being the subject of sweeps and bubble screens.
Could the Packers take another rookie WR, a year after selecting two in the top 100 picks of the 2025 draft? Sure, but I don’t think they need to. To me, you wait until after the 2026 season, go into with Watson, Golden, Williams and one of Reed or Wicks, and then back fill the roster from there.
That said, I do have a giant caveat that if the Packers do finally decide to select a returner-only wide receiver in the draft this year, I’m all for it. But they shied away from those body types under MLF, who prefers his receivers bigger. But we also said Green Bay wouldn’t take a pass rush specialist before last year either, so you never know.
I think there’s a much better chance for the Packers to add a tight end this offseason, either via free agency, the draft, or both.
Considering the marked rise in usage of “heavier” positional groups across the league this season, I think there’s certainly an appetite in Green Bay to dip their toes into that world. But the superstar in the room, Tucker Kraft, will be coming off a torn ACL. We’ve already addressed the Musgrave of it all, and Green Bay is extremely thin at depth behind him. FitzPatrick will be unavailable next year with an achilles injury, and mid-season pickup Josh Whyle will be a restricted free agent.
I think there’s definitely a chance that the Packers could add a mid to low-tier free agent to bolster that situation a bit. Think Noah Fant for $3 million, or Tyler Higbee for $5 million. I could absolutely be talked into that. You know what’s an even better option though? Take a tight end late in the draft, pay them only $2.3 million to be the third tight end behind Kraft and Musgrave, learn for a year and be ready to step up to take Musgrave’s place in 2027. Hell, let’s do both. A cheap veteran free agent to compete with Musgrave this year, and a late round TE to develop behind them? Sign me up.
Obviously, the Packers will need to be extremely wise about where they want to spend their limited resources this offseason, but staying pat at WR while making a few additions to hedge your bets on the tight end position makes sense to me. Whatever way they go, the Packers should first focus on locking down Watson and Kraft long-term, and fill in from there.