At the end of the 2025 season, the Green Bay Packers’ defensive line was running on fumes and waiver claims, and the team’s inability to stop the run was painfully apparent. A defense that had allowed an average of 98.3 rushing yards per game through its first 11 games gave up 164.2 yards per game in the final six weeks of the regular season, largely due to injuries sapping the team’s personnel.
Indeed, a two-deep group of defensive tackles that included Kenny Clark, Devonte Wyatt, Karl Brooks, and Colby Wooden was left with only Brooks and Wooden at the end of the season. Clark departed for Dallas in the trade for Micah Parsons before week one, while Wyatt broke his ankle in week 13 and was out for the remainder of the season. The numbers before and after Wyatt’s injury, as shown above, illustrate how important he was to the team’s defensive line rotation and its ability to stop the run.
By the end of the season, Green Bay was relying on waiver claims, practice squad pickups, and lightly-regarded rookies just to get bodies on the field. Jordon Riley, a former New York Giants practice squadder, appeared in 64 snaps over four late-season games. The Packers picked up former draft pick Jonathan Ford on waivers from the Bears and he tallied 18 snaps in the Wild Card game against his former team. Nazir Stackhouse, who made the 53 as an undrafted rookie, struggled so badly that he couldn’t even get back on the active gameday roster late in the season. Even something called a “Quinton Bohanna” made an appearance.
Suddenly, however, the Packers’ interior line looks deep and exciting heading into the 2026 regular season. New additions Javon Hargrave (free agent) and Chris McClellan (3rd-round draft pick) look to provide some juice on the nose, both as run-stoppers and pocket-collapsers. Ford, whose return came very late last season, has been making plays in the preseason as a gap-filling nose tackle. Even Anthony Campbell, who signed to the practice squad before the Wild Card game, has been flashing this summer, though the Packers will be hard-pressed to keep him on the 53 since he generally does not line up at nose.
Meanwhile, the returning starters all look to benefit from another offseason and a deeper rotation. Wyatt returns fully healthy and although Wooden was dealt to Indianapolis for linebacker Zaire Franklin, he was miscast as a nose tackle anyway. Brooks looks set for a starting role, but this deeper group should allow him to stay well south of the 40-plus snaps per game that he averaged in 2025 (he averaged just 26 snaps per game in his much better 2024). Warren Brinson, a 6th-round pick in 2025, has shown signs of improvement during the summer, though he did miss the second preseason game with an injury.
Although the Packers are returning to a 3-4 base defense in name, this team will be in nickel almost all the time, which means there will be two interior linemen on the field on most snaps. And on passing downs, edge rushers like Lukas Van Ness, Barryn Sorrell, and Dani Dennis-Sutton are all candidates to shift inside and pin their ears back.
Perhaps the biggest pivot point on this year’s line will be McClellan. If the rookie can quickly earn significant snaps at the nose and hold up well against the run, everything else should fall into place. Wyatt and Brooks are at their best when they can rotate at the 3-tech, while Hargrave should provide veteran insurance across the entire interior. Brinson and Ford seem best positioned to round out the group, with the former also able to play all across the front and Ford a candidate to get a few snaps per game in obvious running situations.
Depth, more than anything, should help the Packers’ defensive line function better in 2026 than it did in 2025. They should be better able to withstand the inevitable bumps and bruises that take place across a rigorous schedule, and hopefully a few useful players can make it through waivers onto the practice squad to provide additional insurance.
If the Packers’ run defense improves drastically in 2026 from the level of play it displayed late in 2025, it should come as little surprise. Look for an uptick in the quality of the team’s interior pass rush as well, which will be critical early in the season as the team awaits the return of Micah Parsons on the edge.
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* [Green Bay Packers Analysis](/green-bay-packers-analysis)
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