The Green Bay Packers were on their way to winning their second playoff game in their last five tries before allowing the Chicago Bears to mount a furious fourth-quarter comeback, ending their season in the Wild Card Round for a second straight year. A season that began with Super Bowl aspirations ending in that fashion must lead to major changes being made.
The Packers have -$4 million in cap space, according to Spotrac, and are in desperate need of. shake-up. With that in mind, here are five starters who won't be back, either because the Packers can't afford them or because they need to upgrade.
WR Romeo Doubs
Romeo Doubs has exceeded expectations as a fourth-round pick and just had arguably his best season in 2025, setting a new career high with 724 receiving yards. Knowing this, why wouldn't the Packers want to re-sign a 25-year-old who is seemingly only getting better? Ultimately, it comes down to the depth the Packers have at the position and their cap situation.
Even without Doubs, the Packers have Christian Watson, Jayden Reed, Matthew Golden and Dontayvion Wicks under contract, a good amount of depth. Since Doubs is a 25-year-old coming off his best season, do the Packers really want to pay him what he'll receive on the open market, knowing they have comparable options internally? It's not as if Doubs is an established WR1.
It'd be easy to re-sign him in a cap-less world, but the NFL requires teams to stay under the cap, and the Packers ought to use the money Doubs will command to address other needs or go all-out for a true WR1 instead of re-signing Doubs.
LB Quay Walker
By declining Quay Walker's fifth-year option ahead of the 2025 season, the Packers made it clear they'd be fine with him departing after the year. Walker had a chance to prove that the Packers made a mistake, but while he did set a career-high with 128 tackles, he didn't prove to be a difference-maker. I mean, look at how bad their defense was after Micah Parsons' season-ending injury.
Speaking of Parsons, the Packers traded for and extended him last offseason, making him the focal point of their defense and making it difficult to re-sign everyone around him. As a 25-year-old with upside, Walker is going to make more money than the Packers can afford to pay him, especially with guys like Isaiah McDuffie and Edgerrin Cooper still in the mix.
OT Rasheed Walker
Rasheed Walker is another free agent likely to get more than he's worth because he's just 25 years old. From a Packers perspective, it's really hard to justify handing Walker the kind of contract he'd command because he isn't worth the money, and they have a successor in-house already.
Walker ranked 52nd out of 89 offensive tackles with a 64.6 PFF grade, and he's never ranked higher than 41st. I think he's a fine starter who is probably a bit better than those PFF grades would suggest, and he's been very durable, but it's hard to argue he's worth re-signing, especially when the Packers have Jordan Morgan, a first-round pick from the 2024 NFL Draft, waiting for his chance at left tackle.
DL Rashan Gary
Rashan Gary has been a staple in Green Bay's defense for the past seven years, and he's under contract for 2026, so on the surface, he's a lock to return for next season. He really shouldn't be, though. The 28-year-old got off to a roaring start to the 2025 season with 7.5 sacks in his first seven games. He finished his season with no sacks in his last 10 games (including the playoff defeat). That is a problem.
Gary was essentially a non-factor once Parsons went down. Knowing this, do the Packers feel comfortable paying his $28 million cap hit, which happens to be the second-most on the team and the most among defensive players? Releasing him would free roughly $11 million, which, for a team currently in the red, would be a game-changer.
Gary is obviously a good player, and he's done some great things in Green Bay, but it's just hard to justify paying him all that money when he struggled as mightily as he did down the stretch. Barring an unlikely acceptance of a pay cut in a restructured deal, Gary feels like an easy cut candidate.
CB Keisean Nixon
The Packers' cornerback room was one of their biggest Achilles heels in 2025, and having Keisean Nixon as their No. 1 corner is a big reason why. Nixon's numbers this season show that he is not a No. 1 corner.
The 28-year-old allowed 56 of the 87 passes thrown his way to be caught (64.4 percent) for 651 yards (7.5 yards per target) and six touchdowns, a mark that doubled his previous career-high. Quarterbacks had a 105.1 rating when throwing to him, which is just unacceptable for a corner targeted as much as Nixon was.
He can provide value on special teams, and would be better in a lesser role, but the Packers need to try something else in their cornerback room. Releasing Nixon would save them $5 million in cap space, which can prove to be valuable for a Packers team that, again, needs to free up as much money as possible.