The Green Bay Packers entered the 2026 NFL Draft without a first round pick, which lowered the odds of them getting a significant impact from their rookie class, especially for an organization that traditionally brings young players along slowly.
Yet early in training camp, it seems the Packers may have found several rookies capable of helping them in 2026.
The headliner so far has been cornerback Brandon Cisse, the team’s top pick from April in the second round.
That may not be especially surprising, but it was not a given Cisse would be ready to roll as an especially young prospect at 21 years old, and the encouraging signs coming from the rookie could be a massive development for the Packers defense.
Cisse began camp working with the second-team defense and has since risen up the pecking order, getting plenty of work with the ones.
As that roughly coincided with Carrington Valentine suffering an injury, it was difficult to tell whether it was a true promotion for Cisse.
Developments since then have left no doubt, as in the last two practices, he has been a near-constant with the first-team defense, while Keisean Nixon, who seemed a lock to have a starting spot in the defensive backfield, has rotated in and out with Benjamin St-Juste.
It already appears obvious that Cisse is the most talented corner the Packers have. He has reportedly looked the part at practice and has had a healthy back-and-forth battle with Christian Watson, taking his lumps at times but holding his own.
Completions from Jordan Love to Watson on out routes have been as close to automatic as it gets for a while now. At Monday’s practice, Cisse had an impressive pass break up on one such attempt, and may have picked it off if not for Watson contesting it.
Green Bay would be wise to hand Cisse a starting role and go through the ups and downs of what will undoubtedly be a challenging rookie season, rather than burying him beneath some underwhelming options in the name of making him ‘earn it’, which he has arguably already done.
Third-round pick Chris McClellan is beginning to make some noise at defensive tackle after a quieter start to camp, stringing together multiple strong practices of late. He sacked Tyrod Taylor with the second-team defense on Monday.
His path to playing time once the regular season arrives is not as clear cut, with plenty of veteran options in Javon Hargrave, Devonte Wyatt, Karl Brooks and Warren Brinson also in the mix.
New defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon has spoken in the past about wanting to keep his defensive linemen fresh though, so if McClellan continues on his upward trajectory, he should at least have a rotational role as a rookie.
Edge defender Dani Dennis-Sutton, a fourth-round pick from this year’s draft, has regularly flashed pass rush potential, particularly on obvious passing downs when he has often been deployed as an interior rusher.
Meanwhile, fifth-round pick Jager Burton is firmly involved in the competition to start at right guard, along with a couple of other young players in Anthony Belton and Jacob Monk.
After the draft back in April, Brian Gutekunst alluded to the fact that several of the players they drafted fell into their lap, in some cases well after they expected those prospects to be gone.
He recalled an expression his mentor and predecessor, Ted Thompson was fond of using: “As Ted would say: ‘Sometimes God looks after those who can’t look after themselves.'”
Without that first-round pick, the Packers felt fortunate to come out of the draft with the players they did. Early on in camp, they have to be pleased with how the rookie class is acclimating.
This article originally appeared on Packers Wire: Brandon Cisse leads Packers rookie class pushing for playing time
Reporting by Mark Oldacres, Packers Wire / Packers Wire
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By Mark Oldacres, Packers Wire | USA TODAY Network
