Green Bay Packers Roster Preview: Defensive Line

Let’s finally turn our attention to the defensive side of the ball in our positional preview series. First up is the interior defensive line, where the Green Bay Packers’ new 3-4 defense should help the run game that seemed to wear down as games progressed in 2025. Still, there are some personnel questions going into the 2026 season.

By all accounts, Devonte Wyatt should return to the Packers from his ankle injury around the start of training camp. So far, he hasn’t practiced with the team this offseason in the practices that have been open to the media.

The story of Wyatt’s career thus far has been that he’s been one of the league’s best players in terms of creating interior pressure, but he has been about average in stopping the run. The assumption is that he’s going to be a starting 3-4 defensive end on the team, mostly playing in the B-gap between the guard and tackle, and as the undertackle (3-technique) in nickel sets in 2026.

Arguably the Packers’ biggest free agent signing, Javon Hargrave’s best film in his NFL career has come when he’s played as a B-gap defender, but he just came off a year where he played nose tackle for the Minnesota Vikings. With that being said, Brian Flores’ blitz- and stunt-heavy defense is different than what basically anyone else in the NFL runs right now, so there’s a question about whether Hargrave will play end or tackle for Green Bay on base downs.

Even in a relatively “down” year, Hargrave was one of the more well-rounded defensive linemen in the league in 2025, contributing as both a pass-rusher and run defender. Hopefully, his reunion with Jonathan Gannon, whom he played for with the Philadelphia Eagles, can add even more life back into his game.

If Javon Hargraves starts at nose tackle, there’s a good chance that Karl Brooks is going to be the other starting defensive end on the team. Brooks started seven games last year, the first time he’s ever stepped into the starting role at the professional level.

Unfortunately, Brooks had a down year in 2025 by his standards, recording just a half-sack and one tackle for loss after posting 7.5 sacks and 10 TFLs in his previous two seasons off the bench. It might be more effective for the team to use Brooks as a pass-rushing specialist who is mostly used in subpackages, as he was used earlier in his career.

Worth noting: Brooks played 143 snaps of special teams last year, which is an incredibly high number for an interior defensive lineman. Usually, those players get rest in the kicking game, outside of playing the field goal rush unit. Forcing Brooks to play that many special teams snaps while also having him be a part-time starter (he played 59 percent of defensive snaps in games he was active for in 2025) clearly was too much of a workload for him.

Like Javon Hargrave, Warren Brinson is a player who can play either 3-4 defensive end or nose tackle, depending on what the team wants to do. Brinson showed flashes of high-level play in 2025, but the sixth-round pick was consistently playing behind Devonte Wyatt, Karl Brooks and Colby Wooden, the latter of which was traded for linebacker Zaire Franklin this offseason.

There’s an opportunity for Brinson, either as the starting nose tackle (if Hargrave plays end) or as a starting defense end (if Hargrave plays nose tackle), but there will be competition for him at either position. Hopefully, he takes the next step in 2026.

Due to injuries, third-round rookie Chris McClellan seems to be getting on-boarded a little faster this offseason than the usual Packers rookie. Who knows if that will continue when Devonte Wyatt and Javon Hargrave return to practice, but he’s got a good amount of work in with the starting unit in voluntary workouts and minicamp.

McClellan is another combo end-tackle type at 6’4″ and 313 pounds. He played both under tackle and nose tackle for Missouri last year, generally playing under tackle on run downs and nose tackle on passing downs. He should be in the mix for a starting job at end (along with Warren Brinson and Karl Brooks, if Javon Hargrave plays the nose) or tackle (along with Brinson and Nazir Stackhouse, if Javon Hargrave plays end).

The Packers will probably keep six defensive linemen on the roster, considering the team’s pivot to a 3-4 defense. Right now, their sixth lineman appears to be Nazir Stackhouse, who was an undrafted free agent pickup last year.

Over the course of the entire season, Stackhouse played 159 defensive snaps as a rookie, with 45 of those coming in the Packers’ season finale JV game against the Minnesota Vikings. In the other 16 games, Stackhouse averaged 7.1 snaps per game.

Even with the injury issues that Green Bay dealt with last year, the Packers seemed to want to keep Stackhouse on a significant pitch count, as they went through several nose tackle pickups in Jonathan Ford, Quinton Bohanna and Jordon Riley in-season.

While Stackhouse has the size of a traditional nose tackle (6’4″, 327 pounds), it didn’t really translate to run-stopping ability in 2025. The Packers clearly liked him enough to award him a “redshirt” year last season, though, and hopefully another offseason in Green Bay will lead to some significant improvement. He’s in the mix at the nose tackle position, but it would be a little surprising if he beat out Warren Brinson and Chris McClellan for a starting job if Javon Hargrave plays end. You probably won’t see Stackhouse on the field much for passing downs, either.

Jonathan Ford was drafted by the Packers in the seventh round of the 2022 draft and spent three years in Green Bay before he was eventually poached off the team’s practice squad by the Chicago Bears. While he had never played a regular-season snap with the Packers in his first stint with the team, Ford did get on the field for 173 defensive snaps for the Bears over two years.

When injuries piled up last year, Ford was eventually poached by the Packers off the Bears’ practice squad, reuniting him with his original club. The 6’5″, 346-pounder is a true nose tackle.

He didn’t have a huge impact in the few games that he suited up for the green and gold last year, but he’s probably the next man up on the depth chart (specifically at nose tackle) if there were an injury in 2026. He’s probably on the outside looking in, roster-wise, but it only takes one injury for the math to change for him.

We don’t know too much about Anthony Campbell, as he was part of the Packers’ late-season flurry of moves as they cycled players onto the injured reserve. Campbell was signed to Green Bay’s practice squad on January 7th and signed a reserve-futures deal with the team following their playoff loss to the Chicago Bears. He has never played in a game for the Packers, including preseason games.

Campbell was undrafted out of Miami in 2025 and was signed to the Seattle Seahawks, where he spent some time on their practice squad.

Jaden Crumedy is a former draft pick, going in the sixth round of the 2024 draft by the Carolina Panthers. He’s been a member of the Panthers’ practice squad for two years, but for whatever reason, he wasn’t offered or didn’t sign a reserve-futures deal with the Panthers after the 2025 season. Instead, he elected to join the Packers on January 20th, after Green Bay’s season had concluded.

Like Anthony Campbell, we don’t know much about Crumedy, considering he has never played for the Packers in a game. Also, like Campbell, his 300-pound-ish weight suggests that he’s more of a 3-4 defensive end than a 3-4 nose tackle.

If not for injury, Jordon Riley would probably be sixth in the pecking order on the Packers’ defensive line right now, as you could argue that he played better than Jonathan Ford and Nazir Stackhouse last year. Unfortunately, Riley, who was a mid-season pickup, tore his Achilles tendon and will likely miss the entire 2026 season as he recovers. At a minimum, he should be out until at least December, as a torn Achilles tendon is usually a 12-month injury, and he suffered his injury on December 27th.

Expect Riley to start the season on the physically unable to perform list, if not the injured reserve. If he’s placed on the injured reserve before roster cutdowns, the Packers will be awarded an extra offseason roster spot, but it will officially end Riley’s 2026 season.