The Packers have all of their 2026 draft picks under contract.
Second-round cornerback Brandon Cisse became the final member of the group to sign his four-year rookie deal on Thursday. The Packers selected six players in the draft overall.
Cisse had 27 tackles, an interception, 1.5 tackles for loss and a forced fumble while at South Carolina last year. He spent his first two college years at N.C. State.
The Packers also announced their previously reported waiver claim of wide receiver Brenden Rice. The NFL’s transaction report shows that they made space for him on the roster by waiving tight end Luke Lachey with a failed physical designation. The Packers claimed Lachey on waivers earlier this week.
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The Dolphins are bringing in a player who’s familiar with their new General Manager and head coach.
Miami has claimed defensive tackle James Ester off of waivers, according to the league’s daily transaction wire.
Ester, who entered the league as an undrafted free agent in 2024, has spent the last two seasons on the Packers’ practice squad. He was waived by the club earlier this week.
Dolphins G.M. Jon-Eric Sullivan and head coach Jeff Hafley were both previously with the Packers, giving them some inside knowledge about Ester.
Ester, however, has not yet appeared in a regular-season game.
Last month, Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) introduced legislation aimed at ensuring free, over-the-air access by citizens of a given state to all nationally-televised games involving the teams headquartered there. Naturally, then, she was dismayed to learn that the Packers-Rams game on Thanksgiving Eve will be streamed exclusively by Netflix.
“As the cost of just about everything continues to rise, the NFL is once again asking Wisconsinites to spend their hard-earned money on another streaming service,” Baldwin said. “Enough is enough. My ‘For the Fans Act’ would stop this exact scenario and prevent Wisconsin families from being forced to pay for Netflix just to watch the Packers play this Thanksgiving.”
The development comes at a time when the NFL is facing unprecedented political pressure, on multiple fronts. The Department of Justice is investigating whether the NFL has exceeded its current broadcast antitrust exemption. Fox owner Rupert Murdoch, through the op-ed pages of his Wall Street Journal and the back channels of government, has pushed the question of whether the existing exemption should be scrapped.
In Wisconsin, the Packers-Rams game to be played the night before Thanksgiving will be televised by network affiliates in Green Bay and Milwaukee. The rest of WI will be SOL, absent a Netflix subscription. That same dynamic will apply to any Packers games on Prime Video.
Whether the For the Fans Act goes anywhere remains to be seen. Regardless, the complaints about requiring fans to pay to watch standalone NFL games is here to stay, until further notice.
Packers General Manager Brian Gutekunst said earlier this month that the team expects edge rusher Micah Parsons to return early in the 2026 season after recovering from a torn ACL, but did not put any more specific time frame on how much time Parsons could miss.
A report on Thursday does a little more on that front. Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that Parsons is a candidate to open the season on the physically unable to perform list.
If that’s the case, Parsons will not be able to play in the first four weeks of the regular season. He would be able to return to practice during that window, which would be important because remaining on the PUP list into the regular season would mean Parsons was not participating in training camp practices.
A clearer sense of when Parsons will be available will come well before Week 1 and the Packers will find out which games Parsons might miss when the NFL schedule is released on Thursday night.
Wide receiver Brenden Rice is on to Green Bay.
According to multiple reports, the Packers have claimed Rice off of waivers. The Raiders waived Rice when they signed linebacker Cameron McGrone this week.
Rice, who is the son of Hall of Famer Jerry Rice, joined the Raiders’ practice squad late last season. He also spent time on the practice squads of the Seahawks and Patriots after being waived by the Chargers in August.
Rice was a 2024 seventh-round pick by Los Angeles and he appeared in three games during his rookie season. He played three offensive snaps and 10 special teams snaps over those appearances.
The teams involved in the NFL’s first-ever Thanksgiving Eve game have been set.
Netflix will televise a game between the Packers and the Rams on Wednesday, November 25. The NFL also plans to hold three games on Thanksgiving and at least one game is expected to be played on Black Friday.
This is the second Rams game to be announced ahead of Thursday’s full schedule reveal. They will also face the 49ers in Melbourne, Australia in Week 1. That game will also be broadcast by Netflix.
It is the first Packers game to be revealed so far. If history is any guide, it will be one of multiple standalone games for Green Bay.
When Jaire Alexander stepped away from the Eagles last season, there was word that he planned to “focus on getting himself right physically and mentally before deciding on his future” as a player.
Alexander’s knee troubles led to the Packers releasing the cornerback after the 2024 season and he wrote in an essay for The Players Tribune that he struggled to deal with that release while likening the end of his seven-year run in Green Bay to a “divorce.” He signed with the Ravens, but had a poor outing in a season-opening loss to the Bills that left him “very, very embarrassed” and doubting his health. He would only play one more game as Baltimore deactivated him in order to try to recover on both fronts and eventually traded him to the Eagles.
Alexander wrote that he made the decision to step away without appearing in a game because his knee began troubling him again and that led to a repeat of doubts about his ability to do the job. He wrote that he “needed to listen to myself, and look out for myself, and put my well-being first.” Alexander’s essay outlines some of the ways he’s done that and whether he is considering a return to the field.
“People still sometimes ask me if I’m ever gonna come back and play,” Alexander wrote. “And, you know what . . . I’ll never say never — I still work out, and the knee’s fine now, so I’m in good shape. But for me, right now, the most important thing really is just to be in a good place overall. To be happy.”
Alexander had previously addressed his mental health and the detail he shares in the essay underlines how difficult last season was for him. His play when healthy in Green Bay would likely earn him a look if he does decide to play again, but it’s far from certain things will play out that way.
The Packers added a pair of players to their 90-man roster on Tuesday.
The NFL’s daily transaction report shows that they claimed cornerback M.J. Devonshire and tight end Luke Lachey off of waivers.
Devonshire was waived by the Bills this week. He was a 2024 seventh-round pick by the Raiders and has also spent time with the Panthers and Ravens without appearing in any regular season games.
Lachey was a seventh-round pick in Houston last year. He spent the entire season on the team’s practice squad and was dropped from the Texans’ roster when they added running back Evan Hull on Monday.
The Packers are moving on from their veteran kicker.
Green Bay is releasing Brandon McManus on Friday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports.
The club selected kicker Trey Smack out of Florida in the sixth round of last month’s draft.
McManus had been with Green Bay since 2024. While injuries limited him to 14 games, he hit 24-of-30 field goals in 2025 along with 32-of-33 extra points. He also missed two field goals and an extra point in the club’s playoff loss to the Bears.
As noted by Rob Demovsky of ESPN, Green Bay paid McManus a $1 million roster bonus in March.
McManus previously spent nine seasons kicking for the Broncos before kicking for Jacksonville in 2023. He’s hit 82.0 percent of his career field goal attempts and 97.4 percent of his extra points.
The Texans are going to take a look at a quarterback during their rookie minicamp.
Per Jonathan Alexander of the Houston Chronicle, Clayton Tune has accepted an invitation to try out for the club this weekend.
Tune, 27, was a Cardinals fifth-round pick in 2023. He appeared in 13 games for the club in his first two seasons before he was waived during roster cuts.
Tune then signed with Green Bay’s practice squad, starting the club’s Week 18 loss to the Vikings with the Packers resting starters for the postseason.
In his 15 career appearances, Tune has completed 21-of-38 passes for 112 yards with three interceptions.
Tune played his college ball at Houston, making this weekend’s tryout a homecoming of sorts.
