The Green Bay Packers made only six selections in the 2026 NFL Draft, with no first-rounder, but they're already relying heavily on their rookie class.
Brandon Cisse, Chris McClellan, and Dani Dennis-Sutton are playing meaningful snaps on defense. Cisse has started every game. The Packers are also riding the Trey Smack Rollercoaster, which has been a turbulent experience, to say the least.
No draft class is perfect from top to bottom, but the Packers have reason to feel optimistic with their early returns.
Packers' rookie stock report at the halfway stage of the 2026 season
Brandon Cisse: Stock up
Life is tough for rookie cornerbacks. Brandon Cisse found that out in Week 1 by getting beaten by Justin Jefferson on a 39-yard touchdown. Cisse's coverage wasn't even that bad, but he appeared to lose track of the ball for half a second, and that's all it took for Jefferson to make him pay.
But the Packers have to be thrilled with the start Cisse has made to his NFL career. He's not only holding up in coverage, but also making plays at the line of scrimmage and in the backfield.
Defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon loves to find creative ways to use his defensive backs, including on blitzes, and Cisse is a perfect fit.
Cisse hasn't been perfect in coverage, as expected eight games into his Packers career, but there's so much room for encouragement.
Quarterbacks have tested him, but he's allowed only 57.9 percent of passes to be completed in his coverage. Cisse has allowed two touchdown passes, including the big one to Jefferson, but his eight passes defended rank sixth in the NFL. He has one interception, and had a second wiped out by a penalty.
Just as exciting is the way the South Carolina product flies to the football. He has 1.5 sacks, two quarterback hits, and two tackles for loss. Cisse doesn't get fooled by screens and reacts fast.
Oh, and for the record, he has more sacks than Rashan Gary this season.
Cisse has plenty of development ahead of him. Cornerback is a thankless position, even for veterans, but he's made an impressive start in Green Bay.
Chris McClellan: Stock neutral
Chris McClellan has made a quiet start in Green Bay, but his stock is close to rising after arguably his best performance last week against the Carolina Panthers.
Pro Football Focus credited McClellan with three defensive stops, after making only two in the previous seven games combined. It's a step in the right direction. The rookie certainly hadn't played badly in the opening two months of the regular season, but he didn't make a particularly big impact, either.
McClellan was expected to make an impact as an interior rusher after recording six sacks for Missouri last season. He had a sack ruled out in Week 1 for a harsh roughing-the-passer penalty on Carson Wentz, but he hasn't made many plays in the backfield since. PFF has McClellan at four pressures and just one quarterback hit.
It's early days, though, and McClellan flashed potential against the Panthers in Week 8.
Dani Dennis-Sutton: Stock up
Speaking of players who flashed potential last week, next up is Dani Dennis-Sutton. Wow. The Packers have unearthed a Day 3 draft steal.
All the ingredients were there for Dennis-Sutton to become an impact player in the NFL. Athleticism? His 9.96 Relative Athletic Score ranked ninth among 2,257 defensive ends since 1987. Production? He made 17 sacks and 25 tackles for loss in his final two seasons at Penn State.
And he's already living up to that potential. Per PFF, Dennis-Sutton ranks third among Packers defenders in pressures with 20. Over the past four weeks, he's recorded 14 pressures, two sacks, and six defensive stops.
According to Next Gen Stats (via Jacob Morley of Packer Report), Dennis-Sutton's 19.8 percent pressure rate ranks eighth in the NFL and second among rookies. That works.
He has formed a formidable trio alongside Lukas Van Ness and Brenton Cox Jr. in recent weeks – they each had sacks against the Panthers. Just wait until Micah Parsons is standing alongside them.
Jager Burton: Stock down
Fifth-rounder Jager Burton turned heads all offseason. He looked the part at training camp, impressed in the preseason, and spent time with the first-team offense regularly throughout the summer.
Then Donovan Jennings surprisingly jumped the queue and moved ahead of Burton on the depth chart in Week 1. Matt LaFleur said it was due to "time on task."
Burton had to wait until Week 3 to get his first start, and it couldn't have gone any worse. Per PFF, the rookie allowed 10(!) pressures and five quarterback hits, landing him an atrocious 9.1 pass-blocking grade. His run-blocking grade of 29.9 wasn't much better.
It immediately pushed Burton down the depth chart, as the Packers responded to the Week 3 disaster by signing three guards. New addition Laken Tomlinson has allowed just seven pressures in five games, three fewer than Burton gave up in one performance.
Burton is still a player to believe in long-term, but we probably won't see much of him again this season.
Domani Jackson: Stock neutral
Domani Jackson missed a significant part of the offseason program and training camp while recovering from core muscle surgery, and it immediately put him behind the eight ball. It showed once the preseason started.
Per PFF, Jackson allowed six completions on eight targets for 112 yards and a touchdown, with quarterbacks earning a near-perfect 156.3 passer rating in his coverage. The Packers waived Jackson after the preseason and signed him to the practice squad the following day.
He could become a contributor in the future, but we shouldn't expect to see him play meaningful snaps in 2026.
Trey Smack: Stock down
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
I'll be honest, I didn't expect to be quoting Charles Dickens eight games into Trey Smack's Packers career.
Green Bay willingly signed up for a rollercoaster by relying on a rookie kicker, but come on. This is getting ridiculous.
Smack could barely get through a training camp practice without missing a kick. It got so bad that Matt LaFleur asked officials to stop signaling whether his kicks went through the uprights. Then the preseason started, and Smack turned into an All-Pro.
He looked shaky at practice, then stepped into Lambeau Field and hit everything right down the middle. Smack ranked second in FanSided's Kick Value Added (KVA) metric during the preseason. And that success continued into the regular season, with the rookie converting six of seven field goals (his only miss was blocked) and seven of eight extra-point tries from Weeks 1-4.
Since then, Training Camp Trey Smack has returned.
And it's trending in the wrong direction. Fast. The rookie has missed four field goals and two extra-point attempts over the past four weeks. Two misses inside 40 yards cost the Packers six points in a three-point loss to the Detroit Lions.
Smack nailed a 59-yard attempt down the middle in Week 1. Smack missed a 26-yarder indoors in Week 7. It makes no sense, and I have no idea how the Packers must be feeling.
Add us as a preferred source on Google