GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers reaped the rewards from the excellent additions in their 2022 draft class, then hoped to benefit even further from their departures in free agency.

This past offseason, the Packers let linebacker Quay Walker, receiver Romeo Doubs and left tackle Rasheed Walker go in free agency. Along with quarterback Malik Willis, who provided two superlative seasons as the backup quarterback after being acquired for a seventh-round pick, the Packers hoped they’d benefit from four top compensatory picks.

It hasn’t quite worked out the way the Packers were hoping.

Willis, as expected, signed a big contract with the Dolphins in free agency. Based on the $22.5 million average of his three-year contract, the Packers were in line to get a third-round compensatory pick.

Doubs was the odd man out at receiver, with the Packers choosing to give second contracts to Christian Watson and Jayden Reed rather than Doubs. He signed a four-year contract worth $17 million per season with the Patriots, which put the Packers in line to gain a fourth-round compensatory pick.

The Packers opted to go older and cheaper at linebacker with Zaire Franklin, so they let Quay Walker sign a three-year contract worth $13.5 million per season with the Raiders. That was projected to net the Packers a fifth-round compensatory pick.

Left tackle is a premium position – and is paid like one – so the Packers believed Rasheed Walker would land a big contract in free agency that would fetch them at least a fourth-round pick and possibly a third-round pick.

The New Reality

Compensatory picks are awarded by the league via a secret formula. Nick Korte of OverTheCap.com has mostly cracked that code – so much so that his expertise wound up killing a trade. Comp picks are based mostly on average annual salary but playing time is a factor.

Injuries have taken a bite out of the playing time for Willis and Doubs, and it might cost the Packers.

Malik Willis going on IR could be very problematic for the Packers' 2027 compensatory picks.

Missing at least 4 games looks like it could be enough to knock down the round the Packers get for Willis going to Miami from the 3rd round to the 4th round. https://t.co/IxAqOG0doB

— Nick Korte (@nickkorte) November 10, 2026

The Dolphins placed Willis on injured reserve this week due to a groin injury that had him looking like a shell of himself in the loss to the Lions. The hope is he’ll be back in four weeks, but there’s no guarantee. 

“The injury had progressed enough where the medical team believed he needed the rest,” Dolphins coach Jeff Hafley told reporters. “It started as a groin injury that worked to his core. I'm not going to get into medical details because that's not my expertise. He'll get second opinions this week. You're going to ask questions, surgery, non-surgery. He's going to get more input this week and make a decision in our hopes that he'll be back after his four weeks. Which in time, if healthy, he'll return.”

In the latest projections at OverTheCap.com, the Packers are in line to get a fourth-round pick for Willis. A prolonged absence wouldn’t move the pick back another round but it would practically guarantee it wouldn’t rebound back into the third.

That’s huge. A third-round compensatory pick would have landed at around No. 101 overall. This year, the first of the fourth-round compensatory picks was made at No. 133.

Doubs spent last week’s Packers-Patriots game on injured reserve. Because he will miss at least four games, his compensatory pick fell from the fourth round to the fifth round. This year, the last of the fourth-round comp picks was at No. 140 and the first of the fifth-round comp picks was at No. 173.

Quay Walker has started all nine games for the Raiders, so the Packers remain in line to get a fifth-round pick.

In one of the more surprising developments in free agency, there was no market at all for Rasheed Walker. He wound up signing with the Panthers; his contract wasn’t even big enough to merit a compensatory pick.

So, the Packers hit the maximum of four compensatory picks with edge Kingsley Enagbare, whose one-year, $10 million deal with the Jets was projected to be worth a sixth-round pick. He’s started all eight games so that pick has stayed in the sixth round.

The Packers’ 2027 Draft Picks

Once upon a time, the Packers were in line to have perhaps six of the top 140 picks in the loaded 2027 draft class.

They had no first-round pick from the Micah Parsons trade, but they had one pick in the second round, two picks in the third round (their pick and the Willis pick), three picks in the fourth round (their pick, the Rashan Gary trade and the Doubs pick) and two picks in the fifth round (their pick and the Quay Walker pick).

Now, based on OTC’s projected draft order through Week 9, these could be their picks.

Second round: No. 53 (their pick).

Third round: No. 85 (their pick).

Fourth round: No. 112 (Rashan Gary trade), No. 120 (their pick) and No. 133 (Willis pick).

Fifth round: No. 158 (their pick), No. 171 (Doubs pick), No. 173 (Quay Walker pick).

Sixth round: No. 184 (Dontayvion Wicks trade), No. 214 (Enagbare pick).

Seventh round: No. 241 (their pick).

Don’t Forget the Trades

At the end of training camp in 2025, the Packers acquired offensive tackle Darian Kinnard from the Eagles for a sixth-round pick in 2027. Before this year’s draft, the Packers traded receiver Dontayvion Wicks to the Eagles for a fifth-round pick in 2026 and a sixth-round pick in 2027. The Eagles have one of the worst records in the NFL, so Green Bay could wind up picking near the top of the sixth round.

At the end of training camp this year, the Packers acquired running back Kaleb Johnson from the Steelers for a sixth-round pick in 2028 and tight end Mark Redman from the Rams for seventh-round pick in 2028. So, those trades will have no impact on the upcoming draft.

They say dynamite comes in small packages. The Packers' draft class was small but has been dynamic.

Here's a midseason stock report and regrade of the 6⃣-player draft class. ⬇️https://t.co/Re0uAy3ZwV

— Bill Huber (@BillHuberNFL) November 11, 2026