Our tour through the Packers’ unrestricted free agents continues, this time with a look at linebacker Isaiah McDuffie. A former sixth-round pick, McDuffie now has a chance to test free agency for the first time.
Isaiah McDuffie in a nutshell
- Selected by the Packers in the sixth round (220th overall) of the 2021 NFL Draft
- Appeared in 63 of 68 possible regular season games in his career with 26 starts
- 228 career tackles (eight for loss), one sack, four passes defensed, and one fumble forced
2024 season
- Appeared in all 17 regular season games (17 starts)
- Played 699 snaps on defense (sixth most) and 125 snaps on special teams (16th most)
- Recorded 97 tackles (three for loss), three passes defensed, one fumble forced, and half a sack
Overview
No matter what else is true of his career, I think it’s safe to call Isaiah McDuffie a success in Green Bay.
Anyone selected after pick 200 is going to be a long shot in the NFL, but McDuffie has carved out a nice little career for himself in Green Bay as the team’s de facto third linebacker for the last three years in addition to being a special teams regular.
The question is whether or not you want him to be that player long-term. Should he be playing as much as he is?
Probably not. 699 snaps for Isaiah McDuffie is probably overexposing a player who came into the league a little too small and a little too slow to be anything much more than a special teamer, and expecting him to be more than that is probably a you problem more than a McDuffie one.
Such was the case in 2024, where the Packers played McDuffie a whole bunch early in the year (along with Quay Walker) in an effort to bring Edgerrin Cooper along slowly. If that was the goal, it worked — once they finally unleashed him, Cooper was a force. Unfortunately, it also put McDuffie in the position of having to do too much of what he wasn’t good at. Namely, he had to cover people too often.
No Packers player named by Pro Football Focus as the primary defender on at least 30 passes allowed completions at the rate that McDuffie did. Opposing teams sent 64 passes his way, and he allowed completions on 54 of them, a rate of 84.4 percent, narrowly beating out Javon Bullard at 84.2 percent.
The case for re-signing Isaiah McDuffie
So why, then, would you want McDuffie? I think the case for bringing him back hinges on him being the defense-oriented version of Eric Wilson.
Wilson, like McDuffie, was a depth piece at linebacker while also playing significant special teams reps. The Packers didn’t play Wilson as much on defense as they did McDuffie (just 558 snaps), but he outplayed McDuffie on special teams, leading the Packers with 321 snaps.
The Packers will still need depth at linebacker in 2025 behind Edgerrin Cooper and Quay Walker, and with Rich Bisaccia still in town, they’ll need linebacker-style bodies to play on special teams. I think McDuffie is a slightly better option than Wilson on defense, and retaining him would give the Packers some depth at a position they need it while still giving them a reliable player on special teams.
