The Green Bay Packers have minimal cap space going into the official start of the 2026 league season and free agency in March, currently sitting at just over $4 million over the limit, but there are few players that the team – or indeed the fanbase – seem particularly desperate to re-sign.
Quay Walker has had an up-and- down tenure with the organization since being selected with the 22nd overall pick back in 2022, culminating in a an underwhelming 2025 season. Wide receiver Romeo Doubs looks to be out the door, with the team having numerous young and up-and-coming options still under contract.
And, perhaps most interestingly, it looks at this point like Green Bay are set to let the franchise’s starting left tackle for the past three seasons, Rasheed Walker, walk come March.
Packers May Look to Franchise Tag Free Agent
However, Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports suggests an alternative – albeit a ‘long shot’ one: to franchise tag and subsequently trade the former seventh round pick next month.
“A long-shot option here is Packers tackle Rasheed Walker, but only in a tag-and-trade scenario.” Jones wrote. “The tackle market — in free agency and the draft — is thin, so Green Bay could try to recoup draft capital lost to Dallas. Still, the Packers are typically conservative spenders, and that’s a hefty number for GM Brian Gutekunst.”
When asking a league source about the realistic probability of something like this actually being pulled off, the source expressed skepticism about the likelihood of the team doing as such, but observed that is still a possibility.
“I don’t feel like Gutey is motivated enough to tag Rasheed,” the league source said to Jones. “Finding a partner at that number is tough, but it’s possible.”
How Realistic Is a Tag-and-Trade Option for Green Bay?
Walker has the highest predicted contract value for any free agent offensive lineman, per Spotrac, coming in at over $20 million per year.
Although estimates can often be inaccurate predictors of actual contracts, as the NFL media can often value players at a very different rate than actual teams, this feels like around the ball-park range that could end up being Walker’s going rate.
The one-year franchise tag is set to cost north of $27 million, whilst the transition tag will be more in the $25 million per year vicinity.
Both are set to be far higher numbers than the $20 million projection from Spotrac, so as Jones notes, if the Packers are to pull off something like this, they would have to have assurances that a team is looking to pay Walker closer to the $28 million/year mark, which would align him with the highest-paid offensive tackles in the league, and have a deal in place to do so.
Moreover, the trade compensation would need to be sufficient; the Packers are set to, in all likelihood, receive a third round compensatory pick for the services of Walker – unless the consensus valuations are way off .
So a team looking to acquire Walker’s services via trade would be needing to give up substantially more than that, likely a draft pick approaching a second rounder.
The chances that another franchise would be willing to part with a second rounder and pay a tackle who has been around a league average LT in the NFL – and a penalty-prone one at that – $28 + million per year is certainly not one you’d bet your house on. But stranger things have happened in the always unpredictable National Football League.
