South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers (16) is sacked by Missouri’s Chris McClellan, top right, during a game in 2025.
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The Green Bay Packers were arguably the most disappointing team in football last year. And perhaps no one did less with more than Packers coach Matt LaFleur.
Green Bay headed into the 2025 season with one of the NFL’s top rosters, then traded for star defensive end Micah Parsons 10 days before the year began. Suddenly, Packer Nation was dreaming of their first Super Bowl appearance since 2010.
Instead, Green Bay went a remarkably unsatisfying 9-8-1 overall and was the NFC’s No. 7 seed for a third consecutive year. The Packers then blew a 21-3 halftime lead in the Wild Card round against Chicago, gave up 25 fourth quarter points and eventually suffered a shocking 31-27 loss to the arch-rival Bears.
“No way you should lose games in this league when you’re up that much,” running back Josh Jacobs said.
Green Bay, which began the year 9-3-1, finished the season with five straight losses. The Packers now enter 2026 with the league’s fourth-longest losing streak.
LaFleur, entering his eighth season, is also the longest-tenured coach in the NFL that hasn’t taken a team to the Super Bowl.
Collapsing late in games was the story of Green Bay’s 2025 campaign.
Green Bay had double digit leads in the final minutes twice against Chicago and also vs. Cleveland and somehow went 0-3 in those games. The Packers’ odds of losing all three contests were 1-in-250,000, yet they somehow did it.
“That (expletive), it’s starting to get damn-near embarrassing,” safety Javon Bullard said.
Rebounding won’t be easy as the Packers were hit hard in free agency and didn’t have a first round draft pick.
Green Bay’s first training camp practice is July 29. Between now and then I will count down the ‘30 Most Important Packers’ heading into the 2026 campaign.
At No. 28 is defensive tackle Chris McClellan.
No. 28
Chris McClellan, NT
Last season
McClellan had six sacks, eight tackles for loss, six quarterback hurries and 48 tackles during a breakout 2025 campaign with Missouri. McClellan finished the year with four sacks in his final four games, including a two-sack outing against Arkansas on Nov. 29. He was also dominant against Texas A&M on Nov. 8.
Career to date
In his first three college seasons — two at Florida and one with Missouri — McClellan had 4.5 sacks, 9.0 tackles for loss and 85 tackles. He started just one game during his two seasons and Florida, then started 21 of 26 contests at Missouri.
Outlook
Green Bay traded picks No. 84 and 160 to Tampa Bay for pick No. 77 and took McClellan in the third round of April’s draft.
McClellan has enormous 11-inch hands and ran the 40-yard dash in a respectable 5.05 seconds. His production score (72) ranked fourth among all defensive tackles in this year’s draft and his overall score (67) ranked seventh among all DTs.
The Packers lack a true nose tackle in new coordinator Jonathan Gannon’s 3-4 scheme, and the 6-foot-4, 323-pound McClellan will be given every chance to win that job. The guess here is McClellan will do exactly that.
“The thing I like most about Chris … is the versatility,” said Milt Hendrickson, the Packers’ Vice President of Player Personnel. “He can play the nose, he can play the three, you know, in some of our base, some of our big end stuff he can do that as well. He’s just one of those guys that I think, even though he’s four years in college, he’s still scratching the surface a little bit.
“He was a guy that really I think checked a lot of boxes since the middle of the season through the all-star process. Just a guy that the more you watch the more he grew on us.”
They said it …
“He’s a huge man. He has excellent length, and I think for me, the combination of being able to play the nose, the 3 and actually rush the passer. There’s a lot of these guys that don’t do that. He can. That was I think what set him apart a little bit for us.” — Green Bay general manager Brian Gutekunst after drafting McClellan
“Learning him through the draft process, I believe that he can do a lot of different things. But more so than his skill-sets and his tools, his mind is really, really advanced for a guy that young. What we’re able to do in two days from a technique, a scheme standpoint, he was picking it up, picking it up, picking it up faster than I thought he would. So, I’m looking forward to him.” — Packers defensive line coach Vince Oghobaase on McClellan
“For me, breaking down the tape and watching everything, I truly found my identity as a pass rusher is more of a power player first, and being able to work my rep of moves off the power. So every time I wanted to initially take power on and then work off of that.” McClellan on how he grew into a strong pass rusher
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