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The Packers have an offensive need that’s flying just under the radar as NFL free agency reaches its bargain stages and the NFL Draft approaches.

While emerging star Tucker Kraft’s recovery from a knee injury that ended his promising 2025 campaign takes center stage, Green Bay also needs to find a serviceable blocking tight end before the 2026 season kicks off. There could be an ideal target available, still, on the veteran market.

Packers could be perfect fit for TE Will Dissly

Given that the Packers will likely look to jumpstart the running game in 2026, adding a blocking tight end to the roster, especially as John Fitzpatrick works his way back, could be one of GM Brian Gutekunst’s most pressing remaining priorities.

According to Packers on SI’s Bill Huber, former Chargers tight end Will Dissly could make a lot of sense in Green Bay, especially after Los Angeles already upgraded at the position, by signing Charlie Kolar early in free agency.

“ a few times this offseason,” Huber writes. “The Packers’ best blocking tight end last season was John FitzPatrick, who suffered a torn Achilles at Chicago last season and remains unsigned in free agency.

“Dissly, who will turn 30 in July, isn’t FitzPatrick but he’s perhaps the next best thing in free agency.”

While the spotlight remains on the explosive return of Tucker Kraft, the subtle addition of a veteran like Dissly could be the “glue” move that truly unlocks the Packers’ ground game. Securing a reliable point-of-attack blocker now would allow Brian Gutekunst to enter the draft with a complete toolbox, ensuring the offense is physical enough to dictate terms from Week 1.

The Green Bay Phoenix have completed another notable season in which the team claimed 20 wins for the fifth season straight.

The Phoenix have quietly returned to mid-major powerhouse status under Head Coach Kayla Karius, who was a former student athlete for Green Bay from 2007-2011. Karius won 124 as a player during her time with the Phoenix under legendary Green Bay coach Matt Bollant. Karius went to the 2011 Sweet 16 with Bollant and the Phoenix and later pounced on an opportunity to return to campus as the coach.

Longtime coach Kevin Borseth handed over the program to Karius in great shape having just made the NCAA Tournament in his final year. Karius picked up right where Borseth left off, taking the program to the NCAA Tournament in both of her first two years coaching the team.

The Phoenix finished the 2025-26 season with 25 wins, a Horizon League Championship Tournament title, and an NCAA Tournament appearance.

Perhaps the biggest question for the program next year will be how the team can finally get back over the hump of first round exits in the NCAA Tournament. The landscape has clearly changed, but the Phoenix have not broken out of the first round since 2012 despite eight tournament appearances in the last 14 years.

Losing players like Jenna Guyer and Maddy Skorupski will likely hurt but Green Bay will need to find a way to reload. Skorupski was a transfer portal pickup who played against Karius the year prior and the game acted as a tryout of sorts. The Phoenix may look to dive into the conference once again in the transfer portal in order to add more firepower to the team.

On the plus side, the program will return notable contributors like Meghan Schultz, Kristina Ouimette, and Gracie Grzesk who can help build a reliable rotation next season. Karius will also add four 2026 class signees to the Phoenix roster next season who certainly could push themselves into the rotation.

Twin sisters Riley and Ady Ketterhagen, Lillie Johnson, and Kyrin Lile round out the 2026 class which is the second class Karius will bring in for Green Bay. Johnson and Lile both averaged 20 or more points per game in high school. The duo of forwards also brings plenty of size to the team which is needed given the incoming departures in the front court.

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The Packers’ offseason has been more marred by the departures from Green Bay than it has by any major additions made by general manager Brian Gutekunst, but the NFL Draft presents the chance to add some major talent across the roster.

It remains to be seen whether Lukas Van Ness can anchor a pass rush as it waits for Micah Parsons to return from a torn ACL. The wide receiving corps without Romeo Doubs will put outsized pressure on Matthew Golden and Jayden Reed. And, Quay Walker’s athleticism at linebacker might not easily be replaced.

How Gutekunst navigates the NFL Draft could determine how seriously to take the Packers as contenders in 2026, and whether he’ll even be at the controls come 2027.

Packers’ must avoid worst-case scenario during the NFL Draft

Cornerback remains the Packers’ most glaring weakness across the roster, and Pro Football Focus analyst John Kosko argues that failing to upgrade there during the draft could be disastrous.

“The Packers are currently thin on high-end, reliable outside cornerback talent,” Kosko writes for PFF. “Capable of matching up against the NFC’s top receivers. Failing to inject immediate juice into this position via the early rounds of the draft would severely limit the Green Bay defense’s ability to pressure quarterbacks and defend successfully against quality opponents.

“Prioritizing an impact cornerback is essential for turning the Packers’ defense into a reliable unit and supporting their Super Bowl aspirations.”

This is a relatively deep cornerback class, but given that Gutekunst and the Packers won’t go on the clock until the second round, it puts even more pressure on getting any picks at the position right, and could push it up the franchise’s hierarchy of need ahead of the draft getting underway.

Coach Dawn Plitzuweit’s well-balanced, fundamentally sound Gophers will open against a similar opponent in Green Bay.

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It sounded a tad sacrilegious to hear a 53-year-old farm girl from West Bend, Wis., lauding the “Green Bay Way” on the eve of coaching the Gophers women’s basketball team’s first NCAA tournament game in six years.

Now camped 250 miles west of where she first worked as an assistant under renowned 800-game winner Kevin Borseth at the what is formally known as the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, Plitzuweit will lead the fourth-seeded Gophers, 22-8 and fourth in the brutal Big Ten, against No. 13-seeded Green Bay, 25-8 and champion of the Horizon League, in a first-round matchup Friday, March 20, at Williams Arena.

“They’re a very familiar team, in a lot of ways, to us,” Plitzuweit said.

She went on to count the ways. Toughness, defense, physicality, discipline, the way the Phoenix take care of the ball, the way they share the ball. The Green Bay Way sounds a lot like the Gophers Way.

The Gophers are fourth in the nation in assists/turnover ratio (1.51). The Phoenix are 13th (1.34). The Gophers are 30th in scoring defense (57.9). The Phoenix are 47th (58.6). The Gophers have five players averaging 10 or more points. The Phoenix have three averaging 11 or more, led by a highly decorated Minnesotan, 6-foot-2 senior center/forward/everything Jenna Guyer.

One of three Minnesota-born players on the roster, Guyer, a star at Centennial High, was the Horizon League Player of the Year and its tournament MVP as the Phoenix won the regular-season and tournament titles. Guyer averages team highs in points (15.1), rebounds (6.3) and blocks (0.8).

Asked Thursday whether she wanted to play for the Gophers coming out of high school, Guyer smiled and said, “I’m not sure I was recruited by [Minnesota], but that’s all right.”

This will be her first game in Minnesota since leaving high school. It’s also her last chance to get a first NCAA tournament victory.

“When I saw we might play Minnesota, it was like, ‘Oh, that would be really cool to be able to come home, play in front of a lot of my family and friends and my hometown,’ ” she said. “To end my last postseason run here is a cool little chance.”

Green Bay coach Kayla Karius is the only person ever to win Horizon League Player of the Year and Coach of the Year. Borseth recruited Karius to Green Bay in 2007 before he moved on to the University of Michigan. He returned to Green Bay in 2012, retired in 2024 and was replaced by Karius.

“Kevin’s fingerprints are all over what we do in a lot of different ways,” Plitzuweit said.

Plitzuweit played for Borseth at Michigan Tech in the early 1990s. She coached under him at Michigan Tech (1995-98), Green Bay (1998-02) and Michigan (2007-12). In 2016, she got the South Dakota head coaching job and hired Karius as a young assistant. They spent two seasons together.

“[Borseth] really influenced me not only as a player, a coach, but as a person at a very, very high level,” Plitzuweit said. “So, do I see his fingerprints on this team at Green Bay? Yes. Very much so. He didn’t coach Kayla, but I think the mentality of Green Bay — the ‘Green Bay Way,’ if you will — is still a major part of it.”

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It took Karius 30 games to win her first 25, the second-fastest start by a coach in Horizon League history.

“There are a lot of the same philosophies in these two programs,” Karius said. “We’ve both put our own twists on things. But at the core, there are a lot of similarities. So, yeah, it will be a fun matchup to see that.”

The Phoenix also are 0-8 in the NCAA tournament since their last victory in 2012.

In other words, the Gophers are heavy favorites. And with that comes pressure, something Plitzuweit doesn’t seem worried about when it comes to a team that prides itself on being “loose.”

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“You can tell sometimes they’re together in the middle of battle and they’re giggling and laughing and having a really good time,” Plitzuweit said. “But they’re also competing at a really high level. They balance all that.”

“This morning, before we started watching film, we had a fun little segment of packing our own lunch,” she said. “It was, ‘OK, it’s time to get to work.’ We’re a blue-collar team. So, we’re going to get your little brown paper bags and go pack your peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”

“They kind of giggled and laughed and were like, ‘Are we really doing this?’ Like, yes.

“I think it’s important that this team has some fun with the things they’re doing. We’re trying to be intentional with that. Then, once we’re on the court, our job is to put them in situations to be successful, and their job then is to keep their personality and their fountain of joy to be what they are.”

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“Coach Borseth will not be at the game,” Plitzuweit said. “He’s going to be in the Cayman Islands. I guess when you retire, you can do those kinds of things. I’m sure he’ll be watching and it will be kind of interesting.”

2PM UPDATE 3/14/26

Blizzard Warnings have been issued across northeast Wisconsin. Here is a full breakdown:

NORTHWOODS & DOOR COUNTY Winter Storm Warning 11pm Saturday through 10am Sunday. Then Blizzard Warning 10am Sunday through 4pm Monday

GREEN BAY AND THE FOX VALLEY Winter Storm Warning 9pm Saturday through 4pm Sunday. Then Blizzard Warning 4pm Sunday through 4pm Monday

COUNTIES IN CENTRAL WI (Langlade, Menominee, Shawano, and Southern Oconto) Winter Storm Warning 9pm Saturday through 10am Sunday. Then Blizzard Warning 10am Sunday through 4pm Monday

LAKESHORE Winter Storm Warning 11pm Saturday through 7pm Sunday. Then Blizzard Warning 7pm Sunday through 4pm Monday.

The latest from Storm Team 5…

Saturday will be your last minutes of calm before a weekend filled with heavy snow. If you have not prepared for the incoming winter weather now is the time to do so. Stock up on groceries, prepare for power outages, and prepare to stay warm. The incoming winter weather will make travelling extremely difficult Saturday night to Monday morning.

One of our initial snowfall amounts will be Saturday evening and night with accumulations around 3-6″ ahead of Sundays sunrise.

Low pressure will track just to the south of our viewing area. During this time we will see enough warming to cause disruptions to the precipitation type creating a rain, sleet, and ice pellet situation. The area that will experience this change in precipitation types will likely be the southern end of the viewing region and east of the Fox River Valley.

Sunday will see another change as all snow is expected from Sunday night into Monday with some of the heaviest moments of snowfall lasts Sunday evening into Monday morning.

Expect winds gusting out of the east 35-40 mph as well before the winds turn more out of the NE later on Sunday night.

This is going to be the main focus throughout the weekend. Storm Team 5 will be providing around the clock coverage on Facebook and WFRV+ starting Sunday morning through Monday.

Want more local weather coverage? Follow Nathan on social media for more up to date coverage at these links: Facebook I Instagram I X