The Green Bay Packers are looking to improve this offseason and they have to keep their mind open to all possibilities. In a few weeks, the roster will get its makeover as the Packers create cap space by cutting and restructuring veterans, but Green Bay isn’t the only team in this situation.
Other teams will scramble to get under the salary cap before the start of the league year on March 11 and it will add another group of players to this year’s free agency class. For those teams, the process has already begun as Johnny Venerable of PHNX Sports theorized several names the Arizona Cardinals could release ahead of free agency.
At the top of that list is defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson. If he is released, the Packers would be wise to pick him up and potentially add a former Viking to aid one of their biggest weaknesses on defense.
Former Viking Dalvin Tomlinson Could Shore Up Packers’ Run Defense
A lot has been made about the Packers secondary and the possibility of revamping the edge rusher group around Micah Parsons. But you could argue that adding talent to the interior defensive line should be toward the top of general manager Brian Gutekunst’s to-do list this offseason.
De’Vonte Wyatt got off to a fast start for the Packers last year but was hampered by a PCL sprain in his knee and a fractured fibula and torn ankle ligament that ended his season in November. While Pro Football Focus gave him a positive review as a pass rusher with 22 pressures and four sacks, he was a liability against the runs with 16 run stops on and a missed tackle on 155 run defense snaps.
The poor run defense was a theme for all of the Packers interior defenders in 2025 as none of them registered a run defense grade over 50.0. Colby Wooden also led the group with 23 run stops but it came with five missed tackles and a 7.9% run stop rate. The group of Warren Brinson, Jonathan Ford, Karl Brooks and Nazir Stackhouse combined for just 21 run stops combined, which put a big strain on the rest of the defense to pick up the slack.
That’s where Tomlinson can come in and help. The 31-year-old had his worst season as a pro in 2025, logging a 43.2 overall grade on 555 total snaps. He also had a career-low 13 stops on 244 snaps against the run, which could signal a player that’s over the hill.
But Packers fans know what Tomlinson can do when he’s on his game. In two seasons with the Vikings from 2021 to 2022, Tomlinson was an effective player against the run with 47 total run stops and run defense grades of 68.1 and 65.0. He also was an effective pass rusher logging 51 total pressures and seven sacks on 707 pass-rushing snaps.
While Arizona is regretting the two-year, $29 million contract Tomlinson signed last offseason, he could come at a much cheaper price if he is released. That would give Green Bay an effective partner with Wyatt in the middle of the defensive line and give them quality depth as most of the other players on the roster received starting experience in Wyatt’s absence last season.
For a Packers team that is currently $1.5 million over the salary cap, adding Tomlinson as a depth player that can stop the run would be a big win and help them get stronger in an area their defense struggled one year ago.