Reliable, physical, and a special teams anchor, Isaiah McDuffie provides the gritty depth and sure tackling the Green Bay Packers require to fortify their defense for a title run.
Isaiah McDuffie isn't going to get all the accolades this season for the Green Bay Packers. When the Packers win, more often than not, he'll be a footnote.
Heck, he's barely getting paid compared to some of his contemporaries. The Packers just gave McDuffie a one-year extension worth $4.85 million. To put it in perspective, Micah Parsons' average annual value (AAV) is $46.5 million. That is Micah Parsons we're talking about, though, who is arguably the greatest pass-rusher in the NFL not named Myles Garrett.
A more favorable comparison for McDuffie may be Edgerrin Cooper's $2.1 million AAV, but he's on a rookie deal.
So perhaps there is no good comp for McDuffie's contract with the Pack, but that's also because the 6-foot-1, 227-pound linebacker does things for this team that nobody else does.
Again, McDuffie isn't likely to win any national awards, but he's arguably one of the Packers' most important players.
He's heading into his sixth year with the team and as far as backup linebackers are concerned, there may not be one more reliable in the NFL. He's only missed one game due to injury in the past two seasons and that came in 2022. He's also the captain of the special teams unit heading into 2026 and he led the Packers in special teams snaps last season with 324.
McDuffie isn't an elite athlete, but he's physical between the tackles and a sure tackler out on the edges, and that's all you can ask for out of a player who is essentially the LB3 on the depth chart.
Last season, McDuffie missed just one tackle in the run game and he was ranked sixth in the NFL in assisted tackles per snap, according to Mark Oldacres of PackerWire.
Consistent? Check. Reliable? Check. Does the little things right? Check. Provides leadership on a unit that desperately needs a veteran presence? Check.
The type of player McDuffie is won't end up on SportsCenter much, but the player described above is exactly the type that helps team win Super Bowls. Yes, the Parsons and Jordan Loves and Tucker Krafts of the world are going to make all the splash plays that swing the game for the Packers, but it's small down-to-down plays by solid veterans like McDuffie that button wins up.
Football is a game of inches, and McDuffie has won the Packers plenty of inches since he was selected in the sixth round of the 2021 NFL Draft out of Boston College.
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