The Unpacking Future Packers Countdown is a countdown of 100 prospects who the Green Bay Packers could select in the 2026 NFL draft.
Green Bay’s defense forced 14 turnovers during the 2025-2026 season, ranking 28th in the National Football League. Combine that with a team that recorded 36 sacks, which was 20th overall, and it’s a defense that didn’t make enough big plays to turn the momentum of a game.
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This past fall, Jacob Rodriguez showed a knack for making impactful plays for the Texas Tech Red Raiders. The 2025 Butkus Award winner recorded four interceptions, forced seven fumbles and recovered two more. The Texas Tech linebacker checks in at No. 74 in the Unpacking Future Packers Countdown.
“The biggest aspect of his game is his instinctual ability to somehow always be around the football,” Jarrett Ramirez, the lead writer for RedRaiderSports.com, said. “It is truly uncanny how he always seems to be where the plays are, making tackles, forcing fumbles, making interceptions, all those sorts of plays. When thinking back to his transition to inside linebacker, his natural instincts made it a smooth transition and allowed him to be a key rotational piece even back in 2022. Maybe early on this season you could’ve called it luck, but at some point you had to recognize his ability to always make something happen.”
Rodriguez started his collegiate career on the East Coast at Virginia, where he played on the offensive side of the ball before transferring to Texas Tech and switching to linebacker.
During his first season with the Red Raiders in 2022, Rodriguez recorded three tackles for loss. The following season, he recorded one tackle for loss and one interception. In 2024, Rodriguez recorded 127 tackles, 10.5 tackles for loss, five sacks, one interception, and four pass deflections. This past season, Rodriguez recorded 128 tackles, 11 tackles for loss, one sack, and six pass deflections.
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“It was a real pleasure to see Rodriguez’s development over the course of the last four seasons,” Ramirez said. “I think his confidence level rose each season and that contributed to what he was able to do on the field.”
Rodriguez is an instinctive linebacker who always seems to be in on the action. The Red Raider linebacker has sideline-to-sideline range and is quick to erase any running lanes. He has the burst, strength, and motor to get into the backfield and make splash plays. Over the past two seasons, he’s recorded 21.5 tackles for loss and 112 run stops. He does a good job of sifting his way through traffic to locate the football.
“Rodriguez is a really gap-sound linebacker who keys in on plays quickly and has good enough closing speed to force himself through gaps,” Ramirez said. “His responsibilities in the run game this season were significantly less than what they had been in the seasons prior because of how good Texas Tech was at the line of scrimmage. That said, Rodriguez still found himself near or at the top of the Big 12 in tackles the last two seasons. The front four just made his job significantly easier on a week-to-week basis. All he had to do was go finish plays off, and he did that well. Rodriguez is a violent tackler and he finished with 302 stops for his collegiate career.”
Rodriguez shows the movement skills to hold his own in coverage. He gets proper depth in his drops and does a good job of reading the quarterback’s eyes and getting his hands on the ball. Over the past two seasons, Rodriguez has recorded 10 pass deflections and five interceptions.
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“Rodriguez’s pass coverage was maybe one thing you could knock against him in 2024 but he took a significant leap forward,” Ramirez said. “I think a lot of that had to do with defensive coordinator Shiel Wood’s coaching. When Wood arrived in Lubbock, he also became the interior linebackers coach. Rodriguez impressed at the Senior Bowl in one-on-one passing reps and showed he has the speed to contend with passing threats.”
Fit with the Packers
The Packers have drafted three off-ball linebackers in the Top 100 in the past four NFL Drafts. A high number when you consider it’s the same franchise that drafted one linebacker in the Top 100 from 2010 to 2021.
With Quay Walker set to hit free agency and the 2026 NFL Draft possessing a talented linebacker pool to pick from, the Packers could once again target a linebacker in hopes of landing another impact player like Edgerrin Cooper.
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With his well-rounded skillset and his knack for making big plays, Rodriguez could be a potential target for the Packers in the third round.
“He is a defined leader who became a cornerstone of the Texas Tech football program even before their meteoric rise in 2025,” Ramirez said. “Rodriguez’s perseverance and love for football are apparent when hearing his story and even more so when you watch him on the field. I think some will knock his measurables as not stacking up length-wise with some of the NFL’s best. That’s a fair criticism, no doubt. That said, I also think you’d be hard-pressed to find someone with as good of instincts for the game in the entire draft as Rodriguez has. He has a knack for both making spectacular plays and doing the easy things consistently. The mental aspect of his game alone makes Rodriguez someone I’d be willing to predict will spend a long time in the NFL.”
With Cooper, Ty’Ron Hopper and Isaiah McDuffie on the roster, the Packers may have their top three linebackers already in place for the upcoming season. They have bigger fish to fry than adding another linebacker in the Top 100.
However, if Rodriguez is still on the board when the Packers are on the clock in the third round, he may be the best player on the board. Pairing him with Cooper would give the Packers a group of linebackers capable of making a huge impact.
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Rodriguez made big play after big play this past season for the Red Raiders. As the young kids would say, he has that dog in him. The Packers could use some of his toughness and playmaking ability.
This article originally appeared on Packers Wire: Unpacking Future Packers: No. 74, Texas Tech LB Jacob Rodriguez