Mark Oldacres | Packers Wire

The Green Bay Packers are set to make their third free agent addition of the offseason, with veteran defensive tackle Javon Hargrave reportedly signing a two-year deal with Green Bay after being released by Minnesota at the start of the new league year on Wednesday.

Hargrave’s deal is for a reported $23 million over two years, making him by far the most expensive free agent the Packers have signed this offseason, but can the 33-year-old live up to the price tag?

Despite being well into the back nine of his career, Hargrave still has plenty of juice as a pass rusher, as shown by the numbers from 2025. Disrupting the quarterback has been his calling card throughout his career.

The 31 pressures Hargrave racked up on the interior last year were more than any Packers defensive tackle, and he had as many sacks per PFF (four) as Devonte Wyatt.

No doubt a huge factor in signing Hargrave was his previous relationship with Jonathan Gannon, and his experience playing for the new Green Bay defensive coordinator in Philadelphia in 2021 and 2022.

Hargrave had a solid career before getting to Philly but enjoyed a renaissance in his late 20s under Gannon, putting up 129 pressures and 22 sacks in their two years together.

He has not been quite that disruptive in the last few seasons and missed most of the 2024 season with the 49ers with a partially torn right triceps.

Another notable difference from those days is that Hargrave’s snap count has decreased. The 537 snaps he played for the Vikings in 2025 were his lowest in a healthy season since 2018. As the data illustrates though, he was still very impactful in the snaps he did play, and 537 is plenty.

The defensive tackle was 17th in pass rush win rate compared to 120 other eligible players at his position, and 11th when facing true pass sets. He is in another stratosphere to Wooden when it comes to rushing the passer and represents a big upgrade for the Packers.

If there is a knock on Hargrave, it has been his run defense, but he was far from a liability in that regard for Minnesota, at least according to the numbers.

He was active in the run game, ranking above average in tackles while not missing a single one, as well as in stop rate, which are tackles resulting in a failure for the offense. The only flaw was his average depth of tackle, which was one of the worst in the NFL and the worst on his team.

Even with that factored in though, he was a slightly stronger run defender overall than Wooden from looking at the statistics, and in fact he was better than any Packers defensive tackle in run defense based on PFFs grading.

Due to Hargrave’s age, it is worth looking back at his previous seasons to see if there are any notable signs of decline, or whether his 2025 performance was consistent with the rest of his career.

Here are his percentile ranks between 2021 and 2023, which were his last three healthy seasons before the stint with Minnesota:

Hargrave’s performance snap to snap as a pass rusher has declined year over year, but only in small increments, and he was still one of the best 30 or so interior pass rushers in the league last year.

Encouragingly, his run defense performance has held pretty firm. He is not a difference maker there, but should still be an upgrade on what the Packers were working with a season ago.

Penalties have been a weak spot, and his poor average depth of tackle in 2025 is consistent when looking back at the period between 2021 and 2023. Between his impressive missed tackle rate and above average stop rate though, there is enough of a combination of reliability and flash.

Besides the torn triceps, which is a bit of a flukey injury, Hargrave has been incredibly durable in his career, missing just four in his other nine NFL seasons, and never more than one in a given year.

Given his age, it is arguably a good thing for the Packers in terms of his freshness that he has only played 641 snaps across the last two years, partially due to the injury, after an average of 788 snaps per season between 2021 and 2023.

Another attractive quality is that Hargrave has consistently been playing in meaningful games for successful teams for his entire career.

Between the Steelers, Eagles, 49ers and Vikings, the teams Hargrave has played on have gone a combined 95-68-2. He has been involved in only two losing seasons out of his 10 years in the league, and he was injured for most of one of those.

Hargrave has played in a Super Bowl, which is where the Packers are trying to return after a 15-year absence, and his veteran presence will be welcome on a team which has been the youngest in the NFL for three straight years.

Signing a player of Hargrave’s age always comes with risk, especially to a two-year deal (although the contract details will reveal how real that second year is).

But due to his durability, and him showing he still has plenty left to give in 2025, this is a smart move by Green Bay as they look to bolster a defensive line which toiled down the stretch last season.