Packer Central

On Eve of NFL Trade Deadline, Marshon Lattimore Should Be Packers’ Target

The Saints, who just fired their coach, are in a world of trouble for 2024 and beyond. Can the Packers strike a deal for their star cornerback, Marshon Lattimore, before Tuesday’s NFL trade deadline?

Bill Huber

New Orleans Saints cornerback Marshon Lattimore (23) breaks up a pass intended for Malik Taylor in 2021.
New Orleans Saints cornerback Marshon Lattimore (23) breaks up a pass intended for Malik Taylor in 2021. / Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – Could the Green Bay Packers, who were buyers in free agency, be buyers again at the NFL trade deadline?

The Packers are 6-3. Despite losing to the Detroit Lions on Sunday, the Packers can – and should – view themselves as a Super Bowl contender. Jordan Love got himself out of his mistake-filled rut last year. If he can do it again, the Packers are good enough to beat any team in the NFL.

The New Orleans Saints, on the other hand, are 2-7. A franchise going nowhere fast for the past few years, they are in freefall with seven consecutive losses this season and a horrific salary-cap outlook.

Green Bay is called “Titletown” for a reason. This isn’t Wild Cardville or Seventh Seed City. If the goal really is to win the Super Bowl, now is the time for general manager Brian Gutekunst to make a deal.

Cornerback play might not have been the biggest problem for the Packers on Sunday. However, Lions quarterback Jared Goff was 18-of-22 passing. He was 11-of-11 on passes to his receivers.

Super Bowls are won by teams with excellent quarterbacks. Thus, it stands to reason that teams need excellent cornerbacks.

Two-time All-Pro Jaire Alexander has become unreliable. When he plays, he’s typically really good. After returning from a groin injury, Alexander gave up a total of three completions in three games. However, in the two biggest home games of the year, he was inactive against Minnesota (groin) and Detroit (knee). The Packers, not surprisingly, lost both games.

When everyone is healthy, is a secondary featuring Alexander and Keisean Nixon at cornerback and Javon Bullard in the slot going to scare Goff and Amon-Ra St. Brown in the rematch and potential playoff game in Detroit? Sam Darnold, Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison in the rematch and potential playoff game in Minneapolis?

Geno Smith, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, D.K. Metcalf in Seattle in December? Jalen Hurts, A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith in a potential playoff game in Philadelphia? Baker Mayfield and Mike Evans in a potential playoff game in Tampa Bay?

Lattimore likely will be the best cornerback on the trade market, one team executive said. That the Saints fired coach Dennis Allen on Monday following a loss to the woeful Carolina Panthers might signal the white flag of surrender on a season that started with promise.

While Lattimore is in his eighth NFL season, he’s only 28. In 2021, he was a Pro Bowler for the fourth time in his career with three interceptions and 19 passes defensed.

“Everybody knows the kind of thorn that Lattimore is,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said before beating the Saints last season.

Not unlike Alexander, durability is a concern. In 2022, he missed 10 games due to a lacerated kidney and broken ribs. In 2023, he missed the final seven games with an ankle injury. This year, he’s had some hamstring issues; he missed the Week 2 win over Dallas and Sunday’s loss to Carolina. He’s had a full workload in only four of nine games.

When he plays, though, he is a top-tier corner.

According to Pro Football Focus, he has given up a catch rate of 57.6 percent for his career. The only season in which quarterbacks beat him for 60-plus percent was 2018. This year, he’s only been targeted 14 times. He’s given up a 57.1 percent catch rate with zero touchdowns, zero interceptions and a 74.4 rating. According to PFF, he has given up 83 yards in seven games.

From 2022 through 2024, PFF has charged him with just one touchdown catch. He gave up passer ratings of 77.9 in 2023 and 58.9 in 2022.

Contrast that to Green Bay’s corners. Alexander has allowed a 56.0 percent catch rate and a 79.9 rating, followed by Stokes at 67.6 percent with a 109.4 rating, Nixon at 68.4 percent with a 118.8 rating (team-worst four touchdowns) and Carrington Valentine at 75.0 percent (just four targets in 74 coverage snaps) and a 103.1 rating.

Lattimore is under contract through the 2026 season. He’d cost peanuts this year – he’s playing for the league-minimum $1.21 million – but has base salaries of $16.0 million in 2025 and $16.5 million in 2026. A restructured contract would take some of the sting off those figures.

Forget about finances and focus on football. A secondary of Alexander and Lattimore at corner, Nixon or Bullard in the slot, and Xavier McKinney and Evan Williams or Bullard at safety could be as good as it gets in the NFL.

Gutekunst signed the best safety in free agency with McKinney, and he changed the face of the defense. Landing the best cornerback at the trade deadline could lift the defense to a championship level.

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.