Packer Central

Packers at Trade Deadline: Buy, Sell or Do Nothing?

Whatever happens by Tuesday's NFL trade deadline, a clear message will be sent for the Green Bay Packers.

Bill Huber

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GREEN BAY, Wis. – The NFL trade deadline is just hours away. By 3 p.m. Tuesday, the Green Bay Packers will have either acquired a player to make a move in the NFC playoff race or acknowledged that their season is going nowhere.

“It really comes down to opportunity,” coach Matt LaFleur said on Monday, a day after the 27-17 loss to the Bills. “If the right opportunity presents itself, I know that Gutey’s all on board of trying to upgrade our roster. You’re always trying to do that. But we’re not just going to do a silly deal.”

Here are the pros and cons that general manager Brian Gutekunst must have been weighing over the last week or two.

Buy

During their four-game losing streak, the Packers have averaged 17.5 points per game. That used to be a pretty good first half back in the good old days when Aaron Rodgers could throw the ball to Davante Adams.

Following the trade of Adams, everyone knew it would be a transition on offense. Perhaps not to this extent, though. With eight games in the books, the Packers are 26th in scoring with 18.1 points per game. They are a woeful 26th in yards per passing play (6.14 yards). Because of it, they are 22nd on third down (37.4 percent) and 32nd on fourth down (18.2 percent). Of 35 qualifying quarterbacks, Rodgers’ 4.32 air yards per completion ranks 34th.

Pro: The only way the Packers are going to turn around the season is by acquiring a receiver, whether it’s a legit, every-down weapon such as Houston’s Brandin Cooks or someone who can at least stretch the field. Allen Lazard and Cooks would be a legit one-two punch. Mix in Randall Cobb (when he’s healthy) and the rookies, and the Packers might have something.

Con: At some point, the Packers will have to rebuild. A draft pick used to acquire a receiver means one fewer draft pick to retool the roster. Moreover, while one receiver could vault the team into the playoffs, will it be enough to get to the Super Bowl? Gutekunst didn’t construct this roster to go 9-8 and sneak into the playoffs as the No. 7 seed.

Sell

If Gutekunst sees the roster that he built is fatally flawed, is there any reason to mortgage any of the future for a receiver that’s not going to move the needle in January? Just roll with Lazard and the young quartet of Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs, Samori Toure and Amari Rodgers to see who you’ve got for Rodgers (or Jordan Love) to throw to in 2023.

Pro: Imagine the king’s ransom the Packers could get for trading Aaron Jones. His cap number for next year is a whopping $20 million. The Packers could restructure it to lessen the blow but that would only be compounding the team’s future cap problems. So, if the Packers are going to release Jones at the end of this season, why not get something in return?

The Panthers, for instance, got second-, third-, fourth- and fifth-round picks for Christian McCaffrey. McCaffrey may or may not be better than Jones; Jones absolutely is the more durable and reliable player.

The Packers could also try to dump safety Darnell Savage, the former first-round pick who is having a bad season. Rudy Ford could be a competent replacement.

“I hope not,” LaFleur said of selling. “But you never know.”

Con: For the Packers, selling would be tough. With an exception here and there, all they’ve done is win for three decades. Trading a star like Aaron Jones would be the white flag of surrender. Moreover, if the Packers are going to give up on this season after eight games, then they should have traded Aaron Rodgers in the offseason rather than signing him to a new contract.

Do Nothing

Doing nothing is the Packers’ typical approach to the trade deadline. With a 3-5 record, it would be an admission that this season isn’t going anywhere, though Gutekunst could at least use the excuse that the asking prices were too high to justify a trade.

Pro: None, other than future draft picks won’t be sacrificed.

Con: Like selling at the deadline, doing nothing would send the clear message to the locker room that this season is over. In either aspect, it will be interesting to see if LaFleur can keep the team together. Would Aaron Rodgers go rogue in recognition that he’ll almost certainly leave the Packers without a second Super Bowl ring? Will there be a mutiny on defense?

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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.

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