Packer Central

Packers Trade Deadline Winners and Losers

The Green Bay Packers traded Preston Smith, didn’t acquire anybody and saw two NFC rivals improve. Here are the winners and losers from the NFL trade deadline.

Bill Huber

Detroit Lions QB Jared Goff (16) is sacked by Green Bay Packers defensive ends Rashan Gary (52) and Arron Mosby (53).
Detroit Lions QB Jared Goff (16) is sacked by Green Bay Packers defensive ends Rashan Gary (52) and Arron Mosby (53). / Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers’ only move at the 2024 NFL trade deadline was trading Preston Smith to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Here are the winners and losers from Tuesday.

Winner: DE Preston Smith

Preston Smith certainly wasn’t upset about being dealt to the Steelers.

Smith, who will turn 32 on Nov. 17, played 21 snaps and got 37 percent playing time in Sunday’s loss to the Detroit Lions. Aside from one game when he was injured in 2021, it was his lowest playing-time figures since the middle of his rookie season in 2015.

Even with Rashan Gary being shockingly unproductive and Kingsley Enagbare and Lukas Van Ness posting meager numbers, as well, the Packers were phasing out Smith, who had zero sacks and two pressures in his last four games.

“There’s some players we want to see. I think that the trend of how the snaps were going was only going to continue that way,” general manager Brian Gutekunst said on Tuesday.

Fortunately for Smith, he landed on another playoff contender with the Steelers. He went from a good defense to a great one, with Pittsburgh ranked second in points allowed.

Winner: DE Arron Mosby

Someone’s got to play Smith’s snaps. While Gutekunst mentioned Mosby and Brenton Cox, Mosby has played in each of the last eight games while Cox has been inactive all season.

Mosby earned an unprompted shoutout from Lions special teams coordinator Dave Fipp before last week’s game. After playing two defensive snaps all season, Mosby played five against the Lions and shared a sack with Gary.

“Really, it’s a blessing to have something that one day you can look back on and say you accomplished in the NFL,” Mosby said after taking down Jared Goff. “I’ve been on P-squad and back on special teams. So, I wouldn't call it a breakthrough, but it’s a start. It’s the start of something to go forward with.”

Loser: QB Jordan Love

The Lions, having lost superstar defensive end Aidan Hutchinson, acquired Za’Darius Smith from the Browns.

Smith, playing opposite the Browns’ superstar, Myles Garrett, has five sacks this season. According to Pro Football Focus, Smith has 27 pressures. For context, Preston Smith (10), Kingsley Enagbare (10) and Lukas Van Ness (six) have a combined 26 pressures.

The Washington Commanders, who have sprinted out to the lead in the NFC East behind electric rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels, made a huge move on defense by acquiring cornerback Marshon Lattimore from the Saints. Washington is 28th in opponent passer rating and 24th in opponent completion percentage.

It’s obviously too early to worry about playoff brackets. But, if the season were to end today, the Packers would be playing their wild-card game at the Commanders. If the Packers were to win that game, their divisional-round game would be at the Lions.

The deadline deals upped the potential challenge for Love.

Winner: Opposing Quarterbacks

Green Bay’s pass defense showed some serious flaws against Trevor Lawrence and the Jaguars and Jared Goff and the Lions the last two games.

The pass rush was feeble with one sack in each game. Even with Jaire Alexander on the field, Lawrence had a huge game. Without Alexander, Green Bay’s depth proved not good enough against Goff.

After deeming the price for Lattimore too rich, Gutekunst expressed confidence in the cornerbacks and praised the play of second-round draft pick Javon Bullard and veteran Keisean Nixon, who has shifted to perimeter cornerback after manning the slot last year.

“Those guys have done a great job this year,” he said. “Bull, for a rookie, he’s just done an excellent job when he’s put in the nickel. The ability for him to play safety and nickel and what’s put on that guy for a young player to do what he’s done is really exciting what he’s done already, where he’s about to go. So that’s been good for us.

“Keisean hasn’t played a ton of outside corner for us, and he was kind of put in that position and I think he’s done a really good job for us. He’s got excellent instincts, he can take the ball away. So, I’m really happy with him out there, as well.”

Loser: Super Bowl Hopes

The Lions and Commanders made big splashes. The Packers did not.

“It’s not a store you can go in and pick and choose,” Gutekunst said. “Those guys have got to be available and there just wasn’t a ton available this year.”

The Packers are 6-3. Their losses have come against arguably the best teams they’ve faced: the Eagles in Brazil and the Vikings and Lions at home. Green Bay will get another shot at Minnesota and Detroit in the regular season, and all three teams could be opponents in the playoffs.

Improving to beat those teams will have to come from within.

While Detroit and Washington were buyers and the Packers were sellers, Gutekunst sees a Super Bowl-caliber team.

“I do. I think a lot of the moves you saw today were reactions to injuries and things like that where you’re missing things,” Gutekunst said. “But I really like our group. Obviously, we do a lot of work prior to the season to try to make sure that we’re a deep team that can sustain an entire season and, if we have injuries, that we don’t have to go outside of the building to fulfill that, and I feel we’ve done that and I feel really good about our football team.

“I like our depth,” Gutekunst continued while knocking on the wooden podium. “That can change in a hurry. Whenever you move off a player like Preston Smith, you’re a couple injuries away from, ‘Man, that may not have been the best thing.’ But, at the same time, I really do like our depth. We’ve got to continue to come together as a football team and play better football at times, but we’re 6-3, I think we’re in a good spot. I’m excited about the second half of the season and to see how these guys grow together.”

More Green Bay Packers News 

Packers trade Preston Smith | Packers at the NFL trade deadline | Consensus NFL power rankings | Dontayvion Wicks’ historically bad numbers | Packers-Lions: Three Overreactions | Trade for Marshon Lattimore | Snaps, stats, studs and duds | Lions “built” for bad weather; Packers are not | Packers-Lions: Report card | Another annoying interception | Packers-Lions: Stock report 

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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.