Packer Central

At NFL Trade Deadline, Packers Send Preston Smith to Steelers

Preston Smith, who had been getting less playing time for the Green Bay Packers, was traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers before Tuesday’s deadline.

Bill Huber

The Green Bay Packers traded Preston Smith to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Green Bay Packers traded Preston Smith to the Pittsburgh Steelers. / Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – Less than two hours before Tuesday’s NFL trade deadline, the Green Bay Packers traded defensive end Preston Smith to the Pittsburgh Steelers, a source told Packers On SI on Tuesday.

The Packers got a seventh-round pick in return, the team announced as the 3 p.m. deadline struck.

Would the Packers make another move to add to what they believe is a championship-caliber roster? Or, would the Packers wind up being sellers again, just like last year, when they sent cornerback Rasul Douglas to the Buffalo Bills at the deadline?

The answer is sellers. The Packers did not acquire, anyone, so any march to the playoffs will depend on the current roster, which has the team at 6-3 at the bye but falling short in the big games against the Eagles, Vikings and Lions.

This is a win-win trade. Green Bay moved on financially from a veteran player whose best days are behind him. Smith wanted more playing time. Instead, he got less; he had been pushed slowly into the background this season.

Smith played 54 snaps (71.1 percent playing time) in Week 1 against the Eagles. However, he played what was a season-low 28 snaps (43.8 percent) against the Texans in Week 7. Then, in Sunday’s loss against the Lions, he played a season-low 21 snaps (season-low 36.8 percent).

For the season, he has played in 54 percent of the defensive snaps, down sharply from 66 percent last year, 80 percent in 2022 and a career-high 84 percent in 2019, when he was signed in free agency.

Smith was on his way to perhaps the quietest season of his career. He has 2.5 sacks – 2.0 sacks against Tennessee in Week 3 and a half-sack against the Rams in Week 5. The last four games, however, he had zero sacks. In fact, he had zero sacks, zero tackles for losses and one quarterback, according to the official stats, and two total pressures, according to Pro Football Focus, during that span.

Unless another move is coming before the 3 p.m. Central deadline, the Packers will push to the playoffs with Rashan Gary, Lukas Van Ness, Kingsley Enagbare and Arron Mosby as their four-man rotation at end.

While Smith hasn’t been great, neither have any of Green Bay’s defensive ends.

Gary has 2.5 sacks. One came on a mistimed snap in Week 1 against the Eagles, when he ran past the unsuspecting right tackle. One came in Week 7 against Houston, when the right tackle tripped and fell. The half-sack came last week. He does have a team-high eight quarterback hits.

Van Ness, last year’s first-round pick, has one sack and two quarterback hits.

Enagbare has 1.5 sacks, three quarterback hits and two forced fumbles.

Moving beyond the basic numbers, there are 90 edge defenders with at least 100 pass-rushing opportunities. By PFF’s pass-rush win rate, Smith ranked 67th. Gary is 60th, Enagbare is 78th and Van Ness is 80th.

According to PFF, Gary has 20 pressures. That ranks 38th among edge defenders and is 28 behind Minnesota’s Jonathan Greenard, who has an NFL-best 48. Smith and Enagbare have 10 and Van Ness has six.

If Mosby is the next in line, he got his first defensive snaps of the season against Detroit and shared a sack with Gary.

Smith, who will turn 32 on Nov. 17, was the second-oldest player on the roster behind kicker Brandon McManus.

In five-and-a-half seasons in Green Bay, he had 44 sacks.

“Preston really represents so many things that we value,” general manager Brian Gutekunst said during training camp. “I think in 155 games, he’s missed one. The attitude he brings to practice each and every day, the leadership he shows to our players, and the guy can still really play.

“Since we’ve picked him up in that 2019 free agency class, he’s been there every day, and he’s still very much hard to handle for those tackles. He’s a major part of our football team.”

Interestingly, the Packers signed Za’Darius Smith and Preston Smith in free agency in 2019. Za’Darius Smith on Tuesday was traded to the Lions, potentially a key piece for a potential Super Bowl run.

Barring another move, the Packers have eight picks for the 2025 NFL Draft – one in each of the first six rounds and two in the seventh.

More Green Bay Packers News 

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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.