Green Bay Packers: 4 trades they can make for Earl Thomas
By David Steger
4. Veteran for a veteran
The first big target would obviously be Clay Matthews for Earl Thomas. There could be a third or a fourth-round pick to go with Matthews to get Seattle to finally pull the trigger on Thomas. Matthews still holds big value and respect amongst the rest of the NFL. I know Seattle surely does from watching how many double teams they use on him everytime Seattle plays Green Bay.
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Matthews has the possibility of being a double-digit sack pass rusher with a change of scenery or defensive scheme. He also has veteran leadership experience and is a heck of a run defender. He has one of the higher salary cap hits at $11 million for the 2018 season and his play on the field lately hasn’t matched the paycheck he’s receiving.
Seattle would be getting a proven veteran linebacker that can be an outside threat for that defense. They lost a lot of defensive front-seven players like Michael Bennett, Sheldon Richardson, Cliff Avril. Those three were the ones who were constantly putting pressure on the quarterback and were stout run defenders as well. Seattle would welcome Matthews with open arms given they need all the help they can get in their front-seven right now.
On a scale of 1 to 10, what is the possibility of this trade happening? I give this trade a six because both teams have positional needs and Seahawks general manager John Schneider also has roots in Green Bay.