Green Bay Packers: Should they trade for Josh Rosen?

With rumors swirling that the Arizona Cardinals could be shopping quarterback Josh Rosen, should the Green Bay Packers be one of the teams to make an offer?

After completing his rookie season, it has been reported that under new head coach Kliff Kingsbury, the Arizona Cardinals are potentially shopping quarterback Josh Rosen in hopes of getting a fresh start with Kyler Murray from Oklahoma.

Although at this point we do not know how serious these reports are, I would imagine that the Cardinals are at least listening since their head coach and general manager haven’t made much of an effort to silence the outside noise.

In a recent article by Peter King, he asked Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner what he would give up for Rosen and his response was not what I anticipated:

"“I would give a three for Josh.”"

In the same article, an anonymous GM was asked the same question and replied with the same answer:

"“Probably a three.”"

While at this moment it may seem unlikely that the Green Bay Packers are realistic suitors for Rosen given the number of teams who need a starting quarterback, Andy Herman of Cheesehead TV asked an intriguing question.

Initially, I went back and forth with this question but have ultimately decided that if this trade was enough to bring Rosen to Green Bay, the Packers should do it.

Prior to his rookie season, Rosen was the tenth overall pick in last years draft and in a deep quarterback class, he was regarded by many as the best option. Coming out of UCLA he has everything you would want in a pocket quarterback, along with great mechanics and can make just about every throw on the football field.

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Unfortunately, Rosen’s rookie season did not go well, but judging a quarterback off of his first thirteen NFL games as the be all end all, isn’t exactly fair. Also, it is not as if Rosen had a ton of help in Arizona.

Rosen was constantly under pressure as he was sacked an incredible 45 times in only 14 games and attempted nearly 30 pass attempts per game. Just this season with Aaron Rodgers, we saw how his efficiency decreased as he was expected to make more passes per game, I can only imagine how difficult that would have been for a rookie.

Even though we all love Larry Fitzgerald, he is past his prime and Rosen’s other two receiving targets were J.J. Nelson and Christian Kirk, fine receivers but not worthy of being options one or two. He also wasn’t getting any help from his defense which gave up almost 27 points per game which was near the bottom of the league.

Of course, there is the crowd of Green Bay Packers fans out there that do not want to spend a third rounder on Rosen as that pick can help the team win now, while Rosen cannot as he will be on the bench, hopefully. I completely understand this sentiment but realistically that third-round pick will not be the difference between winning a Super Bowl and missing the playoffs.

In fact, Andy Herman pointed out third-round picks that the Packers have made since 2000 and overall, it hasn’t been anything special.

If the Green Bay Packers did end up making the trade, they still have enough draft capital with two fourth-round picks, a fifth and two sixths to trade their way back into the third-round if they truly felt that there was someone there that they needed to have.

Although in Green Bay we do not want to ever see the backup quarterback in the game, it has been needed these past two seasons. With Rodgers turning 36 towards the end of this year, realistically there is the possibility that he could miss a game here or there and we have seen how that has turned out when Brett Hundley and DeShone Kizer has had to take over.

While he is still young, the Packers are unsure of what they have in Kizer at this point and personally, I would take my chances with Rosen since he does have more talent and is more mechanically sound as a quarterback. Like I said, hopefully, we don’t have to see the backup quarterback on the field but if we do, it needs to be someone who can maintain the ship until Rodgers returns and not destroy the entire thing.

Given how long Rodgers wants to play, it wouldn’t be likely that Rosen would be the heir to his throne but you never know how things are going to turn out. It would be a fantastic opportunity for Rosen to learn and develop behind one of the best in the game and the Green Bay Packers would have a more capable backup that gives them a chance to win games in Rodgers absence.

I’m of the mindset that if you can add a talented player to your football team, regardless of the position, you do it, especially if the acquisition is inexpensive. To land a quarterback of Rosen’s caliber for a third-round pick and at a cost of just over $6 million for three years, is an absolute steal.

If in this year’s draft, a top three overall quarterback fell to Green Bay in the third-round at pick 75 and they took him, would you be upset?