Green Bay Packers Reportedly Looking to Trade-Up in Round 1

It has recently been reported that the Green Bay Packers are one of a few teams looking to trade up in round one of the NFL Draft.

This will only be Brian Gutekunst’s third draft as general manager of the Green Bay Packers and so far we know two things about him. One is that he’s a bit unpredictable when it comes to his selections. And two, he isn’t afraid to make some trades.

In 2018 he would make two trades within the first round before selecting Jaire Alexander. He then followed that up with another trade in round three before taking Oren Burks. And just this past offseason, he moved up once again in round one, this time to grab Darnell Savage.

Well, with the 2020 NFL Draft now just a few hours away, it’s been reported by Ian Rapoport of NFL Network that the Green Bay Packers are one of the teams looking to trade up tonight.

Given the overall depth of this year’s draft class, coupled with the Packers having several needs that they could address early on, many – including myself – have speculated that Green Bay is a prime candidate to trade back and grab an additional top-100 pick.

However, if they are looking to in fact trade up, there is really only one player that I see them making this move for. And that is Justin Jefferson, the wide receiver from LSU.

Jefferson is coming off a monster season at LSU where he totaled 111 receptions for over 1,500 yards with 18 touchdowns. And just about all of that damage came from the slot. In this Green Bay offense, Jefferson would give the Packers a slot presence that they haven’t had since the days of prime Randall Cobb and he could form quite the formidable one-two punch in the red zone with Aaron Rodgers.

Many draft analysts have Jefferson as wide receiver No. 4 on their big boards, so it’s hard to argue against Green Bay making this move. But with that said, how far up the draft board would they have to climb to get him?

Well, I see two potential trade candidates and they include Las Vegas at 19 and Jacksonville at 20. Both the Raiders and the Jaguars are teams that could very well be looking to move back considering that each of them also have additional first-round picks at 12th and 9th overall, respectively.

Not to mention that this would put Green Bay ahead of Philadelphia and Minnesota, two teams that seem like ideal fits for Jefferson.

So the million-dollar question in all of this is, what would it cost to move up that far in the draft? According to the trade value chart, moving this far up could include picks 30 and 62, with Oakland or Jacksonville possibly sending back a Day 3 pick to top it off. Certainly not cheap, but if any player is worth the asking price, it seems to be Justin Jefferson.

Ultimately we will see how it plays out shortly and the speculation, at least for round one, can come to an end. Although not too long ago trading up didn’t seem like a viable option, with Gutey in charge, just about any move is on the table.