Green Bay Packers Trade Target: Gutekunst Checking in on WR Will Fuller

It’s been reported that the Green Bay Packers are among the teams who have called on Houston Texans wide receiver Will Fuller.

The NFL trade deadline is less than a week away, and Green Bay Packers’ GM Brian Gutekunst has been making some calls as he looks to potentially bolster this roster for a Super Bowl run. We recently learned that the Packers had made an offer for Philadelphia Eagles’ tight end Zach Ertz before he ended up on IR. While the newest report from Aaron Reiss of The Athletic is that Green Bay has “inquired” about Houston Texans’ receiver Will Fuller.

This past offseason, everyone, and I mean everyone, thought that the Green Bay Packers were going to address the wide receiver position in the draft. However, as we all know, that isn’t how things played out. And despite the offense averaging 32.8 points per game this season, with Allen Lazard out, and of course, minus Davante Adams, once again the receiver position has largely underwhelmed.

Equanimeous St. Brown is still working his way back from injury, Marquez Valdes-Scantling has had another quiet month, while Darrius Shepherd and Malik Taylor haven’t proven that they are players the Green Bay Packers can rely on heavily.

In fact, against the Texans, Packer receivers not named Adams caught two passes on seven targets for six yards. Sure, for the most part, behind Aaron Rodgers, Aaron Jones, and Adams, the offense has been very effective, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t look to add more firepower. And Will Fuller would do just that.

Fuller is in his fifth season out of Notre Dame and is coming off his most productive season in 2019, where he recorded 49 receptions for 670 yards with three touchdowns. And through seven games in 2020, he set to blow those numbers out of the water. Fuller has already posted 31 receptions for 490 yards, a career-best 15.8 yards per catch, and five touchdowns.

Even with how well Lazard has played this season, Fuller could step on the field and be Green Bay’s No. 2 receiver, not to mention that he’d be a much more reliable deep threat than what Valdes-Scantling has been. According to Pro Football Focus ($), Fuller ranks 12th out of 81 qualified receivers in deep ball yards – passes of 20+ yards – with 175, and his 55.6 percent completion rate on deep balls is the fourth-best rate in the NFL.

It’s also worth mentioning that Matt LaFleur was a coach for one year at Notre Dame while Fuller was there. And prior to Green Bay’s matchup with Houston this past Sunday, LaFleur had some very high praise for the Texans’ top receiver (via Packers Wire):

"“What a great kid, what a great guy,” LaFleur said last week. “Man, does he have a lot of juice. He’s been a lot of fun to watch over these last couple years. You can really see him improving every year he gets out there on that field. He’s a legitimate number one receiver and he definitely has the speed that you’ve got to know where he’s at at all times.”"

Now of course, when discussing a trade, the contract and cap hit need to be taken into account as well. Fuller is in the final year of his rookie deal before becoming a free agent in 2021, and the good news is that according to Packers cap guru Ken Ingalls, even with Green Bay’s tight salary cap situation, this is a move that they could make.

Fuller’s full cap hit this season was $10.162 million, but given that we are about a third of the way through the season, that figure is reduced depending on when – and if – he’s acquired. In Week 8, he’d come with a cap hit of $5.98 million, and in Week 9, it would be $5.38 million. Although the Packers could make this work, Ken adds the caveat that things would be “real tight” for Green Bay.

While this is certainly an exciting proposition, it takes two to tango, as the old saying goes. And according to Reiss, no deal is “imminent,” and Houston won’t make a trade just to make a trade. Although to play devil’s advocate, perhaps they’re just saying that to drive up the price.

For now, we will continue to play the waiting game to see if Fuller is, in fact, dealt, and if so, to whom. But if you’re holding out hope that Gutey is going to make a splash at the deadline, between the Ertz and Fuller reports, I’d say there’s certainly at least some reason to be excited.