Packers should stand pat at the NFL trade deadline
By Paul Bretl
The NFL trade deadline is October 31st, and while the Green Bay Packers find themselves in the midst of a three-game losing streak with possibly no end in sight for the time being, they should stand pat and not make any deals.
Even if the Packers found themselves at 4-2 instead of 2-4, there wouldn’t be a reason to make an acquisition at this year’s trade deadline. While, of course, they want to win games this season, the ultimate goal of 2023 is to evaluate Jordan Love and to see who they can build around in 2024 and beyond. That means allowing the young players that they have to get both practice and in-game experience and not selling off future resources, such as draft capital and potentially cap space, for the current season.
On the flip side, given the Packers’ current reality, it could be easy to say that they should trade just about whoever they can in order to get more draft capital for the upcoming year in an effort to help turn this ship around.
Veterans like De’Vondre Campbell and Preston Smith have substantial cap hits in 2024. Rasul Douglas has one year remaining on his deal, and Keisean Nixon is a free agent after this season. However, I don’t believe that is the solution either. Even from a salary cap perspective, the most cap space that can be created is by trading Smith and that nets the Packers just over $1 million in 2023. Because of previous contract restructures, the Packers have little wiggle room in this regard.
As I already mentioned, this season is about evaluating Love, and at the moment, that is not exactly easy to do, given all the chaos going on around him. Trading away key players, even on the defensive side of the ball, does not help with that evaluation–it likely makes it even more challenging. If, for example, the Packers traded away one or two of the aforementioned players, the defense is now worse.
That likely results in that unit giving up more points, which means the Packers are now playing from behind by more than what they have been. This then limits the Packers’ ability to run the ball and puts Love in predictable passing situations even more so than what he is now. That then gives the advantage to the opponent, making moving the ball even more difficult than it already is. In short, Love is worse off as a result of this.
This is also a roster that has had 20-plus draft picks over the last two drafts combined. Extracting another mid to late Day 3 pick doesn’t move the needle for this team. What is needed are more impact players, not another developmental prospect, which Green Bay already has a lot of.
In a recent conversation with Andy Herman of the Pack-A-Day Podcast, Andy suggested that instead of acquiring more Day 3 draft capital, if the Packers could get a player in return who is under team control and likely playing on an inexpensive contract, that would make more sense. For one, the Packers would get a player with some level of experience who could potentially contribute right away, and it would also give off less of a selling-off vibe to a locker room that is already short on veteran leadership.
Now, with that said, Brian Gutekunst should absolutely be open to listening to any offers that other teams might be making, and if it’s a deal he can’t refuse, then of course, take it.
If Green Bay has zero interest in giving Yosh Nijman any actual snaps as a starter, even with the offensive line struggling mightily, then he would be one name worth having conversations on. If a player isn’t contributing on the field and isn’t a part of future plans, then by all means, see what other options there are.
At the end of the day, we all want to find some sort of solution for this Packers team, whether it’s turning things around on the field or operating more so with 2024 in mind. But, to a degree, what we are seeing is what the Packers signed up for this season by relying so heavily on inexperienced players. We may not like it, but it’s the situation the Packers find themselves in, and the best course of action may simply be trying to make the most out of what they have.