The Green Bay Packers have been touting their future for years, but when Brian Gutekunst swung a trade to acquire Micah Parsons, the message was that the future is now.
Green Bay’s young core announced itself to the NFL in the first two games this season, hammering the Detroit Lions and Washington Commanders at home. But things tailed off in a loss to the Cleveland Browns and a tie with the Dallas Cowboys. One of the biggest dropoffs came on the defensive end where the Cowboys hung 40 points on the Packers in the Week 4 draw, leaving Parsons to pin the blame on the absence of defensive tackle Devontae Wyatt.
Wyatt has enjoyed a breakout season to date that has been slowed by a Week 3 knee injury. With the former first-round pick tagged with a “week-to-week” label, it should have the Packers looking for moves ahead of the Nov. 4 deadline and settling on Cleveland Browns defensive tackle Shelby Harris.
Packers Bolster Defensive Line with Projected Trade for Shelby Harris
Packer fans may have their hopes hanging on Jeffery Simmons, but that possibility may have gone out the window once Green Bay traded for Parsons and signed him to a four-year, $186 million contract extension. With limited cap space, Gutenkunst may have to look in a different direction that could lead to a pursuit of Harris.
Harris is having a strong year for the Browns defense, ranking 25th among qualifying defensive tackles with a 72.5 overall grade according to Pro Football Focus. While he has four pressures on 42 pass-rushing snaps this season, he’s also an all-around player, making five run stops on 49 run defense snaps in the first four games. The Packers also saw what Harris could do firsthand, generating one pressure and two run stops during the Browns’ upset victory in Week 3.
The kicker here is that Harris’s contract fits into Green Bay’s salary cap situation. Harris has a $2 million cap hit for the rest of the season, and the Packers have $11.1 million in cap space according to Over The Cap. Making the move would bring Green Bay’s cap space to $8.6 million and wouldn’t have any long-term financial implications beyond this season.
There’s also a good chance that Harris is as expendable as he is rumored to be. While he has played well, the Browns are just 1-3 on the season, and they could be looking to sell if the season continues to go down the drain. With Maliek Collins and Mason Graham starting on the interior, the Browns may look to get what they can for their pending free agents – even if General Manager Andrew Berry is aggressive at the deadline to save his job.
So what would it take to land Harris? While it’s hard to say, we can use last year’s deals at the trade deadline as a barometer. The San Francisco 49ers made one trade at the deadline by acquiring Khalil Davis from the Houston Texans in exchange for a 2026 seventh-round pick. But Harris has a bigger track record. The Seattle Seahawks acquired Roy Robertson-Harris from the Jacksonville Jaguars in exchange for a 2026 sixth-round pick at the deadline.
While Gutekunst will be stingy after selling the farm for Parsons, Harris could be had for a similar price the Seahawks paid at last year’s deadline. It also makes up for the Packers not being able to select Derrick Harmon before he was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers in April's draft and upgrades the current group, including Wyatt, Karl Brooks, Colby Wooden, and Nazir Stackhouse.
That’s why a deal for a 2026 sixth-rounder can be reached and the Packers can get some much-needed depth in the interior of their defensive line.