Why The Packers Should Have Been Sellers at the Trade Deadline

The trade deadline has come and gone and once again the Green Bay Packers did not acquire nor trade anyone. Every fan is mad at general manager Brian Gutekunst because he did not make a trade although he did try. Gutekunst offered a second-round pick for wide receiver Chase Claypool, but Claypool was traded to the Chicago Bears for a second-round pick. Pittsburgh made the deal thinking that the Bears second round pick will be higher than the Packers. Gutekunst also made calls inquiring about Denver Broncos wide receiver Jerry Jeudy but nothing came to fruition. The Packers were also in the tight end market and called about tight end TJ Hockenson who ended up being traded to the Vikings. In the end Gutekunst made the decision that what was being asked for some players was too much to take the risk of giving up assets to acquire. Gutekunst was in a tough spot, this team is not very good but might have benefited from a trade. The thing is though, is if they made a trade they are not guaranteed to go to the playoffs and if they did make the playoffs, they’d have a very small chance of actually winning the Super Bowl. At the end of the day Gutekunst’s job is to do what is best for the organization for now and in the future and you can’t blame him for that. Wouldn’t you rather be competitive every year with a hope that you could win the Super Bowl or just be bad every knowing you have no shot? So, in the end they ended up doing nothing at the deadline and that is ok, but they should have been sellers. Why? Because this team and season looks a lot like 2016’s. You know? When they ran the table? What happened after that year? Two straight years of mediocre football that led to changes resulting in a new general manager and head coach. Sure, one of those seasons maybe be an outlier since quarterback Aaron Rodgers broke his collarbone in 2017 but it doesn’t matter because they still were not very good. So, say they go on a run this year get into the playoffs? That’s great but better hope that run leads to a Super Bowl because this team is not going to be very good for a few years after that until the ramifications from going all in come off the books. You may wonder what that is supposed to mean? Well, the Packers have been moving cap space around to future years to go all in and maximize this window to win it all. They are in the last stages of that window as we all see they are not good right now. An example of this is with Zadarius Smith. The Packers are paying Smith 11.5 million and he isn’t even on the team. Smith leads the league in sacks and is collecting two paychecks courtesy of the Packers and Minnesota Vikings. That is what’s going to happen to the rest of the roster as well as they are going to have to get rid of some players and will still be paying them whether they are on another team or retired. This team is also just getting older although they do have a lot of young talent. So where does that leave them? Well in a tough situation with aging players and strapped financially. That’s why they should have been sellers. Gain some assets to make the rebuild go quicker. Well as we know now that did not happen so what’s next? Well next up is the Detroit Lions. With as bad as the NFC is the Packers have a chance. It seems though they must right the ship now if they want any chance. Rodgers has said he still believes in this squad and thinks if they can just get one win they will be back on track. That’s a fair statement as Rodgers has said that they haven’t been playing with confidence this season and we can all see it. Rodgers even said that Sunday night against the Buffalo Bills was the first game that he felt like the whole team was ready to play energetically. What is encouraging though is that it seems the Packer may have played their best game against arguably the most dominant team in the league with the Bills. Statistics wise the Packers were right there with the Bills and even outperformed the Bills in some areas. That’s very encouraging as well as the rookies taking a big step forward in that game. Now that they took that step forward, they cannot take a step back they got to stay consistent or even play better. They also found how effective they can run the ball has they had over 200 yards on the ground against the top ranked run defense. (Matt LaFleur please keep giving the ball to Mr. Aaron Jones) The defense is doing ok although when they need to get a clutch stop in a game, they cannot seem to do that and its even felt that way this entire season. So, this game against the t Bills could be the confidence boos they needed to get back on track. They could go on a run though and pretty easily at that. They just need to get back to their winning ways and get healthy. The Vikings could also fall of a cliff as quarterback Kirk Cousins has got to Kirk Cousins as some point, right? Looking at it, the difference between the Vikings and Packers is that the Vikings are finding ways to win the close games while the Packers are finding ways to lose them. Although it is not a what if game, but it is result driven game. We all know at the end of the day that all that matters is the team that gets hot at the right team almost every season goes on a run and usually goes to the Super Bowl. The Packers could be that team, but they are going to have to find a way to do it with who’s in the locker room. Although Albert Breer reported that the Packers have reached out to Odell Beckham Jr. about signing him as well as other teams. Will Odell come to Green Bay? Who knows? Beckham would definitely make a difference. For now, though the Packers just must focus one day at a time. The best-case scenario for the rest of the season though? Hope to go on a run, find ways to win games, make the playoffs, win the Super Bowl, Rodgers retires, hand over the reigns to quarterback Jordan Love (Don’t want to lose a young quarterback whose very talented and has shown glimpses of being good to great and sitting behind and learning from Rodgers for three years), do a small rebuild, clean up the cap situation, and get right back to contending for Super Bowls with a young team for years to come.