The Green Bay Packers are 6-3 heading into their bye week and are a legitimate playoff contender in the NFC midway through the 2024 season.
At Tuesday’s NFL trade deadline, the Packers were sellers, not buyers.
General manager Brian Gutekunst made one trade, sending veteran offensive tackle Preston Smith to the Pittsburgh Steelers in exchange for a seventh-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, which made up for draft capital lost when the team traded for backup quarterback Malik Willis before the regular season.
Some outsiders viewed edge rusher as an area where the Packers needed to add something before the deadline. Instead, Gutekunst sold the aging, steep and largely unproductive part of the hustle equation.
Smith turns 32 in November, recorded only 10 pressures in nine games and it is unlikely that he will play in Green Bay after the 2024 season. His transition from a 3-4 outside defender to a 4-3 defense did not translate into effectiveness – it is an issue that many of Green Bay’s pass rushers are working on. This trade creates valuable short- and long-term playing space while opening up opportunities for younger edge players like Lukas Van Ness and Kingsley Enagbare.
The Packers have placed an emphasis on creating opportunities for adolescent players to take the field in substantial roles. This meant moving away from older, experienced players and taking risks with adolescent, inexperienced talent. This appears to be another case of the Packers opening the door to adolescent players.
Van Ness, selected in the first round of the 2023 draft, will benefit the most from this. He’s suddenly become a very vital player for the Packers, who have Super Bowl aspirations but can’t be considered a true title contender without more consistency in their pass-rushing defense.
The Packers were 3-6 last year and traded, sending linebacker Rasul Douglas to the Buffalo Bills. The Packers are 6-3 this year but are still selling, which suggests Gutekunst has decided that selling assets is more valuable to building the team than buying them.
A compelling argument can be made about the Packers’ need for support at edge rusher or cornerback, even though the defense has made strides under first-year coordinator Jeff Hafley. However, the Packers rarely make trades at the deadline, likely because they don’t want to risk overpaying – especially on a player who may be a rental – so Gutekunst once again became the seller.
Losing Smith likely won’t prevent the Packers from competing for a title. But won’t adding a piece at the deadline allow any potentially fatal flaws in the Packers’ lineup to be exposed in January? Time will tell. Much like last year, the Packers will need internal improvement from a adolescent but talented lineup to take Matt LaFleur’s team from good to great in the second half of the 2024 season.
