Packers tried to add multiple receivers by trade deadline — what do they do now?
Any Green Bay Packers fan who watched their team lay a brontosaurus egg in a 27-17 loss last Sunday was certainly hoping that general manager Brian Gutekunst was on the phone with as many teams as possible, trying to acquire receivers for Aaron Rodgers by the Tuesday trade deadline before the 2022 season went completely in the tank.
As it turns out, that’s exactly what Gutekunst was doing… it’s just that none of Gutekunst’s multiple attempted acquisitions panned out. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports that the Packers were on the horn with the Pittsburgh Steelers, offering a 2023 second-round pick and another late-round pick, for receiver Chase Claypool. But the Chicago Bears gave Pittsburgh the better offer in the Steelers’ minds, as Pittsburgh brass believe that the Packers can still rebound from their current 3-5 record, and that the Bears’ pick (not the second-round pick they got from the Baltimore Ravens for linebacker Roquan Smith) would be the higher pick.
Green Bay also tried to trade for Las Vegas Raiders tight end Darren Waller — and Waller was reportedly part of discussions when the Packers traded receiver Davante Adams to the Raiders in the off-season. Las Vegas would not part with Waller then, and they did not do so in this case. Per Schefter, the Packers didn’t offer the capital required to pry the talented tight end from his current team.
And as reported by Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network, Green Bay also called the Carolina Panthers regarding the availability of receiver D.J. Moore. The Panthers didn’t want to trade Moore, so that was that.
Now, the Packers are in the unenviable position of trying to jump-start their offense, which has been one of the NFL’s biggest disappointments in the 2022 season, with the guys they have on the roster. It didn’t help against the Bills that Randall Cobb and Allen Lazard, the two receivers Rodgers has serious experience with, were injured and out. Cobb was placed on injured reserve with an ankle issue in late October, which puts him out for four weeks from then. Lazard might be good to go against the Lions on Sunday, but how effective will he be with a shoulder injury? Detroit’s secondary presents a get-well opportunity for any quarterback, but there’s a lot that needs to get well here.
Fourth-round rookie receiver Romeo Doubs is the team’s leading target with 30 catches on 47 attempts, and while Doubs has been inconsistent at times, he showed a lot against Buffalo’s defense. Doubs caught four passes on five targets for 62 yards and a touchdown, and this 26-yard catch on a corner route against cornerback Taron Johnson shows how Doubs can get schemed open, and can also complete the play with athleticism.
When healthy, Lazard is an underrated receiver who can catch the ball in tight spaces with precision. This 35-yard fade against the New York Jets in Week 6 had Lazard doing the math against cornerback D.J. Reed (one of the best in the league this season) and safety LaMarcus Joyner. This is the kind of outside receiver you need to help you create explosive plays in the passing game.
In that same game, and this time from the right slot, Lazard zapped cornerback Brandin Echols for a 25-yard touchdown with outstanding movement skills at the tail of the route.
That was the good. The bad news was that this was the only touchdown the Packers scored in a 27-10 loss. It was right after that game when Rodgers started to really amplify his desire for the offense to be less complex so that everybody could get on the same page.
“Very inconsistent, and that is why I think we need to simplify things,” he said. “Because on the couple of drives we did move the ball, it was very simple things. Very simple plays, no motion. We need to look at everything and the guys that we’ve got and what we can accomplish with them and let’s be smart about moving forward. Nobody works harder than [Packers head coach] Matt [LaFleur] on the plan each week and nobody comes up with better ideas than him and his staff. But if it is not working, it’s not because those guys aren’t grinding, it is because we are not executing. If you think we have the right players, then we need to simplify things. If you don’t, then that is a whole other conversation.”
Clearly, based on their actions around the trade deadline, the conclusion was that they didn’t believe they had the right players, or at least enough of them. Now, outside of a last-gasp effort to acquire Odell Beckham Jr. once Beckham is fully recovered from the torn ACL he suffered with the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LVI (estimates point to December), there isn’t anything left to do but to grind it out, hope for the best, and try to relax. Which Rodgers has proposed before.
This time, though, he may not believe it.
