It’s no secret that the Green Bay Packers need to correct their offense coming out of the bye.
After a poor performance against the ho-hum Las Vegas Raiders defense, the 1-5 Denver Broncos offer another chance to get right. The bye week arrived at a good time, proving a valuable self-scouting opportunity before facing Sean Payton‘s downward spiral of a team.
But Green Bay’s offense doesn’t need to add a veteran wide receiver into the mix. While there may be some options out there, and some national media members have made suggestions, the Packers are wise to let the young receivers have the space to grow in this evaluation year.
The trade deadline is quickly approaching (on Halloween!), and everyone loves trick or treating for a new toy. The prospect of adding a new weapon for a late-season push is always enticing, and we’ll see plenty of trades and think, Green Bay could have done this.
But history says not to get hopes up. Every time a big-name wide receiver is available, the Packers are attached but never the ultimate destination. That won’t stop the cycle from repeating every year.
So it wasn’t surprising to see Jerry Jeudy‘s name pop up as a potential target. Jeudy has been an object of affection for Packers fans since the early 2020 draft process, and fans still want to see a WR from that 2020 class on the team.
The Broncos are a very bad football team right now. After trading Randy Gregory and releasing Frank Clark, it’s clear the Broncos are having a fire sale. Jeudy hasn’t publicly asked for a trade. However, he didn’t confirm a desire to stay in Denver after last Thursday’s loss to the rival Kansas City Chiefs.
“At the end of the day, I am going to do my part and do my job,” Jeudy said. “I don’t think about all that. I just think about I’ll just be where my feet are, you feel me? So, I can’t think about the future. I can’t think about the past. It’s out of my control. I’m just taking it day by day.”
Jeudy is probably the highest-value trade target the Broncos would be willing to part with, so it’s unsurprising to see his name connected to WR-needy teams.
ESPN’s Bill Barnwell recently posted 15 hypothetical trades, including a curious option for the Packers — Jeudy and a fourth-round pick for Romeo Doubs and a second-round pick.
It feels like the Packers wouldn’t get much from this trade. Doubs has had a stronger season and is building a good connection with Jordan Love. Jeudy might still have a higher ceiling than Doubs, and Denver hasn’t had a good offense through the multiple coaching schemes since Jeudy joined the team. Still, it’s hard to see Green Bay paying that much to give up on one of their promising young receivers.
Jeudy isn’t the only wide receiver out there, though. We recently saw Chase Claypool (who the Packers tried to trade for last season) and Van Jefferson go to new teams for the cost of a late-round pick swap. If Green Bay has a comparable player they like, this is a reasonable price. But it still doesn’t feel like the right move for where this team is.
Whether you buy into the term “rebuild” or not, it’s clear that this is an evaluation year. Green Bay is building a post-Aaron Rodgers team of the future, not trying to bet the house on a deep 2023 playoff run. While the team had limited cap space to work with this season, they could have made it happen if they’d really wanted to make a move to get Jordan Love a big-name receiver.
Instead, the Packers drafted six wide receivers and two tight ends in the past two drafts. Those draft picks are untested but have sky-high ceilings. Green Bay took a different approach this year by throwing these young men into the fires of (pretend) war, letting them sink or swim in real-time.
Any veteran addition is going to take valuable snaps away from these young players. They need to make mistakes and build chemistry through real game reps. In his fourth year in the league, even Love is seeing the difference between learning in practice and learning in live games.
So even with the rookie mistakes, I’d still rather see what these young receiving threats can do. And there is no guarantee a new wide receiver will make an immediate impact, of course. It’s not like the Packers are going to bring Davante Adams back home. Anyone available for a price that Green Bay would be willing to pay probably doesn’t move the needle that much.
There’s a case that a savvy veteran could be good at teaching the young receivers how to practice from a player’s point of view. Coaching is good, but sometimes a player can get more from a peer. For example, Green Bay could have re-signed Marcedes Lewis to help Luke Musgrave and Tucker Kraft. But the time to make that decision was before the season.
So, for now, it’s better to trust that Matt LaFleur can adjust the scheme and the young players can learn and put forth more good things week after week. That was the team’s plan for this season. It’s been unfortunate to see the the offense trend downward after five games, but there’s still plenty of season left. We’ll see how the process looks by the end of the season, and Green Bay can make necessary changes in the off-season. But for now, whether it’s Jerry Jeudy or another option, a trade just isn’t the right move.
