The Green Bay Packers surpassed expectations in 2023, coming excruciatingly shut to accomplishing the NFC Championship Game. With the franchise’s rebuild ahead of schedule, this offseason becomes more pivotal than many would have believed solely a 12 months ago.
With that in mind, here’s one trade, cut and signing the Packers must make.
TRADE: Move returned in the first round
Packers everyday supervisor Brian Gutekunst isn’t always opposed to moving up in the first spherical of the NFL Draft, as he did for security Darnell Savage (2019) and quarterback Jordan Love (2020). However, due to the steep price, buying and selling lower back is a long way more in all likelihood if Green Bay would not continue to be put at No. 25.
Only the Arizona Cardinals (six) have more top-100 alternatives in this year’s draft than the Packers (five), which may additionally make the crew greater inclined to go back a couple of slots to acquire any other pick. Furthermore, this year’s draft is extraordinarily deep at cornerback and offensive handle — two positions of want for Green Bay.
Barring Iowa CB Cooper DeJean or Georgia T Amarius Mims falling in the Packers’ lap, trading down looks like a sound move.
There are various players they could target later in the first or 2d round, like corners Ennis Rakestraw Jr. (Missouri) and Kamari Lassiter (Georgia) and tackles Tyler Guyton (Oklahoma) and Jordan Morgan (Arizona).
CUT: OT David Bakhtiari
Cutting the two-time All-Pro looks too apparent not to pick, as the injury-plagued 32-year-old counts for $40M of the Packers profits cap in 2024.
Bakhtiari hasn’t been the same participant because suffering an ACL tear at some point of the 2020 season. Since then, he’s gone through 5 knee surgeries and played in only 13 games while lacking all but one contest at some stage in the 2021 and 2023 campaigns.
Unless he is willing to return on a restructured deal, this is probable the quit of the road for Bakhtiari in Green Bay, if solely because it makes too much sense. The Packers can no longer count number on the 11-year veteran, and the $20M in cap savings the crew would receive by means of releasing him a long way outweighs the threat of bringing him back.
SIGNING: Safety Xavier McKinney
Scooping up the versatile protection in free corporation would fill every other massive gap and instantly improve the Packers’ porous secondary.
McKinney is coming off a standout season with the New York Giants, ending the season as the fourth-highest-graded safety (87.8), per Pro Football Focus. Meanwhile, amongst safeties that played at least 50 percentage of their team’s snaps in 2023, he completed with the lowest ignored address proportion (5.7).
The Packers are up towards it, profits cap-wise, which should make becoming McKinney in a little greater challenging. According to Over The Cap, the Packers have $8.1M in cap space, the 0.33 lowest amongst groups nevertheless in the black. However, reducing Bakhtiari and other roster tweaks in advance of free agency give Green Bay adequate wiggle room.
