With the trade deadline in the NFL one of the more unused year markers in any professional sports, 2019 has produced an onslaught of deals that do not normally occur. From Jalen Ramsey to Marcus Peters, Quandre Diggs to Mohamed Sanu and all other smaller deals, player movement has been at an all-time high this season. 

While a handful of trades between teams is nothing to write home about, it is for the NFL when it actually involves decently-important players. For the Green Bay Packers, their interest in upgrading positional groups, like wide receiver, tight end, linebacker, or any other weak sports, is warranted, but should not become a big-time target before the upcoming deadline. 

Wide receiver has turned into a hot button topic this year with the health of Davante Adams and his toe – however, in his absence, Aaron Rodgers has decided to go ‘Discount Doublecheck’ on the rest of the league and become hot, hot hot. While Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Geronimo Allison, Jake Kumerow, and Allen Lazard have all done their parts in stepping up with Adams down, this receiver group lacks a true no. 2.

Even though that may be the case, this roster has the pieces to succeed with on it already. Trades can mess up any budding chemistry that players may have, and bringing in someone like a Robby Anderson, a DeAndre Hopkins, or even an A.J. Green if your heart desires does not always add up to roses and sunshine like people may think.

Players can be statistical upgrades but team chemistry downgrades, it is as simple as that. And with a team that is just learning the ropes underneath their first-year head coach and coordinators, keeping the group together as is and continuing to improve their chemistry on the fly may be the best solution to making sure this team does not miss the postseason yet again.

Remaining on offense, tight end has been a crapshoot this year, with Jimmy Graham failing to yet again put up the numbers that he was brought in for. While his Week 1 and Week 7 performances have put touchdowns on the board, outside of that, Graham has provided goose eggs, one-catch affairs and drop fests that have left many fans wondering what we really got in Graham.  

The Atlanta Falcons have publicly said that they will not trade Austin Hooper before the deadline, the Cincinnati Bengals have oft-injured Tyler Eifert available for picking in a contract year, and the Miami Dolphins would love to get rid of somewhat-impressive rookie Mike Gesicki if it means that they can get some draft capital in return. These options, while readily available in most cases, do not present the kinds of upgrades that this team would jump on in an instant and be able to guarantee improvement.

Finally, the linebacking position still has NFC tackling leader Blake Martinez in the middle captaining the defense, but Oren Burks has been slow to prove his draft stock after an injury recovery. With no true game-changers being mentioned in the rumor mill so far, the odds of that changing are slim to none. 

For fans, trades are exciting, as it provides them with a chance to showboat to other fanbases by saying that their team is actually trying to win, and these three reasons are why the newly-acquired player is going to go off the rest of the year. But it usually never works out that way.

For general manager Brian Gutekunst, if he were to make any sort of move(s) before the deadline, good for him – truth be told, there does not seem to be that guy out there that is the perfect fit for this team in a crunch. Obviously there are dream scenarios for players to come to Green Bay, but with sitting at the top of the NFC North division, dreaming needs to take a back seat.

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Mike Johrendt has been an avid fan of the Packers ever since he can remember. He is now a writer at PackersTalk and you can follow him on Twitter at @MJohrendt23

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