Obviously making any sort of a worthwhile addition at this season’s trade deadline was an optimistic outlook that the fan base of the Green Bay Packers had, and yet again, even with the constant rumors floating around, this fan base was disappointed. No moves were made, even with the constant rumors of wide receiver Will Fuller V circulating around, and now this team will be forced to work with what they have.

Offensively, Aaron Rodgers has been putting together a MVP-caliber season, Davante Adams has bounced back from injury concerns that sidelined him to produce superstar stats, and Aaron Jones put up top running back numbers before his injury, continuing his strong play dating back to last year. But outside of that, the typical offensive struggles have continued, as injuries have hit, wide receiver play (outside of Adams) has been below average, and the tight ends, while certainly progressing, have not quite yet become that needed weapon for Rodgers to utilize fully.

But the need to address any offensive struggles seemed to overshadow the true needs of this team at this year’s deadline – improving the defense. And with how poorly the defense has performed dating back to 2019, DC Mike Pettine and his group really was the bigger area that needed reinforcements.

The defensive line, especially up the middle, is the biggest area of need. Kenny Clark can only do so much, and with how torn the GB defense has been by the rushing attack, teams have an easy way to attack the GB front seven and not play into the strength of the defense, which is their secondary.

PJ Hall from the Texans, as well as both Quinnen Williams and Steve McLendon from the Jets would have been solid options for the team to look into, but there was no reported interest in upgrading the DT position.

Linebacker is also a group that needs upgrades, even with Christian Kirksey, Oren Burks, and rookies Kamal Martin and Krys Barnes manning the LB spots so far this year.Their inconsistencies have been a big factor in how poor they have been against stopping the run (along with the DL struggles), and adding a player like Avery Williamson from the Jets or Kwon Alexander from the 49ers would have gone towards helping to address this problem.

Upgrading the offense obviously takes the cake for the sexy headlines, yet the defense was the true aspect that needed the most attention paid to it around this year’s deadline – yet nothing happened. Price elements are certainly going to dominate the reasoning behind not doing anything, and this element was tied to the Fuller-to-GB talks throughout, but in the end, if you want to field a competitive team, you must make some sort of moves to improve your roster.

General manager Brian Gutekunst comes from the Ted Thompson train of thought, something that could help – and hinder – this team’s present and future aspirations. And while that is being tied to the lack of moves in the trade and draft elements to help improve the weaker areas of this roster, there obviously have been some abstaining from moves that has ultimately benefited the team.

Without making any moves at this year’s trade deadline yet again, it shows the complacency that this front office has and its confidence in a team that has gotten out to a quick but questionable 5-2 start. With how the NFC North and the NFC, in general, is looking this year, this roster could be good enough as is to win both – but if the team falls short yet again, there will be plenty of areas to point to.

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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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