The 2022 trade deadline has come and gone and… surprise! The Green Bay Packers stood pat without making any moves. There is an argument that it wouldn’t have changed much if the front office decided to give up a second round pick for DJ Moore or Chase Claypool, but should they have done something else? Packers GM Brian Gutekunst can’t decide if he wants to be in win-now mode or if he’s preparing for the future, so he has one hand in each barrel which is only hurting the team. The Packers are disappointing this year to say the least, so why do nothing at the trade deadline?

I fall into the category of Packer fans who believe the organization should have been selling before the first day of November. Compared to the expectations, the team has looked abysmal in its first eight games, and the schedule’s not getting any easier. With teams like the Dolphins, Rams, Vikings and Eagles still upcoming, things aren’t looking good for the Packers. So why not make a move to either get better or secure some draft capital? Trading away players like Darnell Savage and Amari Rodgers would have ensured a lost season, but not trading for a player effectively does the same thing.

Of course no one in the media seems to know the real reason the Packers seem to be taking half measures so often. Whether it’s because the Packers think they have a winning team or if they just don’t want to piss off their starting quarterback, for some reason they’re acting like simultaneously in a rebuild and in “win now” mode.

Ideally, when keeping Rodgers on the roster after the Davante Adams trade the Packers would try to bring in a fairly close replacement in the same offseason. They did not. The next logical step would be assessing the talent in the wide receiver room at the mid-season mark and making a trade for Claypool, Moore or Jeudy in order to be a bit more competitive while trying to sneak into playoffs. They decided this wasn’t the call either. So with the state of the roster, the current record, and with an aging back-to-back MVP at quarterback, what’s the real plan here?

It seems more and more every day like the Packers had two options going into the season. Option one was doing everything in their power to keep Davante Adams and Aaron Rodgers on the Roster to keep their “window” open. Option two was to trade them both for a boatload of draft capital and begin to build for the future. The Packers went with a half-measure option in an attempt to… keep everyone happy, I suppose? They lost their star wideout but they felt that the aging star quarterback still had a chance to will them into the postseason.

Ultimately hindsight tells us that the Packers needed to make the decision to build for the future. Rodgers would have likely netted multiple first round picks and with the draft capital gained from the departure of Adams and Rodgers the Packers would be in prime position to begin moving on to a new era.

Now, the Packers are strapped for salary cap space for the foreseeable future, their current roster will lose more players each year, and the window for Aaron Rodgers to win a Super Bowl is all but closed, even if he plays for a few more years.

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Zack is a college student and cheesehead from California. When he’s not in class or writing, you can find him talking about the Packers on Twitter at @Zack_Upchurch.

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