The Green Bay Packers have made a concerted effort to get younger on offense over the past two seasons, a philosophy that appears to have now spread to the defense as well.
Rob Demovsky of ESPN reported on October 23 that the team has already begun floating the contract of edge rusher Preston Smith to opposing teams ahead of the NFL’s November 5 trade deadline.
“There have already been some reports that the Packers are shopping Smith, the second-oldest player on the team at 31, and are looking to add someone at his position to boost the pass rush,” Demovsky wrote on October 23. “Smith has a big salary ($12 million this season, $12.6 million next), and his production has waned. He looks like a candidate to be released after the season, so perhaps the Packers can get something for him now.”
Jadeveon Clowney Possible Replacement for Preston Smith
Smith, who is on a $52 million deal that runs through 2026, has accounted for just 2.5 sacks through eight games this season after tallying between 8 and 9 sacks in each of the previous three campaigns.
His age, salary and dip in production mean that the Packers are unlikely to get a strong asset in return should they trade him. However, moving Smith for any draft pick in 2025 could mean a win for Green Bay by getting off of his salary and clearing room for the next wave of edge rushers.
Rashan Gary just inked a four-year, $96 million contract in October 2023 and has also struggled this season with only 2 sacks on the year.
In the same article that Demovsky reported the Packers are trying to move Smith, his ESPN colleague Seth Walder listed defensive end Jadeveon Clowney of the Carolina Panthers as a potential trade target for Green Bay.
“The Packers rank 30th in pass rush win rate, and Rashan Gary and Smith rank 39th and 43rd out of 50 qualifiers at edge,” Walder wrote. “I’m sure Green Bay would like to rely more on 2023 first-round pick Lukas Van Ness, but if he qualified for that same list, he’d be tied for 47th.”
Clowney is 31 years old, the same as Smith, though he is playing on a less expensive contract. Clowney has a two-year deal worth $20 million and produced a top-five pass rush win rate last season on his way to a career-high 9.5 sacks, per ESPN.
The Panthers are 1-7 and could potentially finish the season as the worst team in the NFL, which means players like Clowney who aren’t long-term pillars of Carolina’s plan could be on the trade block at reasonable value.
Packers Defense Outperforming Numbers Through Week 8
The Packers don’t have a bad defense. In fact, far from it. The team is leading the league in turnovers with 19 total through Week 8, which is 4 takeaways better than any other franchise in the league.
The problem is that Green Bay’s sack total of 21 is outperforming the correlating pass rush win rates of its top edge rushers. And while edge pressure isn’t the only way to disrupt opposing QBs, the Packers defense is likely to regress to the mean by at least some degree over the remainder of the season.
Green Bay needs to get better production from its primary group of QB disruptors, which means a move ahead of the league’s trade deadline is likely and could correlate with a trade that sends Smith elsewhere to finish the season.
