These 4 dream Packers trades would snatch the NFC North back from the Bears

Since 2002, the longest the Green Bay Packers have gone without winning the NFC North has been three seasons. That is, until after last season, when they went their fourth straight season without a division title. 

Now they’re in a tough spot because the offseason was bleak. Free agency was an exodus, the draft class was only six guys, and they leveraged the farm on a guy who had a late-season ACL tear.

However … The trade deadline isn’t for another five months. That means there is still plenty of time and plenty of ways they can fill their roster holes.

How much does Brian Gutekunst want his job?

Since Brian Gutekunst took over as the Packers’ general manager in 2018, he has made 24 total trades … 14 of them have been trades where he loses a player and gains draft picks, five of them have been where he loses and gains a player, and five of them have been where he just gains a player. 

That’s kind of what you expect from a team that has historically had a whole lot of success; they don’t need to go outside of the franchise to get the pieces they need to compete. Also, that many trades shows that he’s not a complete coward, which is objectively a really good thing.

This is an important year for both Gutekunst and Matt LaFleur because they’ve got a cocktail of hot-seat hell. They have a new president, and they’ve won a single playoff game in the past five years. 

The problem with keeping guys around if they know their jobs are on the line is that they’ll make moves to save their jobs. For these two cats, that's especially important because if they want playmakers, they’re going to have to spend draft capital … and if they spend it and get fired, then it’s no skin off their back.

So just keep that in mind when it comes to some of the trade compensation we’re talking about here. 

Also, a couple of weeks ago, I wrote a piece about one player every team could trade for. In that piece, I said the Packers should trade for Walker Little, the Jaguars' (probable) backup left tackle. I still think that’s a really good idea, but I won’t go over it again.

Here are four more players who would make a real difference for the Packers this season.

James Conner, Running back, Arizona Cardinals

Everyone told the Cardinals it’d be dumb for them to draft Jeremiyah Love with the third-overall pick. They heard that, lit a cigarette, put it out on their arm, and drafted him anyway.

That means their running back room is Love, Tyler Allgeier (2026 free agent), Trey Benson (2024 third-round pick), and James Conner. That’s a crowded room. 

The thing is, Conner’s set to be a free agent after the 2026 season. If they want to offload him to a running back-needy team, they certainly could. The Packers might just be one of those teams. 

Josh Jacobs has some pretty messed-up allegations levied against him right now: five counts of different levels of domestic abuse, including felony-level strangulation and suffocation. He has been released from jail … but this is some pretty terrible stuff.

The NFL is infamously lenient on punishing players who do bad things, so if Jacobs is guilty, there’s a good chance he won’t miss a whole lot of time …

For the sake of this, let’s say he potentially misses five games. That’s five games where the Packers’ running backs are Chris Brooks, Mar’Shawn Lloyd, and Pierre Strong.

That’s not great, especially when Weeks 1 and 5 are against the Vikings and the Bears; If you’re looking to retake a division, you really can’t be dropping early-season games against divisional opponents.

The scary part about trading for James Conner is that he is a perpetually hurt guy. But if you’re looking for a guy who’s going to be a workhorse for a handful of weeks while your franchise running back is unavailable, he’s perfect … and then you have him for the rest of the season too, maybe.

A trade for Conner should cost a 2027 fifth-round pick, at worst. You’ll spend that if it could save your job. 

Kayvon Thibodeaux, EDGE, New York Giants

Some players come back from injuries, and some don’t. So far, the biggest injury that we’ve seen Micah Parsons come back from was the ankle thing from 2024. That is not an ACL.

Now, there’s no reason to think that he won’t because these athletic freaks have bodies that allow them to be freakish athletes … but there’s a difference between a guy being back on the field and him being a game changer. 

Will he be a game-changer in 2025 after blowing out his knee in the middle of December? Eh, I wouldn’t bet on it. That means the Packers need someone else. And that ‘someone else’ can’t just be a rotational guy; it needs to be a stud.

The stud (or potential stud) that the Packers can afford is Kayvon Thibodeaux. 

The Giants drafted him fifth overall in the 2022 draft, and aside from the 2023 season, where he had 11.5 sacks, he’s never really shown that he’s been a consistent playmaker. 

There’s obviously a whole lot that goes into deciding whether or not a guy is going to fit on a defense. There’s a player’s health, his playstyle, the team’s needs, his ability to drop into coverage (a whole lot more than you want him to), etc.

But let’s dumb it down to generic football talk: Maybe Thibodeaux just needs a change of scenery. If that’s the case, and the Packers deem that the situation, he’s shown that he can be productive.

Then, when Parsons gets healthy, you’ve got yourself a hell of a pair of pass rushers. They’d be solving a problem now and for the future. 

I think the Packers would have to send a 2027 third-round pick and a 2028 sixth or seventh-round pick to New York in this trade.

Cesar Ruiz, Guard, New Orleans Saints

If you pressure any quarterback, they struggle more. If you pressure Jordan Love, he crumples under the weight of the sun. By that, I mean his differences in EPA per play and completion percentage from when he’s in a clean pocket and when he gets pressured are the biggest of any starting quarterback in the NFL (per Sumer Sports).

Luckily, the Packers had the third-highest Time To Pressure last season. If they want to make sure Love stays effective, they need to keep limiting the quick pressures from the defensive interior. That means they need good guards.

The problem is that their guards are a liability, and since they lost Elgton Jenkins in free agency, they lost a lot of depth. It’s a bad spot to be in. Fortunately for them, the Saints are sitting on Cesar Ruiz.

Ruiz has been the starting right guard in New Orleans for the past six years. He’s only 26, durable, and straight-up good. 

The Saints signed him to a four-year deal back in 2023, and the guaranteed money on that contract is almost completely gone. This year, they signed David Edwards in free agency and drafted Jeremiah Wright (in the fourth round). 

If (and that’s a massive if) they’re cool with Wright, they could move on from Ruiz … but it’s going to come at a decently hefty price. We’re talking about a 2027 and a 2028 third, or a 2027 fourth and a 2028 second. It’s a lot, but it could be worth it if the Packers are in a bind.

A half-eaten Tootsie Roll, Garbage, the bottom of a trash can

The most important thing the Packers can do is trade away Jonathon Gannon, or just fire him now … really just anything to get him out of the building. He’s a bad defensive coordinator, and it’s baffling how Green Bay settled on him. 

Sure, his defense with the 2022 Philadelphia Eagles had 70 sacks, but his defenses in Arizona allowed the third-most, the 18th-most (which is good), and the second-most points in each year he was there. 

History will show him as one of those, ‘How the hell did that guy get those jobs?’ kind of guys. 

More NFL news and analysis:

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow