A stunning report arrived Wednesday morning via Stephen Holder of ESPN: The Green Bay Packers had “legitimate interest” in trading for Indianapolis Colts running back Jonathan Taylor.
Why would the Packers, who have Aaron Jones and A.J. Dillon at running back entering the 2023 season, want to trade for Taylor?
Let’s try to figure it out.
— Jones is one of the great running backs in franchise history, but he turns 29 in December and has an $11.1 million base salary in 2024. Could he be entering his final year in Green Bay? His cap number balloons over $17 million next year, but there’s also a lot of dead money involved with moving on. His situation is a tricky one past 2023.
— Dillon is coming off a disappointing third season and will enter the fourth and final year of his contract in 2023.
— Would the Packers have included Dillon in the deal for Taylor? He’d be cheap for the Colts this year and a player who might make more sense than Taylor long term, given the future financials of the two players.
— Did Taylor, who was granted permission by the Colts to seek a trade partner, have interest in playing for the Packers, and general manager Brian Gutekunst tried to make it happen in a reasonable way? The Packers are strong along the offensive line and play in a running back-friendly system under Matt LaFleur. Plus, Taylor is quite familiar with the state after starring for the Wisconsin Badgers. Landing in Green Bay and helping the Packers open the Jordan Love era might have been especially appealing to Taylor.
— The Packers are going to get an extra high draft pick out of the Aaron Rodgers trade in 2024. It’ll be a first-round pick if Rodgers plays 65 percent of snaps in 2023. Gutekunst has the ammo to take a big swing if he wants.
— But would a deal make sense for the Packers? Taylor is coming off a season in which he missed time due to an ankle injury and would need a new, market-resetting contract if traded. So the Packers would be trading for a player at a low-impact position where they already have two veterans, giving up future high picks and spending a lot of cap dollars. It’s a tough sell, even for a 24-year-old running back who is only two years removed from rushing for over 1,800 yards and 18 scores. The Packers are a team in transition and need all the future draft capital they can get, especially as protection in case Love isn’t the answer.
— Keep in mind, the Colts kept Taylor on the PUP list on Tuesday, so he’d miss the first four games of the 2023 season even if he’s traded before Week 1.
— There’s a chance the Packers simply made a call or two on Taylor’s availability, or, as Brian Gutekunst likes to say, “being in every conversation.” Given Holder’s labeling of the Packers’ interest as “legitimate,” however, this feels more than just the Packers making a call and the Colts attempting to use the team as leverage in trade talks.
— Per Ryan Wood of PackersNews.com, talks between the Packers and Colts never got bigger than a Packers scout talking with the Colts. This is how trade discussions often happen in the NFL; a scout in charge of a specific team researches a potential trade, which can sometimes be viewed as “interest” from the outside.
