Wednesday Walkthroughs: Should the Packers buy or sell at the trade deadline?

The Packers have some long odds to save their season. In theory, it’s still possible to make the playoffs, but they need to get to work — and quick. Should they try to add talent and make a run? Or should they embrace the downturn and begin their rebuild or retool or however they’d like to spin it right now?

Here’s what our writers had to say.

Rcon14: Sell, and sell big

The Packers are a bad football team with a bleak future. They can make their future less bleak by admitting defeat now and starting the rebuild a few months early. I wrote an entire post on this, which you can read here.

Tex Western: Sell

It would be one thing if the Packers were an unlucky 3-4 team or one that had a difficult schedule to this point. Instead, they’ve lost to a fraudulently 6-1 Giants team, a Jets squad that posted fewer than 100 net passing yards, and a bad Washington team with a backup quarterback. The Packers’ wins are over a terrible Bears team (before Monday’s offensive awakening), an equally disappointing Buccaneers squad, and the Patriots with Bailey Zappe in his first NFL action – a game that took overtime to win.

Nothing about this team signals that there should be any realistic hope of a turnaround – if anything, the Packers are probably playing worse than their record indicates, and the schedule only gets harder from here. Two weeks ago I still had some hope, but that hope is gone. I’m ready to tear off the bandage and burn it all down and start the rebuild.

Paul Noonan: Sell

There is simply not a Super Bowl contender here. The only reason I hesitate is that I still think there probably should be, but even in a best-case scenario, you’re sneaking into the playoffs with a diminished quarterback, and even adding a splash player on offense isn;t going to change that.

Rodgers aside, there are structural problems here. They need to move on from Joe Barry, and his hiring more than almost anything shut their window prematurely. He’s not going anywhere until the offseason at least. More than anything, the sooner they start rebuilding, and gunning for a new quarterback, the sooner they will be good again, and this is a great season to work your way into the top 10 of the draft while acquiring assets along the way. Don’t let pride get in the way of making hard choices.

Jon Meerdink: Buy (but probably sell)

There’s a very specific circumstance where I think the Packers should be buyers, and that’s if they can get a receiver with multiple years left on his rookie deal for a low-round pick.

The Packers’ currently have four receivers under contract for next year: Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs, Samori Toure, and Amari Rodgers. Even if they bring back Allen Lazard, I’m not confident in the makeup of that group, even during a rebuilding phase if that’s what next year turns out to be. If they could add a guy with multi-year contract control (Elijah Moore, just as a for instance), I think that’d be worthwhile.

To be clear, I don’t think buying at the deadline is going to solve any of the Packers problems, or even help them to a degree that will make a difference this year, but they’re going to have to add to their receiver room sooner or later. If you can get a guy who’s close to a known commodity, I think that’s a win. Outside of that, though, sell or stand pat.