Aaron Rodgers, Davante Adams take Green Bay Packers' lack of deadline deal for receiver in stride
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Davante Adams certainly would have welcomed a different result from the NFL trade deadline Tuesday.
The Green Bay Packers' top receiver has carried quite a load on offense for a long time. Since the Packers jettisoned Randall Cobb after the 2018 season, their passing game has been Adams and everyone else. With Tuesday’s deadline passing without any trades, the last significant opportunity for the Packers to give Adams some meaningful help before Super Bowl LV is over.
The gap between Adams and other receivers down the depth chart will continue to be vast.
“I wouldn’t say we necessarily need to (trade for a receiver),” Adams said less than two hours before Tuesday’s 4 p.m. ET deadline, “because I think we’ve shown what we can do. When I went down, guys stepped up and did what they had to do. Stepped up big. I wouldn’t say it’s a need.
“Obviously, I’ve said this before, I don’t think it’s any secret that could help us potentially. I wouldn’t be opposed to it. It could help us. But I definitely got full faith and trust in my guys here to be able to get it done.”
There were several reports the Packers inquired about Houston Texans receiver Will Fuller. The two teams could not agree on draft-pick compensation, according to reports. Fuller, who has 31 catches for 490 yards and five touchdowns this season, easily would have been the Packers’ second-best receiver. He’s also a free agent after this year, and with the Packers already flush with players in the final year of their contract, Fuller might have been a rental.
The Texans are 1-6 and going nowhere, a reason they explored trading Fuller. They could dangle him on the trade market, requesting teams overpay for a half season of his services. If no team would meet that demand, the Texans had little incentive because of the NFL’s compensatory pick system. The Texans will likely be given a mid-round pick if Fuller leaves in free agency.
Aaron Rodgers surely wouldn’t have minded more help in the passing game, but the quarterback continued to toe the company line before Tuesday’s deadline.
“I’m not going to get into those conversations,” Rodgers said when asked if he’d even broached the subject of needing more help on offense with general manager Brian Gutekunst. “Again, I’m just going to reiterate what I said and continue to say, that I clearly understand my role and my place on this team, and that’s my focus.”
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Coach Matt LaFleur suggested the Packers never got particularly close to making a trade Tuesday, saying talks never got "serious" between them and any other team. He spent the day focusing on the San Francisco 49ers game plan, he said, while Gutekunst focused on his primary role of player acquisition. Still, the two had some communication during the day, and LaFleur emphatically struck down an ESPN report that there was disagreement at the team's top levels.
"I have no idea where anything like that would ever come from," LaFleur said. "We’re in constant communication, we’re on the same page and there is no truth to that. I promise you that."
Adams isn’t the only Packers playmaker who could have used help from Tuesday’s deadline. Across the line of scrimmage, there’s another highly paid playmaker who faces constant double teams.
Kenny Clark has had little consistent, complementary support on the Packers' defensive line. With the run defense continuing to struggle, Gutekunst might have been interested in adding depth to the defensive line, something he didn’t do this offseason after the Packers allowed 285 rushing yards in the NFC Championship game at San Francisco.
Clark was adamant the Packers' defensive line does not need reinforcements.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “I love the guys that we’ve got. We’ve got to just do our job. It’s as simple as that. We’ve just got to do our job. I’ve got full confidence in everybody.”
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