Packers GM Brian Gutekunst explains decision to trade Preston Smith and not acquire anyone at the deadline

While there was some expectation that the Green Bay Packers could acquire an edge rusher or a cornerback ahead of the NFL trade deadline on Tuesday, that was never really a possibility. Right after the deadline passed, general manager Brian Gutekunst talked to the local media about why he moved defensive end Preston Smith to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a seventh-round pick and his vision for the future of the roster.

“It’s no different than last year,” Gutekunst said, remembering when he traded cornerback Rasul Douglas to the Buffalo Bills . “There are some players we wanted to see, the trend of how the snaps were going was going to continue that way. Again, it’s not something that we set out to do; we didn’t call a bunch of teams and say ‘Hey, are you interested in Preston Smith?’, because we know his value. But when the opportunity came, we got the phone call; we just thought it made sense for us for what we are trying to do.”

Preston Smith was, in fact, playing the lowest percentage of defensive snaps since he arrived in Green Bay five years ago. The number was 84% in 2019, it reached 80% in 2022, but was down to 54% under Jeff Hafley. He’s more apt to play as a 3-4 outside linebacker than he is to be a 4-3 defensive end.

And this trend would just continue, as Gutekunst said. Early in the season, Smith was still playing most of the snaps—71% against the Philadelphia Eagles in week 1 and more than 50% in each of the first six games. That was progressively reduced, though, arriving to 44% against the Houston Texans and a season-low 37% versus the Detroit Lions.

Now, it means more snaps and more responsibility for young players like Lukas Van Ness, Kingsley Enagbare, Arron Mosby, and Brenton Cox.

“We’re excited to see both of those guys, see some more snaps,” Gutekunst added. “Certainly, they’ve earned it. I think they did a really nice job in training camp and they’ve continued that through practice.”

The other side

While the Packers were sellers, the chances of them acquiring anyone did not materialize. Brian Gutekunst revealed that he found out early in the process there wouldn’t be many valuable moves to make this year.

“These things start four, five, six weeks before now. So as we went through it, I kind of assumed that was going to be very quiet, and it very much was this year,” the GM pointed out. “Those initial conversations, they can change, but as we monitored going through it, it was pretty steady that it was going to be quiet, that acquiring any significant player, there wasn’t going to be a lot of opportunity to do that.”

It’s not that Gutekunst wasn’t willing to acquire any player for the right price to make the roster better. It’s that he thinks the value wasn’t there.

“It’s not a store where you can go, pick, and choose,” he mentioned. “Those guys gotta be available, and there wasn’t a ton available this year. We always look at a lot of things; we have conversations and talk to people, but not a lot materialized this year.”

Ultimately, the current version of the Packers is the one responsible for the success or failure of this season. And nothing could have changed that ahead of the deadline.