Cutdown day was even busier than usual for the Green Bay Packers.
Not only were they occupied with chopping the roster down to 53 players, but they also pulled off three trades on Sunday, all involving offensive players as general manager Brian Gutekunst looked to plug some holes on that side of the ball.
The first trade to drop was an outgoing rather than an incoming, as third-string quarterback was shipped off to Miami in exchange for a 2028 sixth-round pick, adding yet another former Packer to an ever growing contingent in South Beach.
Green Bay has a well-earned reputation as a quarterback factory and has regularly turned other teams’ castoffs into serviceable players and ultimately returns on investments in the form of draft picks, with Malik
Willis the latest example.
They microwaved the process this time, as McCord signed a reserve/futures deal with the Packers in January of this year and fetched a pick seven months later after some strong preseason performances.
That is a pretty good result for a player who they were never going to keep on the roster, with Tyrod Taylor entrenched as the backup.
That extra pick will come in handy as the Packers turned pretty quickly and traded their own sixth rounder in 2028 to the Steelers for running back Kaleb Johnson.
The other shoe dropped when Josh Jacobs was placed on the commissioner’s exempt list, meaning he cannot practice or play until he is removed. This came after he was charged with two misdemeanors including one of battery.
With that context, trading for Johnson, who was a third-round pick only last year and was expected by many to go a round earlier, was a smart pivot by Green Bay’s front office.
He fell out of favor very quickly in Pittsburgh when he committed a special teams gaffe in his second game as a rookie, allowing the Seahawks to score a touchdown as he let the ball roll into the end zone on a kickoff.
Johnson has never been given much of a chance to make an impact from scrimmage, carrying the ball only 28 times. He did not exactly make the most of it, putting up only 69 yards for an average of 2.5 yards per carry, but the Packers are gambling that he will be a better fit in their offense.
The former Iowa running back put up over 1,500 rushing yards and 21 touchdowns in his final college season in 2024, and only just turned 23 years old.
Green Bay did not make a draft pick at the offensive skill positions this year, and now they essentially have, getting Johnson at a steep discount.
It is a worthwhile shot to take for a player who is under contract through 2028, and theoretically complements MarShawn Lloyd well as a bigger back at 6-1 and 224 pounds. Whether the pair who have 34 NFL carries between them can replicate Jacobs’ impact if required is another question.
Finally, the Packers made an attempt to solve a problem which has loomed since the start of the offseason, trading a 2028 seventh-round pick to the Rams in exchange for tight end Mark Redman.
After the draft, Gutekunst admitted they hoped to add a true Y tight end, but the chips did not fall that way as they flew off the board early and often.
The knock on effect of half the league loading up on tight ends is that at cutdown time, legitimately desirable players will be available. The Rams still kept five tight ends after they traded Redman away.
Green Bay needed a blocking tight end, and their need at the position more generally grew this summer as Luke Musgrave dealt with a mysterious neck injury, for which a return timetable is still unknown, and backups like Josh Whyle and Drake Dabney underwhelmed.
After trading for Redman and signing veteran Jonnu Smith, the Packers have remade their tight end room in the space of a few days, and the configuration of Tucker Kraft, Smith, Redman and Whyle sounds a lot more appealing and fits together nicely.
It was a successful day of wheeling and dealing for Gutekunst and the Packers as they finalized their initial 53-man roster.
This article originally appeared on Packers Wire: Packers smartly solve offensive questions with three cutdown day trades
