The Packers ended up standing down at Tuesday afternoon’s deadline, but they are believed to have made a substantial offer to try and upgrade their receiving corps.
Green Bay offered Pittsburgh a second-round pick for Chase Claypool, Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports (on Twitter). The Packers saw their reputation for success work against them. The Steelers took the Bears’ offer of a second-round pick, per Silverstein, because they believe Chicago’s 2023 selection will be “considerably higher” come April. Both the Bears and Packers are 3-5, but one team is amid a rebuild and the other attempting to cling to contention status.
Not exactly a hotbed of deadline activity, the Packers were pursuing receiver upgrades for several days before Tuesday brought the Claypool news. But the team was believed to be in strong position for Claypool as of Tuesday morning, CBS Sports’ Josina Anderson tweets. A Bears offer emerged Tuesday morning, and the Steelers ended up focusing on a deal with Chicago. Claypool’s through-2023 contract is now on the Bears’ payroll.
The 6-foot-4, 238-pound receiver was rumored to have been made available late this summer, and rumblings about his potential to be moved persisted until the deadline. Claypool, 24, has back-to-back 800-plus-yard seasons on his resume, passing James Washington for a regular Steelers role. Rather than help Kenny Pickett develop, the Notre Dame product will be used to assist Justin Fields in his progression.
Aaron Rodgers has lobbied for the Packers to add pass-catching help, with the team amid its worst stretch of the Matt LaFleur era. Green Bay has seen its receiving corps struggle when at full strength, and it finished its Buffalo matchup without Allen Lazard and Christian Watson. With Randall Cobb on IR, the Packers do not have much in the way of available talent at the position.
Calls for the Pack to improve their post-Davante Adams receiving corps have come since Adams and Marquez Valdes-Scantling departed in March. Adams said the Packers’ extension offer exceeded the Raiders’ terms, and Green Bay made a late push to keep MVS. The team then proceeded to use both its first-round picks on defensive talent, extending the streak of no first-round receiver picks to 20 years. Green Bay traded up to No. 34 for Watson, but injury issues have led to the North Dakota State product missing extensive time as a rookie.
The deadline does not close the book on receiver additions, but unless the Packers are prepared to wait on Odell Beckham Jr., they will need to climb out of this hole with the pass catchers they have. Green Bay pursued Beckham during his November 2021 free agency and was connected to Brandin Cooks this year. Cooks and the Texans may not be on good terms right now, so it will be interesting to see what happens with that partnership. For now, however, the Packers have come up empty at a key point on the NFL calendar.
Embarrassing
Same old, same old
And zero backup plan so we got no help at the trade deadline and this team still has zero WR1s and at best a couple of WR2s.
Awesome job Gute. Between this and the Love pick, you have done such a phenomenal job.
Idiot..you ignore Gary, Dillon, Doubs, Jaire Alexander, Savage, Jenkins, Runyon, stokes, Myers’s, ..signing of Campbell douglas.
The team is a not a good one and it was assembled by Gute. So OP is not an idiot for questioning Gute’s moves. His insistence on not drafting or acquiring WR help is baffling.
They drafted Watson.
It baffles me that people still defend Gute. Talk about clueless mouth breathers that have no idea about football. Packers record and who they have lost to says more than enough.
Why don’t you go and start a petition and have him removed then? Punk
You just rattling off draft picks?
Doubs hasnt done anything to consider him a success. Savage straight up sucks, hes been regressing every year. Runyan and Myers are inconsistent at best, and in case you havent noticed Douglas and Stokes have been getting smacked around in coverage this year.
Poor Karen Rodgers. Another year for him to whine all year round. Gutenbust probably didn’t trade for anyone because he wants Karen to suffer and whine.
Gutekunst has done literally everything but address the team’s most glaring need for five years running. That draft was terrible top to bottom (unless Deguara is suddenly seeing the field now) minus Dillon. In the last year or so, Gutekunst seemingly has finally realized the reality of the situation in Green Bay-they need wideouts desperately, and veterans suddenly don’t want to sign there for reasons having nothing to do with money.
The Packers make competitive offers, and players or teams decline. We’ve heard grumbling or rumors of grumbling from several veterans not named Aaron Rodgers recently (Z.Smith and Adams come to mind, and Bakhtiari of course had a couple of social media related things that were on the fence).
Rodgers certainly can be dramatic, we know that, but Gutekunst has gone from staunchly denying Rodgers and outside assessments to quietly and desperately trying and failing to fix them behind the scenes. The first two years seemed to revolve around Gutekunst denying that there’s a problem, and doing the old Ted Thompson “build for the future”. The last two, he’s trying to get better now because he seemingly finally realizes that there’s an issue. Now, it’s too little too late. Sorry for the long post, but I find it frustrating when obvious idiocy and stubbornness ruins what could be good production.
There’s no need to apologize for providing the best comments on the forum.
You 2 guys are starting to make me uncomfortable
Not as uncomfortable as I make myself
wait
I know a few deer hunters who cry when they watch the “Bambi” movie. It’s okay to be uncomfortable.
You two do have a special relationship
The forum has a core group of regulars that have been here for five or more years. I think all of them are “special”.
Terrible take on your part afsooner.
It’s a beautiful thing when my Bears beat out the cheese heads. Granted, we still need to do it in the field, but we’re getting there.
Just wait until Claypool declares himself to be the BEST WR in the League. He declared himself the third-best WR in the League not all that long ago with the Steelers.
Of course, maybe now he’ll actually have a semi-competent OC with da Bears.
Remember when they beat out the Packers for Mack in almost the exact same scenario? How did that work out for the Bears. when you have to hold on to days like this for joy, it only shows how terrible your franchise truly is.
Man those grapes must taste sour…. The Bears durpy GM, Pace, overpaid for him, like he did for every guy on that Roster.. Poles sems a bit more in control
Mack worked out fine for the Bears. All Pro every year.
Like Claypool was the only guy available? There were probably a half a dozen guys who could have been acquired for a 2nd round pick. It’s like this guy has never heard of multi-tasking.
Say goodbye to 2022 Packer fans…
Gutekunst needs to be fired now!
couldn’t even get Denzel Mimms for a 4th?
R
E
L
A
X.
The Bears won this battle, but they are still owned by Rodgers and the Pack.
Don’t matter the packers are done and Rodgers is gone after this season
OBJ is not going to a trashfire like the packers, he is going to sign with a contender.
gute does it again. fml, they had 10 wr’s to go on
What is this? Appeasement? It seems over the past couple of years the Packers’ mgmt., after they missed out on signing a player they need, announces they were so close to getting a deal done… Is this supposed to make the Packer faithful feel better?
It’s been going on for more than a few years actually.
They ALMOST had Tony Gonzalez.
They ALMOST had Randy Moss.
They ALMOST drafted a 1st Rd WR in at least the last 8 consecutive years.
They ALMOST convinced Adams to stay..eh, even they admitted that wasn’t really the case.
That’s just off the top of my head, and my memory ain’t what it used to be.
I called this 2 weeks ago, when they kept tossing out names GB was supposedly in on or should be..they’d JUST miss out, and give the same sad speech Stearns did when MKE didn’t get a bat in July. ‘We were soooo close, but at the end of the day just couldn’t get a deal done.’
It’ll happen next year too.
Claypool sucks, the Bears can enjoy that nothing receiver. The Packers have too many glaring holes outside of receiver to waste a pick on a complimentary receiver Pittsburgh was trying to get rid of. Do you honestly think the Packers have a championship caliber roster if they added one of the receivers traded this year? They’ll still have a spotty oline and poor run defense and a secondary that gives up the most passing yards and 3rd down conversion. Not to mention their DC wonr asjust hus scheme to fit his players better, and on the offensive side their top 2 backs get less than 10 carries a game.
Yea, because Rodgers said the exact opposite on McAfee yesterday.
Right. The Packers offered a second round pick because Claypool sucks.
Wouldn’t be surprised if Rodgers gets so fed up he just retires.
I’m still betting either him or Brady retire during the season. Probably Rodgers morw likely now though that Brady doesn’t have as much to leave for now either.
Gutenuts is an idiot. Excuses, excuses. I don’t have an issue (yet) with drafting Love & Dillon. But, to not acquire an obvious glaring need at WR for a few years, and especially this season at the deadline after trading Adams is simply a FAILURE!!
Have to say, did not expect the Bears to do this. While Im not sold on Claypool, I mean he is moving from one rebuilding team in the Steelers to another in the Bears and both have young unproven Qbs (so why are the Steelers really moving him if he can help out a team like that), in any case its a ballsy move by Poles.
I will note though that Claypool looked MUCH better with Trubisky on the field than Pickett, which was the opposite of Pickens. Claypool clearly did not have the connection with Pickett that he did with Trubisky (which isn’t to say that he couldn’t have established one at some point), but considering the connection that Pickens and Pickett seem to have and the decision to go forward with Pickett, this seems like a good return for Pittsburgh.
And this is the icing on this trade deadline cake!
Can’t wait until he signs Will Fuller with three weeks left in the season and expects everyone to bow like he made an amazing pickup.
Two of the greatest QBs back to back and this franchise has so little to show for it. Can’t wait for Aaron to leave and for the frauds behind the scenes to truely be exposed.
Outside of Randy Moss, Brady never had a 1st round draft WR with NE and yet he won 6 Super Bowls. Watson was taken in the 2nd round for GB. Great quarterbacks make good receivers
Brady has had plenty of talent to throw to. That myth really frustrates me. The primary reason that Brady left was what? Well, you guessed it, he felt that New England didn’t have enough talent at receiver. Had the first round receiver they picked worked out, things possibly may have been different.
Rodgers had talent in the past, too. Here’s the thing…it was in the past. People are frustrated with the Packers because they have had that obvious need for about five years. The pick doesn’t need to be a first, it just needs to be successful, which they haven’t. Unlike Brady, Rodgers hasn’t had a consistent top ten defense or coaching staff for the last decade, and there is much less to fall back on when the offense does not produce. He’s managed to play well enough to win several MVPs, so asking him as one player to keep doing more is pretty irresponsible as a manager. This is not to serve a direct comparison, it’s just fact. Most franchises do not have that level of consistency, and it takes that to be maintain tat level of success. So, yes, it’s been obvious that Green Bay needs more receivers, whether it’s Rodgers starting for them or not.
I stand by my original post. Brady never had a WR that the Patriots picked in the 1st round that panned out. Deion Branch, Troy Brown and Edelman were not and Welker and Amendola were picked up for practically nothing. I bet if you did the research the Packers would have drafted more receivers in higher rounds than the Patriots