Packers Alternate Reality...if they traded Rodgers

[UpandIn]

I was gonna put this in the Packers discussion thread, but I didn't want to derail it. 

With the Packers looking like just trash this year, I thought I'd go back and run the hypothetical;

What if the Packers traded Aaron Rodgers after losing to Tampa Bay when he was requesting a trade. 

Denver was reportedly "desperate" to trade for Aaron Rodgers.

Quote

 

According to Tony Pauline of Pro Football Network, the Broncos are reportedly willing to “give up a ton of picks for Aaron Rodgers.” It comes from a mindset that people around the NFL view as a “sense of desperation” within the Broncos’ organization.

The front office could package its next three first-round picks along with Day 2 selections to offer Green Bay. Of course, the Packers will only trade the back-to-back NFL MVP if he wants out.

 

The rumors at the time were 3 1st round picks+3 2nds. Davante Adams likely gets dealt then. Not worth speculating if we'd have gotten more if we traded him with a year left....though it would stand to reason. But for the sake of this discussion, I'm just going to keep him with Jordan Love(young QB needs a #1 WRer).

Obviously there are an infinite number of variables, but the Packers shift from trying to supplement a roster in a win-now mode

Instead of 13-4, I'll say the Packers go 6-11(not a knock on Love, Rodgers was 6-10 with a talented team as a rookie). That'd give them the 6th pick in this past  draft. Make the Broncos 13-4 just for arguments sake, keep the Packers at #28 and the #22 pick for Adams.

2021 Season;
Instead of 13-4, I'll say the Packers go 6-11(not a knock on Love, Rodgers was 6-10 with a talented team as a rookie). That'd give them the 6th pick in this past  draft. Make the Broncos 13-4 just for arguments sake, keep the Packers at #28 and the #22 pick for Adams.

 

Their picks in Rd 3-7 remain the same both years.

2021 NFL Draft-
We acquire the Bronco's 1st round pick and their 2nd
2021-9th-(OT)Rashawn Slater-
With Bakhtiari down with an ACL and with Billy Turner at RT, we start by 
29th-(CB)Eric Stokes
We still needed CBs and...this was a great pick. So I'm sticking with it. I'd probably go with Rosseau as we'd likely also be saying good bye to the Smith's and he'd be great on the other side from Gary, but...this was the original pick.
2nd From Den-(DE)Christian Barmore
The Packers reportedly loved Barmore and there were rumors we were going to take him at #29. We didn't, he went early in the 2nd. 
2nd(#62-)C-Josh Myers
It's not a redraft, so trying to stick with what the Packers front office did. Obviously in a redraft...we'd take Creed Humphrey, but Myers has a ton of upside.

2022 NFL Draft
With a 6-11 season, that puts us 1 spot ahead of the Falcons. Now, at this point, we're still looking at Bakhtiari and Jenkins to return, so OT isn't a need, but we've just traded Davante Adams, so WRer to surround Jordan Love obviously is. The Packers draft wasn't really a "win now" type of draft aside from trading the 2 2nd round picks for Watson and even that was for a player they knew was a bit of a project.
I'm also just assuming the Broncos draft position resembled that of the Packers to make it simpler. 

1st #8(our own)WR-Jameson Williams
We can afford to take a WRer who has the most upside and has enormous upside. We could ALSO take an OT like Cross to pair with Slater(Which would be my preference, but unlikely as we'd have already invested a lot of money and draft capital in OT with Bakh and Slater). Drake London is another option. But Williams in this system is just too explosive and we have the luxury of waiting and giving him time to develop...though it may hurt Love's development. 
1st-(from Oak)#22(Adams trade)MLB-Quay Walker
Walker is going to be a star...IMO. But regardless, again, not re-drafting, just sticking with what we did. 
1st-(from Den)#28-Christian Watson
He's off to an ugly start, but after taking Barmore, we probably don't go DE in back to back years. Plus, the Packers apparently fell in Love with Watson for his blocking ability, run after the catch and the big frame and deep speed.
I still think Wyatt's going to be a Quinnen Williams type 3-4 DE. He's that type of athlete and he's relentless. He is not however a finished product and he is 24 years old, so not sure the Packers come back and take another DE after Barmore the year before. At least not this high. Maybe at #38, but I think it's just as likely he'd be gone by then.

2nd (#38)S-Jaquan Brisker
With Amos and Savage both still question marks, I'm gonna go with an athletic Safety. 
2nd(#53) WR-Alec Pierce
The Jordy Nelson comp. In this instance, we don't have to reach for Watson, so we let the board play out. 
2nd(#59) Edge-Drake Jackson
We address the edge position here with a great athlete, a younger guy with big upside.

2023 draft
We'd have an extraordinarily young team. 2 Day One picks(assuming they don't add trade back...which they certainly could have). 
And then their own 2nd, plus potentially another from the Rodgers trade. 

You'd have 2 years to have evaluated Jordan Love and you'd be looking at an absolutely STACKED QB class if you'd decided he wasn't the answer. 

The Packers wouldn't have pushed ~100+M down the road, so they'd spend a year(or two) in salary cap purgatory, but would come out of the other side in outstanding cap shape.

 

Gone from this years roster would likely be Preston Smith, Za'Darius Smith, Rodgers.
Adrian Amos would likely be either cut or traded rather than restructured. He's an outstanding player, but we'd be looking at a youth movement. 
Watkins and Cobbs would likely be playing elsewhere.

DeVondre Campbell and Rasul Douglas would likely have been signed last year. I'll assume they bring both back as they were both signed to VERY team friendly deals and Joe Barry is still our DC, this is still the scheme they rebuilt their value in. 

QB-Love/Kurt Benkert
RB-Jones/Dillon/Hill
WRer-London/Lazard/Watson/Doubs/Pierce/Doubs/Rodgers
TE-Tonyan/Deguara/Lewis/Davis
OT-Slater/Bakhtiari/Nijman/Tom/Walker/Jones
OG-Jenkins/Runyan Jr/Newman/Rhyan
C-Myer/Hanson

NT-Clark/Slaton/Ford
DE-Baramore/Lowry/Reed
Edge-Gary/Jackson/Enagbare/Garvin
MLB-Walker/Campbell/Barnes/McDuffie
CB-Jaire/Surtain/Stokes/Douglas/Nixon
S-Savage/Brisker/Carpenter/Ford

The Packers would still be in rough salary cap shape, but next year they'd have Rodgers coming off, Bakhtiari's cap hit would be ~10M less. 

Jones, Bakh, Tonyan, Lazard, would all likely be traded/cut or just allowed to leave via free agency. 
Jenkins is a question mark in either scenario. 

But heading into 2023, the Packers would LIKELY have ~50M in salary cap space, they'd have 2 more 1st round picks this year including...again, most likely a top 10 pick, plus the Broncos pick and they'd have it in what some are calling the deepest QB draft class EVER;

https://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/college-football/nfl-gm-calls-2023-qb-draft-class-the-deepest-maybe-ever/

 

Whoever you decided would be your QB, moving forward with Love(who'd have one more cheap year) or using an early 1st on a QB, they'd have a lot of WRer talent and a very good and very young OL. The secondary would look elite.

 

 

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I was all on board with bringing Rodgers back despite the massive haul and reset the Packers could have gotten from moving on.

[MrTPlush]

An alternate reality that includes drafting offense in the first round? 

[kestrel79]

This is looking pretty tasty now that we know how this season starts...

[CheezWizHed]

Yes, but the problem with alternative realities is that the Flash will go and muck up the timeline and everything will change again... 

[UpandIn]

6 hours ago, MrTPlush said:

An alternate reality that includes drafting offense in the first round? 

Well...yeah, if the players they want are sitting there. 

They tried to trade up this past year and take Watson in the 1st round but Minnesota didn't want to give the Packers that 5th year option on Watson(which...it might take until then to see him get on the field). 

I'm sure they'd have taken a WRer in the 1st this year if all those guys would have been on the board earlier(Williams, London, Olave, Burks...etc...). 

[UpandIn]

3 hours ago, kestrel79 said:

This is looking pretty tasty now that we know how this season starts...

Yeah...it's kinda silly and pointless, but this team is definitely making you want to live in a different Packers reality.