Packers Traded a Starting Cornerback for a Backup Quarterback

I was shaking my head when I read what the Green Bay Packers had done, the first major transaction of the GM Brian Gutekunst era.

This is significant: The #Packers not only picked up QB DeShone Kizer in their trade of Damarious Randall, but they also moved up in the 4th and 5th rounds, I’m told. They swap 4th rounders with the #Browns and then 5th rounders, too. Browns move back twice, GB comes up.

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 10, 2018

But I did want to point out the swap of picks. It's not a huge get, moving up a dozen spots in those two rounds, but it's a nifty addition. It's nice to get to the good news first before writing about the bad.

Damarious Randall. The Packers were already weak at cornerback with only two starting quality CBs, and now their down to one. Quinten Rollins still exists and if healthy he would be their starter alongside Kevin King, however, Rollins is never healthy and he's never been good either. He's potentially the best from a number of bad options. Losing Randall makes the 2018 Packers a lot weaker, so far.

I'd like to think this trade means they intend to sign a free agent or two, but no one yet knows Gutekunst's tendencies and the Packers don't have a ton of cap space (if they keep Nelson and Cobb). Maybe this is the start of a bunch of trades by the new GM? Right now, all I expect them to do is draft a couple more rookies and hope for the best, which isn't going to work. They need a veteran, not just another Davon House re-signing, and it doesn't look like that can or will happen.

From a positional standpoint, this trade is terrible. But after Randall walked out on his team during their game in Chicago, I had been expecting he would be released during the season or traded for nothing at the end of the season. And maybe the coaches hated him too. So what I expected months ago came to happen, which is fine if I ignore that Randall finished the 2017 season strong and looks like a starter now.

Maybe there is good reason to expect a slide from him in 2018 because he has been an inconsistent player his entire career. After a great start to his rookie season, he faded down the stretch and might have outright lost them a playoff game in Phoenix. The next season was a disaster, maybe to do with injuries. His third season, 2017, was a roller coaster. He had one more cheap year on his rookie contract, a tough decision looming on his 5th year option, and then a potentially bad decision in his contract year with a risky new contract. I wouldn't have been disappointed if they let him walk in two years. At least he'd be their best option in 2018 alongside King while they work on grooming his replacement.

Maybe I would feel better about this trade if the main piece in return wasn't filling a need that was several spots down on their to-do list: find a better back-up quarterback. Instead they found Brett Hundley 2.0:

Brett Hundley and DeShone Kizer show up to #Packers training camp. pic.twitter.com/dSqYYbRSUn

— Ross Read (@RossRead) March 9, 2018

If any QB in 2017 was similar to Hundley, it was Kizer. He's got a lot of potential and upside, but he's always seemed like an underachiever, which is a description I'd apply to Hundley too. All backups are inconsistent (otherwise they'd probably be starting somewhere), Nick Foles looked like a hot mess at the end of the 2017 regular season before winning a Super Bowl MVP. Right now I don't trust Kizer to be any better if needed to start in 2018 then Hundley. Kizer might not even beat Hundley out next season. I'd rather they'd gotten a pick for Randall than a backup QB who they might never use and might underachieve as much as Hundley.

In the end, this trade isn't a disaster because Randall was too inconsistent to merit a new contract in two years and they were going to have to move on anyway. But there are a lot of ways to find a new backup quarterback that don't involve trading away one of your starters. In 2020, this trade should look better but it's a step back in 2018.