Acme Packing Company
I want to say on the front end, I don’t think the Green Bay Packers are going to make a trade before the league’s deadline this year. There are a couple of reasons for that. First, the team is already down future draft picks following the trade for Micah Parsons. Secondly, the two positions that the Packers would probably target, defensive tackle and cornerback, are not particularly deep right now in the NFL.
Defensive tackle has been a dry market for all of 2025. In free agency, because of the lack of depth at the position, one-year starters received $15 million per year contracts. In the draft, almost every defensive tackle went earlier than expected. When ESPN dropped its list of the top 25 most likely trade candidates, a few of which have already been moved, there were no defensive tackles named as possible trade possibilities. Everyone wants another defensive tackle. The Packers aren’t special.
At cornerback, though, there were options for Green Bay. I say were, because a few cornerbacks have already been traded.
The top 25 list from ESPN included former New York Jets cornerback Michael Carter II, who was traded to the Philadelphia Eagles this week, and former Tennessee Titans cornerback Roger McCreary, who was traded to the Los Angeles Rams this week. Both players are expected to play in the slot for their new teams. The Rams’ trade of McCreary, in a roundabout way, ended up costing the Packers their rookie draft pick cornerback Micah Robinson, as the Titans plucked Robinson off of Green Bay’s practice squad following the trade of McCreary.
So, who is left at cornerback? According to ESPN, the top trade candidates still left at the position are the Seattle Seahawks’ Riq Woolen, the New Orleans Saints’ Alontae Taylor and the Cincinnati Bengals’ Cam Taylor-Britt.
Woolen was a fifth-round pick out of UTSA in the 2022 draft, meaning that he’s on the final year of his rookie contract. As a rookie, he led the NFL in interceptions and was named to a Pro Bowl, but the 6’4”, 210-pounder doesn’t appear to be the Seattle Seahawks’ long-term plans. Woolen is an outside cornerback.
Taylor is mostly a nickelback, but has outside cornerback experience. Like Woolen, he was a 2022 draft pick, going 49th overall out of Tennessee that year.
Taylor-Britt was benched mid-season this year, only earning two starts for the Bengals. He’s another 2022 draft pick, going 60th overall via Nebraska. Like Woolen, he’s mostly played as an outside cornerback.
Basically, the cornerback market is players who won’t be extended and are under contract for just the next half-season. Why? Because these teams don’t seem to be interested in re-signing these players after their rookie deals, but the teams will also only receive draft pick compensation for these players if they leave in free agency AND their teams spend less for incoming free agents than their outgoing free agents receive. That’s how the NFL’s compensatory draft pick formula works.
So if the Seahawks,...
