Getty The Green Bay Packers traded outside linebacker Reggie Gilbert on Wednesday to the Tennessee Titans in exchange for a seventh-round pick.
The Green Bay Packers signaled they are pleased with their outside linebacker core Wednesday evening when they traded away Reggie Gilbert to the Tennessee Titans for a seventh-round draft pick, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
A third-year pro, Gilbert was slotted to be no higher than fifth on the depth chart at OLB behind starters Za’Darius Smith and Preston Smith — major offseason acquisitions for the Packers — with 2018 team sack leader Kyler Fackrell and rookie Rashan Gary the clear-cut choices to back them up. Gilbert registered 2.5 sacks in 18 career games and had been sitting out of Packers training camp with a knee injury since the third week of the preseason.
Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said Tuesday the Packers were looking at all possibilities in terms of finalizing their 53-man roster, including potential trades that could help add depth to thinner areas on the roster — most prominently, at inside linebacker. The Packers got lucky that injuries to Oren Burks (chest) and Curtis Bolton (knee) will only sideline them for a few weeks, but the position is hurting with them.
Finding replacements, even temporary ones, has already proved difficult for the Packers in the case for inside linebacker Nicholas Grigsby, who they claimed on waivers Sunday from the Baltimore Ravens only to waive him Tuesday when he failed his physical, according to ESPN’s Rob Demovsky.
LB Nicholas Grigsby, who was claimed off waivers, failed his physical and was waived by the Packers. So the search for ILB depth continues. t.co/FCfy9WbmsO
That leaves Ty Summers, a seventh-round rookie who racked up good tackle numbers in the early preseason games but missed a noticeable number of them, as well as James Crawford and Brady Sheldon — neither of whom seems ready to assume a depended-on defensive role.
“There’s always some surprises come Friday and Saturday, and there’s a lot of conversations going on now between the teams,” Gutekunst said. “Everybody is trying to fill the back end of their roster, fill some holes.”
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Packers GM Talks Josh Jones’ Release
When asked Tuesday what went wrong with former second-rounder Josh Jones, Gutekunst was quick to save face on the decision to part ways with the disgruntled safety.
“I don’t think anything went wrong with Josh,” Gutekunst told reporters, “I think it might not have been the best fit.”
By that point, Jones had gone unclaimed on the waivers and became a free agent Monday. His departure, though, had been in the works since news broke in the offseason that Jones wanted the Packers to trade him away. Green Bay had added former Chicago Bears safety Adrian Amos along with drafting Darnell Savage Jr. out of Maryland to pose serious challenges to Jones’ job.
Add in the fact that Jones began training camp by getting kicked out practice and then missed the first three games with an injury, the decision became all the clearer in recent weeks.
“Josh is a talented player and we wish him the best,” Gutekunst said. “We really tried to make it work here, it just came to a point where it was time. We needed some bodies for this game, and Josh hasn’t been able to be out there. It was time.”
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