Packers Trade Pitch Nets Team Former $24 Million Patriots DB

Getty Defensive back Jalen Mills of the New England Patriots.

As the calendar flips to August, the Green Bay Packers still have the time and money to round off what reads on the roster like an incomplete secondary.

Alex Ballentine of Bleacher Report on Saturday, July 29, authored a trade proposal in which Green Bay sends the New England Patriots a 2024 fifth-round draft pick in return for versatile defensive back Jalen Mills.

“The [cornerback] trio of [Eric] Stokes, Jaire Alexander and Rasul Douglas is one of the best in the league when healthy. But it gets dicey pretty quickly from there,” Ballentine wrote. “With Stokes’ timeline to return still in the air, it wouldn’t hurt to make an offer for someone like Jalen Mills. The veteran has the ability to play outside cornerback, in the slot or at safety.”

Mills Would Address Packers’ Depth Issues at Cornerback, Safety

GettyGreen Bay Packers cornerback Eric Stokes is still recovering from a severe injury he suffered against the Detroit Lions in November 2022.

Stokes began training camp on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list after doctors implanted a plate and two screws into his foot during one of two surgeries stemming from a mid-season injury in 2022. The Packers also placed safety Tarvarius Moore on the league’s non-football injury (NFI) list on July 25, per the NFL’s transaction hub.

Green Bay doesn’t have many proven options behind its top three cornerbacks, with All-Pro return man Keisean Nixon slotted in as the team’s No. 4 player at the position. Nixon played just 28% of the Packers’ defensive snaps (289 snaps) in 2022. He tallied 23 tackles, including one tackle for loss, broke up two passes, made one interception and forced one fumble, per Pro Football Reference.

Whether the Packers had two starting-caliber safeties on the roster was a question before the team placed Moore on the NFI list and after it added Jonathan Owens, formerly of the Houston Texans, in May. As of Monday, Darnell Savage and Rudy Ford were the starting safeties for Green Bay, per ESPN.

A former first-round pick in 2019, Savage finished last season with a 47.5 overall player grade from Pro Football Focus (PFF), slotting him 87th out of 88 NFL safeties who played enough snaps in 2022 to qualify at the position. Owens, meanwhile, finished 86th out of 88 safeties with a player grade of 48.3 after starting all 17 games for the league’s second-worst team in Houston.

Ford put up a quality season based advanced metrics, finishing as the 17th-best qualifying safety, according to PFF. But the one-year, $1.5 million deal that Green Bay offered the 27-year-old doesn’t assign him considerable value. The fact that Ford readily signed the contract adds credence to that notion.

Packers Can Absorb Jalen Mills’ Restructured Contract With Ease

GettyNew England Patriots cornerback Jalen Mills is a potential trade target of the Green Bay Packers in 2023.

Mike Reiss of ESPN reported in March that the Patriots scrapped a plan to part ways with Mills during the offseason, instead deciding to restructure his contract. The move shaved the final two seasons off the back end of a four-year, $24 million deal the CB signed with the Patriots in 2021.

Mills now has a contract value of $2.5 million, with $1 million fully-guaranteed, and carries a $2.9 million salary cap hit, per Over The Cap. Green Bay has a little north of $13.2 million in available salary cap space and could address their deficiencies at safety as well as their depth issues at cornerback in one fell swoop by dealing for Mills.

Mills tallied 31 tackles, five pass breakups and two interceptions across 10 starts for the Patriots last season, per Pro Football Reference.