Getty Packers head coach Matt LaFleur.
The Green Bay Packers might be content to ride into the 2024 season with a quartet of young wide receivers in quarterback Jordan Love’s passing arsenal. With multiple pass-catchers seeking new contracts around the NFL, though, could they instead go all-in with a league-altering trade for a three-time Pro Bowler?
Bleacher Report’s Alex Kay raised such a possibility in his recent article examining four potential trade packages the Cincinnati Bengals “would have to consider” for superstar wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase. The No. 5 pick in the 2021 draft is seeking a new contract from the Bengals and has been holding in at training camp over the past month.
Kay proposed a blockbuster exchange between the Packers and Bengals in which Green Bay would give up two draft picks — a 2025 first- and third-rounder — along with third-year wide receiver Christian Watson to add Chase to their offense for the 2024 season.
“Green Bay could tender a respectable offer to the Bengals by giving up one of their promising young wideouts — as well as several draft picks — in return for Chase,” Kay wrote on August 20. “Christian Watson would likely be the most desirable of the bunch, plus removing him from the equation clears a potential logjam on the outside.”
Ja’Marr Chase’s Contract Would Complicate a Trade
Chase is one of the most dynamic young receivers in today’s NFL. The 24-year-old has finished with at least 1,000 receiving yards and made the Pro Bowl roster in each of his first three seasons. He also secured a career-high 100 catches in just 16 games in 2023, continuing to do damage even once the Bengals lost Joe Burrow late in the season.
While Watson, Romeo Doubs, Jayden Reed and Dontayvion Wicks all have promise for the Packers, none of the four have yet produced at the same elite level that Chase has.
The problem with Kay’s proposed trade for Chase is twofold, though.
The Packers would need to give up major compensation to acquire Chase, something that general manager Brian Gutekunst has never done for a veteran player. In fact, his GM tendencies have been to sell high on veteran players — Aaron Rodgers, Davante Adams and Rasul Douglas — and aggressively build up the roster through the NFL draft, often with multiple first-rounds.
The Packers would also have to pay an exorbitant amount of money to Chase in the immediate future. The latest Spotrac projections have Chase earning $30.9 million per season on his next NFL contract. Bleacher Report believes he could make even more, projecting him to sign a four-year, $140.5 million deal with $110 million guaranteed.
Not only do the Packers not have enough cap space — roughly $22.6 million — to pay Chase the money he is due, but it also goes against Gutekunst’s spending practices.
Packers Content Without a No. 1 Like Ja’Marr Chase
The national and local media seems obsessed with the Packers finding a bona fide No. 1 receiver for their offense, but head coach Matt LaFleur is already sick of the topic.
“I want to vomit every time I hear No. 1 receiver,” LaFleur told reporters on August 12. “It drives me crazy. … I feel like we’ve got a bunch of them.”
LaFleur isn’t just feeding reporters a generic line. He and the Packers’ front office are genuinely confident in their receiving corps, and it doesn’t take a genius to see why.
Doubs is a consistent pass-catcher who has become one of Love’s favorite and most reliable passing targets. Reed shined out of the slot as a rookie in 2023, finishing tied for sixth in the voting for Offensive Rookie of the Year after catching 64 passes for 793 yards and eight touchdowns along with 11 rushes for 119 yards and two more scores. Even Wicks — another 2023 rookie — carved out a role with 39 catches for 581 yards.
If there is a question mark among them, it is Watson — and only because of his health. Watson’s electrifying speed makes him a dangerous deep threat for the Packers, but he has played just 23 total games in two seasons in the league due to a series of injuries. If he can stay healthy in 2024, though, he could become their most dynamic receiver.
“Especially those top four guys, they’re all capable of being a No. 1 in some capacity, and it’s just how do we want to attack somebody and where do we want to put those guys,” LaFleur said. “Who is gonna get the ball? I don’t know. It could change on a week-to-week basis.”
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Packers Trade Proposal Swaps Picks & Christian Watson for Pro Bowl WR