The Green Bay Packers could bring back a familiar face to bolster their defensive front before the 2026 trade deadline.
Bleacher Report’s Kristopher Knox listed Cincinnati Bengals defensive tackle T.J. Slaton among his top trade candidates entering Week 1 and named Green Bay as one of two potential suitors.
For the Packers, it would be a reunion with a player they drafted and developed into a starter before watching him leave in free agency just one year ago.
Packers Predicted to Pursue T.J. Slaton Trade
Knox ranked Slaton No. 4 on his trade-block big board and projected his value at a 2027 fifth-round pick and/or a veteran player.
Cincinnati’s offseason overhaul has made Slaton’s place in the rotation a lot less secure. The Bengals added Dexter Lawrence and Jonathan Allen to an interior group that already includes B.J. Hill, Kris Jenkins Jr. and Landon Robinson.
That depth could make Slaton expendable, especially with the veteran entering the final year of his contract and carrying a $9.2 million cap hit, according to Spotrac.
“If he only sees sporadic playing time, though, he could be even more valuable as a trade chip,” Knox wrote.
Knox added that Cincinnati, which expects to contend this season, could prefer receiving a player who can help immediately rather than simply taking a future draft pick.
Green Bay makes sense for another obvious reason due to Slaton already familiar with the organization.
The Packers selected him No. 173 overall in the fifth round of the 2021 NFL Draft. He appeared in every regular-season game during his four years with Green Bay and eventually became a full-time starter on the defensive line.
Slaton started all 17 games in both 2023 and 2024 before signing with Cincinnati as an unrestricted free agent in March 2025.
T.J. Slaton Could Give Packers Familiar Interior Help
Slaton’s first season away from Green Bay was also his most productive as a pass rusher.
According to the Bengals’ official team site, he started all 17 games in 2025 and finished with 52 tackles, four tackles for loss and a career-high three sacks. All three sacks came over the final five games.
He has now started 53 consecutive regular-season games.
Green Bay enters 2026 with Devonte Wyatt, Karl Brooks and veteran Javon Hargrave leading the interior defensive-line rotation. The Packers’ unofficial Week 1 depth chart lists Hargrave at nose tackle, with Wyatt and Brooks alongside him.
There is experience in that group, but Slaton would bring another massive interior body with direct familiarity with Green Bay’s personnel and organization.
The Packers have already shown this offseason that they aren’t afraid to keep reshaping a roster they believe can contend. Adding Slaton would be a far smaller move than some of their recent swings, but it could strengthen a position where depth can disappear quickly over a 17-game season.
The question is whether Cincinnati would really want to move him.
Slaton still has value in a deep Bengals rotation, and a contender has little incentive to create a weakness without getting something useful in return. Knox’s projected price leaves room for Cincinnati to seek immediate help rather than settle for a late-round pick.
For Green Bay, though, the familiarity lowers some of the uncertainty that comes with an in-season addition.
Slaton spent four seasons in the Packers’ system, became a starter there and has not missed a regular-season game in his NFL career.
If Cincinnati decides its crowded defensive line makes one veteran expendable, Green Bay would know exactly what it is getting back.
Packers Linked to Trade Reunion With $9.2 Million Bengals Veteran