Do the Green Bay Packers have leverage to trade up in 2020 NFL Draft?
With various needs across the roster, do the Green Bay Packers have enough leverage to move up from No. 30 overall in the 2020 NFL Draft?
The Green Bay Packers are two weeks away from the first day of the 2020 NFL Draft and are in desperate need of game-changers for this roster. While the offense is in need of receiving threats at both wide receiver and tight end, the defense has numerous holes as well at middle linebacker and defensive end.
After losing in the NFC Championship Game to the San Fransisco 49ers, the Packers have the No. 30 overall pick in the draft, which is less than ideal for general manager Brian Gutekunst and Co. as they aim to give Aaron Rodgers a more dangerous roster to compete with.
Sitting in the latter half of the first round places the Packers just outside of landing top players at the positions listed above. While trading up in the first round remains an easy way to jump up to grab those players, there comes the question of whether or not the Packers have the leverage to move up.
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Green Bay is one of many teams in the NFL that lack enough depth at their positions to trade away players for picks. If they are interested in moving up in the first round, as many would suspect they are, then Gutekunst would have to give up more than he would desire in order to preserve the team that registered a 13-3 record last season.
Not to mention, the Packers also do not have a significant pool of quality draft picks in 2020. They maintain a pick in every round while having three picks in the sixth round and another two in the seventh.
An easy direction that they could go in would be to trade their first-round pick (No. 30) and two sixth-rounders (any combination of No. 192, 208 and 209) in order to acquire pick closer towards the middle of the first round. Potential partners could be the Jacksonville Jaguars (No. 20), Las Vegas Raiders (No. 19) or the Miami Dolphins (No. 18).
The difficulty for the Packers in trading up is that the majority of the middle-late first-round selections are possessed by teams in the NFC. However, the Dolphins, Raiders and Jaguars are all not only in the AFC, but they also have at least two picks in the first round each, providing leverage for Green Bay by allowing those teams to sacrifice 10 slots while also gaining two more picks in Day 3 of the draft.
Achieving a selection such as the Dolphins No. 18 overall would give them the opportunity to be a landing spot for top middle linebackers such as Patrick Queen of LSU and Kenneth Murray of Oklahoma. The need to move up farther than No. 18 would not only cost more, but it is also unnecessary.
While the rest of the teams ahead of them will be lunging at every offensive lineman and wide receiver on the board, it will allow a high-quality linebacker to fall to the Packers, which will successfully restructure their defensive front-seven.
Though the need at wide receiver is undebatable, it’s not worth losing a quality starter and a Day 2 pick for a position that can be targeted in the second round. The ability to move up in the second round is much easier than it is to move up in the first round and it is very likely that quality options like Brandon Aiyuk, Denzel Mims and Chase Claypool will all be available in the second round.
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All of these players will be an excellent addition to the Packers offense and would come without missing the opportunity to select an elite middle linebacker in the first round.
The Green Bay Packers have just enough leverage to trade with Miami, Oakland, and Jacksonville to move up in the 1st round, but lack any more to receive a higher selection. Picks No. 18-20 are the perfect position to target their ideal future starter at inside linebacker while maintaining a high-quality stock of draft picks throughout the rest of the three-day process.