The Green Bay Packers have solid depth at edge rusher. Rashan Gary is a top talent, they took Lukas Van Ness in the first round in last year's draft, and Kingsley Enagbare's injury wasn't as serious as initially projected.

That, in the opinion of Bleacher Report's NFL analyst Gary Davenport, should incentivize them to trade veteran player Preston Smith. In a piece about potential trade pieces for each NFL team, Smith was the option to the Packers.

^{"I can feel the eyes of Cheeseheads everywhere rolling. I can sense the scorn. The disdain. I'm already reading the articles that will be written about how bad the idea of a playoff contender trading a proven veteran pass-rusher is.}

^{Y'all know words hurt, right?}

^{But the notion of at least considering trading Preston Smith isn't that outlandish.}

^{For starters, yes, Smith is productive—the 31-year-old has at least eight sacks in four of the past five seasons. But he's not a game-wrecker—Smith's lone season with double-digit sacks came in 2019. He also carries a cap hit north of $14 million this year and $17.5 million in 2025 and 2026.}

^{That's a lot of coin for a player who will be 32 in November.}

^{It's not like the Packers don't have a replacement for Smith, either. Green Bay used the 13th overall pick on Iowa edge-rusher Lukas Van Ness, who tallied four sacks in just 365 snaps as a rookie—a sack-to-snap ratio almost identical to Smith's.}

^{At the end of last season, teammate Rashan Gary told reporters that he expects big things from Van Ness in 2024.}

^{'I know it's going to be a big jump next year because he has the same type of work ethic as me and he's hungry for everything he has in front of him … He understands what he needs to work on, and I know he's going to get better at it. I just can't wait to see him tear it up next year.'}

^{There are multiple contenders who would be more than a little interested in adding some pop to the pass rush. And dealing Smith would both add draft capital and clear a path for Van Ness to assume the role he was drafted for—Smith's replacement."}

Analysis

In fairness to Davenport, this is a difficult exercise to include the Packers, because there aren't obvious options — maybe AJ Dillon or Royce Newman, but then it's not easy to find buyers. Green Bay has a young roster, and Smith in fact doesn't perfectly fit the team's roster-building timeline.

However, as the analyst himself wrote, Preston Smith is still a highly productive player — in the second half of last season, he was as productive as Gary (or even more).

Moreover, the Packers don't need cap space, as they are finally in a good situation after a year of financial restraint.

To make a trade like this even less likely, the Packers have already paid Smith's $5.4 million roster bonus on March 15, making the savings almost insignificant at this point.

If the Packers trade Smith, they would have $9.5 million in dead money in 2024, opening up just $4.6 million in cap space. Next year, the team would still have $9.88 million in dead money, clearing $7.6 million in 2025, $18.207 million in 2026, and $1.667 million in 2027 (void year).

Considering how good Preston Smith has been, how impactful he is in the locker room, and how minimal the cap savings would be compared to his production, a trade would only make sense if it was for a significant (I mean, really significant) draft compensation.

Accelerating Lukas Van Ness as a starter is a strong argument. But moving a player of Smith's caliber with a good contract in terms of market value for a third- or fourth-round pick simply isn't a smart process, especially when it's a premium position.

Packers need to accelerate rookie development path

Van Ness has been fourth on Green Bay’s edge rotation