Packers should stay active on trade and waiver market as final cuts near

The Packers already made one trade before a cutdown deadline, sending Cole Van Lanen to Jacksonville for a draft pick. More trade opportunities should arise over the coming week.

The dreaded cutdown day doesn't arrive until next Tuesday, but NFL locker rooms have felt the anxiety over roster reductions for weeks now. Teams have gone through two waves of cuts during the preseason, removing 320 jobs from the football landscape.

But while the impending cutdowns force some difficult decisions, they also create opportunities for proactive teams. On Tuesday, the Green Bay Packers traded Cole Van Lanen, an offensive lineman who had fallen out of the favor despite working with the starters at points during the offseason program. With Elgton Jenkins and David Bakhtiari recently activated from the physically unable to perform list and a handful of other linemen clearly earmarked for safe passage to the 53-man roster, Green Bay would have most likely released Van Lanen during final cuts. Instead, the team secured a seventh-round draft pick from the Jacksonville Jaguars for his services.

With less than a week before all teams must trim their rosters to 53 players, the Packers have plenty of reason to remain active. Not only could they turn another spare part into an asset, they could add to certain parts of the roster as well.

More moves along the offensive line

The Van Lanen trade made plenty of sense considering the lack of spots for offensive linemen on the initial 53-man roster. While the Packers undoubtedly prefer to have Bakhtiari and Jenkins back on the practice field with the chance to start as early as Week 1, their return from the PUP list meant they had to count toward the 53-man limit with which every team must comply by Aug. 30. Given both play in the same position, that group would feel the effects more acutely.

But the Packers might have more trimming to do along the offensive line. The unit has gone through regular reshuffling with Jake Hanson, Royce Newman, and Zach Tom rotating between spots on the right side of the line. Hanson, a sparsely used interior blocker during his first two seasons, has taken meaningful strides this year and could conceivably start at right guard during the season opener. Meanwhile, Newman has shifted between guard and tackle with middling results at the latter. Tom, a rookie, has shown tremendous promise and looks like a future starter somewhere along the line.

Assuming all three remain in place through final cuts, that probably means the Packers carry nine total offensive linemen on their initial 53-man roster. In addition to Bakhtiari and Jenkins, Jon Runyan Jr., Josh Myers, Yosh Nijman, and Sean Rhyan have locked in their spots barring injury. While the team could conceivably keep that many, it would cost them elsewhere on the roster without necessarily providing the preferred quality of depth.