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Defining moments: Packers’ 5 most consequential trades since the team’s renaissance began in 1992
1. Ron Wolf trades first-round pick to Falcons for Atlanta’s third-string QB — Brett Lorenzo Favre
The Packers and Ron Wolf pinned their turnaround hopes on a guy who threw five passes — two of which were intercepted — as a rookie and overslept for the team picture after a night of carousing. And it worked out brilliantly.
But the team president at the time, Bob Harlan, wasn’t so sure. He accompanied Wolf to a Packers-Falcons game in Atlanta late in the 1991 season, four days after he’d hired Wolf as GM.
2. Packers trade QB Brett Favre to New York Jets for a conditional pick in 2009 draft
After retiring in March 2008 following an NFC Championship Game loss to the New York Giants to end his 16th season in Green Bay, Brett Favre returned to Green Bay during training camp, claiming he wanted his old job back. Whether that was true or not given the rival Minnesota Vikings’ attempts to woo him to join their team — the Packers later accused the Vikings of tampering with Favre, although the NFL did not find enough evidence of that to punish the team — it created a circus throughout the early weeks of camp.
That circus included fans shouting profanities at Rodgers, organizing petitions to try to force the team to keep Favre, and a divided fan base whose loyalty was split between the legendary Favre and the up-and-coming Rodgers, who’d flashed his talent in a loss to the Dallas Cowboys during the previous season after Favre suffered an elbow injury. The ugliness reached its nadir during Family Night, when Rodgers was loudly booed by fans in attendance as Favre, who the team would not allow to enter the locker room, watched it all unfold from a Lambeau Field suite.
3. Packers trade 4th-rounder to move up 4 spots in 2020 first round to select Utah State QB Jordan Love
The drama that unfolded Thursday afternoon when news broke of Aaron Rodgers not wanting to play for the Packers again all traces back to general manager Brian Gutekunst’s decision to trade up in last year’s first round and take Jordan Love — 15 years to the day after the Packers had taken Rodgers with the 24th overall pick in the 2005 NFL Draft after Rodgers, once viewed as the likely No. 1 overall pick, fell down the draft board and into the Packers’ lap.
The comparison of Love succeeding Rodgers the way Rodgers succeeded Brett Favre was prevalent in the days after the draft, but in reality, Rodgers’ position at age 36 and Favre’s position in 2005 at age 35 could not have been more different. Favre had talked repeatedly about retiring in the years leading up to Rodgers’ selection; Rodgers had been saying he wanted to play into his 40s. Rodgers was a potential No. 1 overall pick who fell to the Packers; Love was the fourth quarterback taken in last year’s first round and Gutekunst traded up to get him.
4. Packers trade up in 2009 NFL Draft to select USC linebacker Clay Matthews
Having already taken nose tackle B.J. Raji at No. 9, general manager Ted Thompson had become enamored with Clay Matthews (above) during USC’s pro day and still needed an edge rusher for new defensive coordinator Dom Capers’ 3-4 scheme. So, despite a track record of almost exclusively trading back in his first four drafts as GM, Thompson went up and got Matthews, moving up 15 spots from No. 41 to No. 26 to take the third-generation NFL player.
Thompson gave up the Packers’ second-round pick (No. 41), and two third-round picks (Nos. 73 and 83) to move up and take Matthews, who went on to become the franchise’s all-time sack leader and deliver one of the pivotal plays of the team’s Super Bowl XLV victory: Forcing a fumble by Pittsburgh running back Rashard Mendenhall.
5. Packers trade CB Fred Vinson and 6th-round pick to Seattle for RB Ahman Green and 5th-round pick
Ahman Green (above), a former third-round pick from Nebraska, had fallen out of favor with Seattle head coach Mike Holmgren because of his frequent fumbling. Holmgren, the former Green Bay head coach who’d led the 1996 Packers to the Super Bowl XXXI title, had the dual role of coach and general manager and decided to move Green to his old team. It proved to be a colossal mistake.
Fred Vinson, a 1999 second-round draft pick from Vanderbilt, suffered a torn ACL in his knee while playing basketball during training camp that summer and missed the entire 2000 season. He never played a snap for the Seahawks and his NFL career consisted of the 14 tackles, two interceptions and one sack he’d had for the Packers in 1999.
