One of the weirder things about NFL Twitter and Packers Twitter related to Green Bay is the fact that everyone wants to trade Randall Cobb. Sure, he might not have lived up to his four-year 40 million deal a few years ago, and with the swath of young receivers, Cobb probably will not come back next season. It’s laughable to think that the Packers would even consider dealing Cobb with his contract set to expire in the month of March. We need to understand that the National Football League isn’t the NBA. They cannot deal a player on an expiring contract. No one will take that bait plus why do people want to trade Cobb?

The argument in August is different than the one today. The one today features the rise of wide receiver Martez Valdes-Scantling. The concern is that with Cobb returning hopefully this week against Los Angeles, we’e going to see less of Valdes-Scantling. That might be slightly true, but Green Bay will likely work MSV in. People forget that Green Bay really didn’t have a fourth receiver. Jake Kumerow had made a case then he got hurt. We didn’t really get to see Valdes-Scantling or the other rookies try to win that spot with the injuries to Cobb and Geronimo Allison. They were forced into major roles and MVS stepped up. He’s now the fourth receiver.

The other part of Cobb’s value to the team is he knows the playbook better than any other receiver. He’s the veteran leader of that group. If he completely lost it as a receiver, sure they would be merit to getting rid of him, but he hasn’t look a step. He had a rough game in Washington, but Aaron Rodgers missed some throws in that game where the narrative on the former second-round pick could have changed for the better. Cobb also holds the respect of the locker room especially with players like Davante Adams and Rodgers. If he was dealt, it could fracture the season.

Expiring contracts do not work the same way like they do in the NBA. If they did, the trade deadline would be different, and this blog post might have a bit of a different take.

Charlie.