9.15.2010

Post-game trade in the works?

This week Green Bay hosts Buffalo, and the teams find themselves in somewhat similar situations: both suffered an injury to a key starter in week one, and both have found themselves painfully thin at their respective positions.

The scenarios:

Packers starting RB Ryan Grant (right) tore a ligament in his ankle, ironically the same injury which sidelined his oft-compared Holmgren-era counterpart Dorsey Levens in 1998. (By the way--who else was impressed by Ryan Grant's one-legged run into the locker room??) This left Green Bay with a journeyman (Brandon Jackson), a tweener fullback (John Kuhn), and a former Falcons' practice squadder (Dimitri Nance) as 1-2-3 on the depth chart.

Meanwhile, Bills starting inside linebacker Paul Posluszny sprained his knee in week 1, leaving him out for several weeks and set to be replaced by 6'0" 220 pound Keith Ellison. What's more is the Bills are in the first year of the 3-4, meaning Buffalo will essentially have a plus-sized safety taking on offensive linemen on a regular basis.

Sounds bad, right? If you're Mike McCarthy or Chan Gailey, you're hoping like crazy your GM can find you a trading partner, because the guys you put on your practice squad likely aren't ready to step up quite yet.

Well, read on.

The Bills have a logjam at running back, and former first rounder Marshawn Lynch (left) is serving the role Kregg Lumpkin would've served with the Packers had he not been cut: 3rd string. He's a product of Cal, and a former teammate of Aaron Rodgers. Naturally, Rodgers loves the idea.

The Packers have AJ Hawk (below), a middle linebacker coming off what Mike McCarthy calls "his best camp of the year," and nowhere to put him. In the Eagles game he didn't play a defensive snap, with Winston Moss stating after the game that he had packages which would have utilized Hawk, but the team "never got around to it." If we're playing word association, you say Hawk, I say expendable.

Now, normally this sort of thing is just typical message board fantasy football, and naturally you can't trade with the team you're playing this Sunday. But there seems to be a few bread crumbs which suggest this thing may have legs.

AJ Hawk's house in DePere, WI, is selling for $1.65 mil and his agent stated that his client is "open to a trade." Meanwhile, Lynch was on the trading block, albeit for a third round draft pick teams were reluctant to give up, until recently. Reports now are that Lynch is no longer available. You can take this at face value, that the Bills want to be really, really, really sure their running game is secure. But perhaps he's already spoken for.

Its speculation, but not unsubstantiated. Regardless of what either team says publicly, these two players may be swapping jerseys Monday morning.

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