Why the Packers should trade for wide receiver John Ross

John Ross has reportedly requested a trade. The Packers should take a chance on him.

If Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver John Ross is actually going to be on the market, should the Green Bay Packers take a chance on him? Yes. But will the team actually take a swing at him? That’s a different story.

The Packers are a team that, outside of the draft, don’t do very many trades. They’re pretty active with trades during the draft but when the season starts don’t seem to add much outside of practice squad signings.

They most recently traded away Damarious Randall for Deshone Kizer with draft picks involved in March 2018. John Ross, in my opinion, is someone who the Packers should take a chance on if they can get him at a low price.

Ross was a first-round pick for the Bengals in 2017 after running the fastest 40-time ever at that point. He was the second WR taken in what has been a pretty underwhelming first-round class of receivers. Injuries have always been an issue for Ross unfortunately so far in his short career; he has yet to complete a 16-game season.

In 2019, he only played eight games but got off to the best start of his career. He had 28 catches, 506 yards, and three touchdowns. He also had an 18 yards-per-catch average, all of this was by far the best stretch of football he had played in the NFL.

So far in 2020, Ross has only played in three games and has been a healthy scratch at times. The Bengals seem to have already given up on their former first-round pick. Tie that in with him being an upcoming restricted free agent and I can’t imagine Cincinnati will be able to get much more than a low-round draft pick.

Now, the Packers may already have their own version of John Ross with Marquez Valdes-Scantling but I feel that Ross is already a better player than MVS. However, Ross is someone who can come in and immediately be the number two receiver during the absence of Allen Lazard.

If I’m running the Packers, I would give the Bengals and a call and offer a sixth-round pick and see what they say. I would maybe even consider giving up a fifth-rounder but the Packers should hold all of the leverage in this situation.

Matt LaFleur has done an amazing job scheming the players open this year but the WR room is still a weakness in the Packers offense. Ross can open things up and put some stress on the defense.

Even if it doesn’t work out, they can let him walk this offseason and would have given up nothing but a late draft pick. Again, I’m all for this move, but I would be quite surprised if the Packers actually pulled the trigger.