With Green Bay struggling on offense through the first eight weeks of the season, there was a strong belief around the NFL that the Packers would likely try to make at least one deal before Tuesday's NFL trade deadline, but that didn't happen.
Now, they're going to have to move forward with what they have, and surprisingly, Aaron Rodgers actually seems OK with that. During his weekly press conference on Wednesday, Aaron Rodgers was asked about the lack of moves by his team and although he's never been shy about questioning the front office, the Packers quarterback made it clear that he understood why general manager Brian Gutekunst wasn't able to pull the trigger on any deals.
"The compensation for whatever players we were going after just didn't make sense," Rodgers said, via USA Today. "So I trust Brian, and we had some good conversations. We were in on some things. It just didn't pan out."
The closest Rodgers came to being passive-aggressive came when he was asked if a trade needed to be made.
"That's not my area of focus," Rodgers said. "Brian didn't think whatever was out there was worth whatever was required of what was given up. That just sends a message to us that we've got to play with the guys we've got and win with the guys we've got."
Heading into Week 9, the Packers are averaging just 18.1 points per game, which is the seventh-lowest number in the NFL. The team also ranks in the bottom half of the league with just 217.4 passing yards per game.
Although the Packers didn't pull off a trade, the two teams at the top of the NFC did with the Vikings and Eagles both scoring big before the deadline. The Vikings acquired T.J. Hockenson while the Eagles added Robert Quinn.
"Well, with all due respect to those teams, we're chasing some other teams right now," Rodgers said, via PFT. "We've got to get back in the hunt. Those teams are out front right now. So I'm worried about our guys that we've got in the locker room. . . . Like I said, I know we were in on some guys, and liked a few. But it just didn't work out."
One of the guys that Green Bay was apparently in on was Chase Claypool. According to the Green Bay Post-Gazette, the Packers offered a second-round pick for Claypool, but the Steelers decided to send him to Chicago after the Bears also offered a second-rounder.
With no new players on the roster, Rodgers knows the team will now have to win with who they have.
"That just sent the message to us that we've got to play with the guys we've got and win with the guys we've got," Rodgers said Wednesday. "I think there's still a lot of confidence in the guys in the locker room. I do feel like we need to get healthy."
Getting healthy seems like a must for the Packers if they're going to compete for a playoff spot. One reason a trade would have made sense for Green Bay is because the team is banged up at receiver right now with Christian Watson, Allen Lazard, Sammy Watkins and Randall Cobb all dealing with injuries over the past few weeks.
If the team can get healthy, Rodgers seems confident that they can be good. .
"We've got to hopefully get [Watson] and [Lazard] back this week, Cobby in a couple more weeks," Rodgers said, via ESPN.com. "We're hopeful that both [guard Elgton Jenkins] and [left tackle David Bakhtiari] will be able to go, and there's no surprises on game day. I think that squad, when you put that together, I think we can win some football games with those guys."
Winning football games is something that Packers are going to need to start doing soon. At 3-5, Green Bay doesn't have much margin for error over the second half of the season. The Packers will try to turn things around starting on Sunday when they travel to Detroit in a game they really need to win, because after that, they play three straight games against teams that currently have five or more wins (Dallas, Tennessee, at Philadelphia).
