The Chicago Bears were busy at the NFL’s trade deadline. Shipping Robert Quinn to Philly, sending Roquan Smith to Baltimore, adding draft picks along the way, and landing Chase Claypool in a splash trade with Pittsburgh made it a busy week for them (and us).
But they weren’t the only team busy ahead of the deadline.
Moreover, they might not have even been the busiest team in the NFC North.
The Green Bay Packers had all sorts of irons in the fire. And they came up empty in a most laughable manner. Because it’s one thing to miss out on Claypool when Aaron Rodgers was seemingly expecting a deal to come down for his team. But it wasn’t just Claypool. As NFL reporters around the league emptied their notebooks, it has since been revealed that the Packers also made efforts to trade for Panthers receiver D.J. Moore, Raiders tight end Darren Waller, and Broncos wideout Jerry Jeudy. And they whiffed on all of them.
A congratulatory golden sombrero for going 0-for-4 in trade deadline efforts would make for a perfect participation trophy for this team:
Ahhhh, this is the stuff that makes up our wildest Bears fan schadenfreude dreams. Whiffing on Moore, Jeudy, Waller, *AND* Claypool is the trade deadline equivalent to cartoon batters facing Bugs Bunny’s changeup and swinging themselves into knots as the umpire rings up the strikeout.
That’s gotta sting. Firstly, because this wasn’t the first time the Packers were in pursuit of Waller. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports the Packers tried trading for the Raiders tight end this offseason. However, Vegas rejected Green Bay’s attempts to get Waller as part of the Davante Adams. Oops. And secondly, Schefter chimes in with a nugget that the Packers were willing to offer more in terms of volume when it came to picks in a Claypool trade. Only to see the Steelers choose the Bears’ pick. Tough break, cheesedoodles.