In the two years following 2020 first-round draft pick (26th overall) Jordan Love, the Packers made the playoffs twice, winning one of three games. However, Love has struggled, throwing 11 interceptions in each of his two full seasons as Green Bay’s quarterback. He threw 25 touchdown passes in 2024, ranking 11th in the league and down seven from 2023.
Love is certainly a rising quarterback who might benefit from the help of his receivers, who are ranked a good but not elite 11th in the NFL in 2024, according to Sharp Football Analysis.
Would the Packers team Tucker Kraft with Patriots tight end?
In a new trade proposal, the Packers may look to upgrade their tight end position by arranging a trade with the New England Patriots for nine-year veteran Hunter Henry, who led the Patriots’ receiving corps with 66 receptions last season, tied with wide receiver Demario “Pop” Douglas. That total also tied Henry with Washington Commanders Zach Ertz for sixth place among all NFL tight ends.
This is an impressive ranking for Henry, given that the Patriots’ receiving corps as a whole caught the 11th-fewest passes in the league. The Patriots receivers finished dead last in overall receiving yards with 2,295, the only club to grab fewer than 3,000 yards of passes. However, Henry accounted for 674 of those yards, placing him eighth among all NFL tight ends.
Henry’s dependability, along with the inexperience of the New England wide receiver corps, made him the preferred target of rookie quarterback and No. 3 overall draft pick Drake Maye, as well as veteran Jacoby Brissett, who started at quarterback for the first five weeks of the season. New England quarterbacks targeted the 6’5″, 249-pound tight end 97 times, which was ten times more than Douglas, the Patriots’ second-most targeted receiver.
In 2024, the Packers tight end corps was led by 2023 third-round draft pick (78th overall) Tucker Kraft, who, according to SI.com, was the only worthwhile tight end in the Green Bay locker room.
“It’s Tucker Kraft and everyone else,” says SI.com analyst Bill Kuber. “That Kraft is the team’s No. 1 tight end is obvious.”
Henry One of the Patriots’ few tradeable players.
Would Green Bay be prepared to part with a third or fourth-round pick to relieve Kraft of some of the weight and provide Love with additional options? According to a Bleacher Report analysis published on Monday, Hunter is one of New England’s few tradeable assets on a club that went 4-13 and sorely needs many squad upgrades if new head coach Mike Vrabel hopes to lead the team back to the playoffs.
“The Patriots should be looking to upgrade the weapons surrounding Drake Maye,” noted B/R, adding that selling the team’s leading tight end would “give them more roster flexibility and even more future draft capital.” For a team in the midst of a rebuilding process, those two initiatives are more significant than any player who may return in exchange.
Before the 2024 season, Henry agreed to a new three-year contract with the Patriots worth $27 million.
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