The Packers may have turned a quiet offseason swap into a lopsided win before the regular season even starts.
Earlier this offseason, Green Bay and Indianapolis pulled off a rare player-for-player trade, with the Packers sending defensive tackle Colby Wooden to the Colts for linebacker Zaire Franklin. At the time, it looked like a straightforward exchange. Now, it looks a lot different.
According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the Colts are releasing Wooden ahead of Sunday’s roster cutdown deadline. That changes the trade math in a big way: Green Bay gets Franklin, a former Pro Bowl linebacker who has already emerged as a leader in the locker room, while Indianapolis gets nothing.
Franklin has wasted no time making an impression in green and gold. He has stepped into a leadership role right away, mixed it up in a few training camp scuffles, and brought a noticeable edge to a Packers defense that needed exactly that.
The best part for Green Bay is that the team landed the 2024 Pro Bowler without giving up any draft capital.
Wooden’s release is the surprise here. Lee Vowell of Horseshoe Heroes reported that the veteran “has had a very good camp,” which makes the decision to move on from him even more notable.
Still, the Packers clearly came out ahead even before this latest twist. Franklin looks like a starting-caliber addition, while Wooden would have been a backup for the Colts behind DeForest Buckner and Grover Stewart.
That leaves one more question hanging over Green Bay: could Wooden come back?
It’s at least worth considering. He’s a useful depth option, but the roster puzzle is tricky.
Since trading him away, the Packers have added Javon Hargrave in free agency and Chris McClellan in the draft. Devonte Wyatt is back from injury, and the group also includes Karl Brooks and second-year player Warren Brinson.
A reunion would probably mean cutting loose preseason standout Anthony Campbell, along with Jonathan Ford and Nazir Stackhouse. That’s a lot to ask during roster trimming, especially with the Packers already facing difficult decisions to get down to 53 players.
If those players are cut and don’t return to the practice squad, the idea gets more interesting. But even without that wrinkle, the Packers have already done very well here. If they somehow brought Wooden back too, it would be a full-on knockout.
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