Jason Taylor And The Packers

Word on the street is that the Green Bay Packers have inquired with the Miami Dolphins about the availability of DE Jason Taylor.

This isn’t really surprising. In fact, the Journal Sentinel reports that the Packers inquired about him before the draft.

… the Packers inquired in passing about what the Dolphins wanted for Taylor before the draft. They were told a first-round pick. The Packers almost laughed.

I’d laugh too. Even though he’s two years removed from an AP Defensive Player of the Year award, Taylor is not worth a first-round pick at age 33.

However, for the right price (definitely worth a third rounder IMO), Taylor, who had 11 sacks on a one-win team last year, makes sense and very well could be a member of your 2008 Green Bay Packers. Why?

First, who knows what the Packers are going to get from Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila this year. The guy is coming off knee surgery and isn’t expected back until training camp. Plus, he was never an every-down player. ProFootballTalk reported today that KGB’s health and the interest in Taylor are very likely linked.

Second, despite Taylor saying he will play one more year for the Dolphins, everyone else in Miami is saying Taylor wants out. Green Bay, by most accounts, is a contender, which is exactly where an aging superstar wants to go when his current team is in full-blown rebuilding mode.

If this trade happens, the media will play a large roll in facilitating it. ESPN has been running the “news” that the Packers have inquired about Taylor on their bottom line all day. Writers have been writing about it all over the Internet, and the funny thing is, nothing has even happened yet. Is it news every time a team inquires about another team’s player? Not to my knowledge.

Someone obviously planted this in the media to make something happen. Taylor himself? Maybe. Taylor’s agent? Probably.

If I’m Jason Taylor, I want to force the Dolphins’ hand without openly demanding a trade. What better way to make them move?

If I’m the Dolphins, I want to respect the best defensive player to ever wear my uniform and give him what he wants – one last shot.

If I’m Ted Thompson, I want to make a trade that makes sense – not give up too much of my draft for a guy who might play two seasons. The more speculation, the more of a distraction the Taylor situation becomes for Miami, the more the asking price goes down.

I say the only thing that stops Taylor from becoming a Packer at this point, is if some idiot GM like the dynamic duo over in Minneapolis throw a first rounder at the Dolphins.

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