GREEN BAY, Wis. — Trades, trades, trades. Seven of them—a number that's still increasing by the hour—have happened around the league in the last nine days.
None of them have involved the Green Bay Packers, but that changed on Saturday.
General manager Brian Gutekunst threw his hat into the ring, acquiring former All-Pro linebacker Zaire Franklin from the Indianapolis Colts in exchange for nose tackle Colby Wooden, according to multiple reports.
The Packers declined to pick up Quay Walker's fifth-year option last year, making the 2025 campaign his last in Green Bay. The former first-round pick will enter unrestricted free agency at the start of the new league year next week, and it appears that Gutekunst is doing what he can to absorb the blow of losing one of the team's captains. Walker has missed at least three games in each of his last three seasons. Despite playing in just 14 games last year, he registered a career high for a single season with 128 tackles.
"He's obviously played very well for us in his time here and been an exceptional leader; losing him would be tough," Gutekunst said at the NFL Scouting Combine in February. "We have guys in house that can play and fill in if that's not the case, but a lot of respect for Quay. If we're able to get him back, I would be all for that."
Franklin, who will turn 30 years old this summer, was projected to be a cap casualty for the Colts. The team has spent the last week exploring potential trade scenarios, but couldn't find a dance partner until the Packers pounced. To consummate the deal, the Packers had to shed Wooden, making their liability of a defensive line an even greater point of weakness.
Zaire Franklin attempts to tackle Packers quarterback Malik Willis in a game at Lambeau Field. (Photo: USA TODAY Sports)
Wooden's a former fourth-round pick who would've been entering the final year of his rookie contract in 2026. It's fair to suspect that the Packers were likely never going to re-sign him at the conclusion of his deal next spring anyway, so pulling the trigger on a rare, player-for-player trade that benefitted both teams felt like a sensible avenue. Wooden, a five-tech defensive lineman, stepped into a heightened role this past season following Devonte Wyatt's season-ending fibula injury in a Nov. 27 game against the Detroit Lions. He played well, for the most part, but he never blossomed into the stabilizing presence that the Packers hoped he would be with extensive snaps.
Sans Wyatt, Wooden registered just eight pressures over the Packers' six remaining games, including their Wild Card loss to the Chicago Bears. With or without Wooden, the Packers desperately need to bolster their defensive front this offseason, whether that's in free agency or the draft. They're without their first-round selection due to their blockbuster trade for Micah Parsons last summer, so they won't be on the clock until the No. 52 overall selection, barring a trade.
The Colts have seen firsthand the kind of growth from Franklin that is essentially unheard of for a seventh-round pick. Across an eight-year career in Indianapolis, Franklin played in 132 of a possible 133 games. He logged three interceptions, 26 defended passes, 10 sacks, 738 tackles and 19 hits on the quarterback. He earned a Pro Bowl nod as well as second-team All-Pro honors in 2024 after finishing the season with a pair of interceptions, a single-season high of 3.5 sacks and 173 total tackles.
Quay Walker has played his last down in Green Bay. (Photo: USA TODAY Sports)
Above all else, Franklin has been a dependable, full-time starter for the Colts' defense for the past four seasons, surpassing 1,100 total defensive snaps in three of those years and falling just 10 snaps shy in the year that he didn't. He struggled across the board last season, allowing opposing quarterbacks to complete 77.3 percent of their passes into his coverage. Franklin also took a step back in defending the run, with a career-high missed tackle percentage of 13.9.
Like Walker, Franklin was a team captain in Indianapolis and will more than likely wear the green dot on his helmet that indicates he's at the forefront of handling the defense's communication. He's also never played alongside a talent like Edgerrin Cooper, so it's possible that much of the struggles Franklin faced last season could wind up as a blip on the radar. The Packers evidently feel that Franklin would be an ideal fit for the scheme that new defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon is going to implement. Franklin and Gannon were together in Indianapolis for Franklin's first three years in the league, but Gannon was the Colts' defensive backs coach, so there wasn't a major cross over with the exception of being on the same side of the ball.
Franklin has two years remaining on the three-year, $31.26 million dollar extension he signed with the Colts ahead of his Pro Bowl campaign in 2024. He'll carry a base salary of $6.24 million dollars into 2026, as well as an additional $765,000 in per-game roster bonuses, bringing his cap hit to just north of $7 million dollars for 2026. The Packers could always convert that number into a signing bonus—as they've done to a myriad of players in the past—to help alleviate some of the pressure on their salary cap.
Zachary Jacobson is the Editor-in-Chief of Packer Report. He is entering his 12th season covering theGreen Bay Packers. He is a member of thePro Football Writers of America. Follow him on Twitter@zacobson or contact him via email atitszachariahj@gmail.com