GREEN BAY, Wis. -- The Green Bay Packers are 5-1 and in first place in the NFC North, and Aaron Rodgers wants to make sure he's enjoying things along the way.
Is the 36-year-old quarterback hoping for some help as the trade deadline approaches?
He only went so far as to admit that he has heard some of the talk that general manager Brian Gutekunst could be a buyer in the market before all NFL trades end for the year on Tuesday.
"Obviously, how do you not hear it? Guys are talking about it," Rodgers said. "So you're looking at it, you're hearing it, guys are talking about it. But we'll see it when we see it, and I'll hear it when I hear it."
After last season ended in the NFC Championship Game, Rodgers said he thought "the window's open" to get to his second Super Bowl. That was before Gutekunst drafted Rodgers' potential replacement, Jordan Love, in the first round and failed to add a receiver in any round of the deepest receiver draft in history.
That brought into question whether the Packers had a win-now approach or were trying to prepare for the post-Rodgers era.
The receiver position still looks like it could use a boost. Davante Adams is coming off a monster game -- 13 catches for 196 yards and two touchdowns -- and when healthy has been nearly uncoverable. See his 14-catch, 156-yard, two-touchdown game against Minnesota in the season opener as Exhibit A.
Allen Lazard was off to a fast start as the No. 2 wide receiver, but he underwent core muscle surgery after Week 3 and just returned to practice on Wednesday. He remains on injured reserve, and the Packers have three weeks to activate him.
Even with Lazard, the Packers don't have a consistent No. 3 receiver. Marquez Valdes-Scantling hasn't repeated his Week 1 impact, when he had four catches for 96 yards and a touchdown against the Vikings. Former practice squad members Darrius Shepherd and Malik Taylor, who caught his first touchdown pass Sunday against the Texans, round out the group.
"I'm always in the business of seeing our team expand and get better in any way that they can," Adams said. "So any type of additions we can have that can help us get to our ultimate goal, I'm always going to be for that. But also, I'm just playing football. I couldn't tell you when the trade deadline is. Like, I don't know half of that stuff.
"I'm, like, living under a rock and just playing football during the season. So I don't really pay too much attention to it. But if we went and [traded for] whoever tomorrow at the receiver position, inside linebacker, whatever we need, I'll be ecstatic, and I'll be ready to work with them and get it going."
Before the deadline last year, Gutekunst explored the possibility of acquiring receiver Robby Anderson, then with the Jets, but Gutekunst did not end up making any deals. The previous year, he made two trades, both sending players (Ha Ha Clinton-Dix and Ty Montgomery) for draft picks.
Earlier Wednesday, former Packers cornerback Charles Woodson told Milwaukee radio station WSSP that during his time in Green Bay, he wished the Packers would have made more in-season moves.
"When I look on the news today, and I see the Seattle Seahawks [traded for Bengals defensive end Carlos] Dunlap, those are the type of moves that I wish during my time we would have made," Woodson said. "Bringing in guys like that, that can help us get back to the show."
When told of Woodson's comments, Adams said it's easier to say that when you're no longer on the team.
"I don't know how it would be looked at if I came through and said, 'Yeah, I'm always looking at that trade deadline, like, why don't we sign somebody? We really need somebody. It sucks that we don't ever sign anybody,'" Adams said. "I don't think anybody thinks like that in here. Obviously, like I said, everybody's open to making the team better and to get us to winning that bowl ultimately, but I'm just playing ball and letting those guys take it. I don't get paid enough to be out here worrying about personnel and all that."