Will the Carolina Panthers trade RB DeAngelo Williams? Last weekend Fox Sunday pre-game analyst Jimmy Johnson said that the Green Bay Packers should explore trading for either one of the Carolina Panthers running backs, DeAngelo Williams or Jonathan Stewart. Yesterday during the pregame show on ESPN, Adam Schefter reported than neither running back is available in a trade, regardless of trade offers. I believe that as much as I believe the sun will rise in the west tomorrow morning.

NFL teams and their management lie. Plain and simple. Front offices try to out do each other on a weekly basis. The Carolina Panthers realize that the 31 other teams are looking at the Panthers sitting at 0-5, starting a rookie quarterback, with a lame duck head coach and feel that teams will think that they could come in and snatch Williams away for a song. So why not put out the word that Williams and Stewart are off limits in order to drive up the possible asking price?

Given the potential strife surrounding the lack of a collective bargaining agreement after this season and the possibility of a lockout why wouldn’t the Panthers trade DeAngelo Williams who is in the last year of his contract? John Fox is likely done with the Panthers come January 3rd, Carolina is a wreak as a team right now, so why not start stock piling draft choices?

I thought DeAngelo Williams would have been a perfect fit for the Green Bay Packers, but I don’t see Williams head to the land of the cheeseheads anytime soon for two reasons. There is a cascade of injuries in Green Bay right now and their schedule is about to become very difficult for the Packers if Aaron Rodgers is going to miss any significant time under center. It was revealed this afternoon that TE Jermichael Finley is going undergo knee surgery and will miss at least three weeks. A running back of the caliber of Williams makes all the more sense in Green Bay now, but the second reason is why the Packers won’t trade for him.

If Green Bay couldn’t find it valuable enough to trade a 4th round pick in 2011 and a 6th round pick in 2012 for Marshawn Lynch from the Buffalo Bills, they would never offer up the possible asking price for DeAngelo Williams who will be a free agent after the season.

The team that does make perfect sense now is the Washington Redskins who have Ryan Torain as their starting running back and might be without the services of Clinton Portis all season.

I’ve totally discounted any report that says any player on the Carolina Panthers team is off-limits in any trade deal. This team is two years away from any playoff aspirations and with a new coach most likely on the way for 2011, they are going to need as many draft picks as they can accumulate, especially if they can get some high picks for a player they most likely won’t re-sign in 2011.  There are eight days remaining until the NFL trade deadline on October 19th, given the current labor situation, I believe this might just be the busiest trade deadline in league history this season, we’ve already seen two trades last week.