Aaron Rodgers To The Jets May Have Legs

During a busy NFL Divisional Round Playoff weekend in which he was ruthlessly tweeting out teams that just lost entire free agent class, my main man, Adam Schefter dropped this nugget on us in video form.

I think that makes a difference as it's not written in stone so to speak in the twitterverse, but it does plant the seeds that something may be happening that results in Aaron Rodgers playing football in somewhere other than Green Bay next season. Last week, on our old pal Pat McAfee's show, he mentions the Packers may feel Jordan Love is ready and want to move on from him. He also mentions in another clip a potential "new challenge". Peter King also weighed in on the topic yesterday in his weekly column:

"Aaron Rodgers, tradee, wouldn’t be cost-prohibitive. Adam Schefter reported Saturday that a Green Bay trade of Aaron Rodgers is “a very real scenario” this off-season. Rodgers is 39. If, say, the Jets could satisfy Green Bay’s trade request, cap numbers of $15.79 million in 2023 and $32.54 million in 2024, per overthecap.com, would be reasonable."

Additionally, it looks like the ask out of Green Bay is two 1st round picks:

There are conflicting reports about how much Rodgers will count exactly against the cap next year, but let's just take a look at all teams currently with any salary cap space (via Spotrac)

Let's do a quick run-through of the teams on this list and gauge at a high-level potential interest we'd think they'd have in dealing at least a 1st round pick + more for Aaron Rodgers:

- Bears: no (Just1no)

- Falcons: no (timelines don't match, team not ready to win now)

- Bengals: no (Joe Cool)

- Patriots: no (not how BB operates)

- Giants: no (Danny Dimes)

- Texans: no (rebuilding)

- Ravens: no (Lamar)

- Seahawks: no (Geno is an FA, but still better age wise and cost wise)

- Raiders: they have Davante Adams, so I'm sure he could campaign for Rodgers, but I'd be shocked. Let's leave them as a possibility though.

- Colts: no (rebuilding/draft pick is too high)

- Lions: no (in division/Goff)

- Cardinals: no (pot committed to Kyler)

- Chiefs: no (Mahomes)

- 49ers: certainly a possibility if they want to go all in for the next year or two

- Broncos: no (pot committed to Russ)

- Commanders: definitely an option

- Eagles: no (Hurts)

- Cowboys: wouldn't that be something? doubt it (Dak).

- Jets: yes. Need to do some cap gymnastics

- Steelers: no (Kenny Pickett)

So in those top 20 teams with cap room, we've got the Raiders, 49ers, Commanders, and Jets. 

Now let's eliminate the NFC teams and we've got the Raiders and the Jets. While the Davante Adams trade last year cost the Raiders their 1st and 2nd picks in 2022, they're playing with a full deck this year. But will they really go all in on a 40-year old QB when they've got the 7th pick in the Draft?

It seems like the more likely option is the Jets, who have recently been flushed with 1st round picks thanks to savvy dealings from GM Joe Douglas. The Jets have a roster that's ready to win now and are really just a QB away. The kicker is they run a very similar offense to what Rodgers has run in Green Bay the past few years. They may even be bringing in his old Offensive Coordinator, Nathaniel Hackett to be the same position with the Jets. Hackett interviewed with the team last week and is considered one of the front runners. If that deal happens, you can be sure he'll lobby to bring in his star pupil. So while Aaron Rodgers to the Jets is still far away, the tea leaves are starting to align.