Aaron Rodgers publicly declared his intention to play for the Jets, and now he will.
Finally, the Jets and Packers agreed to a trade on Monday, more than a month after Rodgers went on “The Pat McAfee Show,” derided the Packers’ handling of his situation and then declared where he wanted to go.
The deal, according to a Jets team source:
- The Jets get Rodgers, pick No. 15 and a fifth-round pick (No. 170) in 2023.
- The Packers get pick No. 13, a second-round pick (No. 42) and a sixth-round pick (No. 207) in 2023, and a conditional second-round pick in 2024 that becomes a first if Rodgers plays 65 percent of the plays.
The move ends a long, drawn-out process that has been in the works since before Rodgers made his declaration — and immediately changes the trajectory of a Jets franchise with the NFL’s longest playoff drought, giving them one of the league’s best quarterbacks, even at 39 years old. Rodgers was always the Jets’ No. 1 target this offseason in their pursuit of fixing a quarterback position decimated by disappointment. They stuck with that pursuit even as other options, like Derek Carr and Jimmy Garoppolo, didn’t want to wait for Rodgers to make a decision.
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It was 15 years ago that the Jets traded for a 39-year-old Packers quarterback — Brett Favre, a future Hall of Famer. Sometimes, history repeats itself. The Packers are again trading a 39-year-old future Hall of Famer to the Jets and handing the keys over to a 24-year-old first-round pick who spent three years on the bench, just like Rodgers did behind Favre.
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While the Packers hope Jordan Love extends their streak of elite quarterback play to, say, 45 years, the Jets are simply hoping the Rodgers experiment turns out better than the Favre one, which ended after one season and with the coaching staff fired.
The Jets put on the full-court press for Rodgers, flying a contingent to California on owner Woody Johnson’s private plane in early March to meet with him in person. That contingent included Johnson, coach Robert Saleh, general manager Joe Douglas and offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett. The presence of Hackett clearly helped the pitch — Hackett is close with Rodgers from their time together in Green Bay, where Rodgers won two MVPs in three years with Hackett as offensive coordinator. Rodgers admitted his former coach was a top reason he wanted to join the Jets.
The Jets’ pitch didn’t stop after that meeting, either. They also took suggestions from Rodgers on what free agents he’d like them to sign, and they listened, signing wide receiver Allen Lazard and pursuing wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. Defensive end Calais Campbell has also said Rodgers tried recruiting him to the Jets before Campbell ultimately signed with the Falcons. It’s still possible the Jets add tight end Marcedes Lewis and wide receiver Randall Cobb, too.
Rodgers told McAfee that he was 90 percent sure he was going to retire when he went on a four-day darkness retreat last month, but had a change of heart once he finished the retreat and realized the Packers did not want him anymore. Packers president Mark Murphy made that clear in a March 10 interview, saying that Green Bay would only welcome Rodgers back if “things don’t work out the way we want them.” Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst pushed back on some of Rodgers’ assertion at the owners’ meetings in Arizona.
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“I was really looking forward to the conversations with Aaron,” Gutekunst said. “Those never transpired. So there came a time where we had to make some decisions, so we went through his representatives to try to talk to him (about) where we were going with our team. At that point, they informed us that he would like to be traded to the Jets.”
Still, the Packers were clearly ready to move on after an awkward few years since picking Love in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft. Gutekunst has said he feels Love is finally ready to start, and that the next step in his development is to actually play consistently in games that count. Packers coach Matt LaFleur tried to temper expectations when he spoke in Arizona, though.
“I think we’re fooling ourselves if we think he’s going to go out there and perform at a level to the likes of an Aaron Rodgers,” LaFleur said. “This guy (Rodgers) is a once-in-a-lifetime, generational talent. I don’t think it necessarily started that way when he first started, but he progressed into that. Like I said, it’s going to be a progression, and hopefully we can surround (Love) with enough people to help him perform at the best of his ability, and then we’ve got to do a great job as a coaching staff.”
While Love will face only moderate pressure in his first year succeeding one of the best quarterbacks ever, the pressure is on for the Jets to justify the cost of the deal. It already felt like Douglas and Saleh needed to make the playoffs in 2023 to keep their jobs. The Jets are investing significant money ($59 million guaranteed upon completion of the trade) and draft capital to add Rodgers, who still has something left in the tank — even if the numbers say he declined in 2022.
Rodgers passed for only 3,695 yards, a career low for any season in which he played at least 15 games. He threw for only 26 touchdowns, tied for second fewest in a season under that same criteria. And he threw 12 interceptions, the most in his career outside his first year starting in 2008. He also dealt with moving pieces on the offensive line, a receiving corps that was lost at times, a broken throwing thumb suffered in Week 5 that he played through and a ribs injury suffered in Week 12 that sidelined him only a quarter. He might not return to MVP level, but a healthy Rodgers with more stability and an enticing cast of young standouts that includes wide receiver Garrett Wilson and running back Breece Hall should remind us that he’s still got it.
It’s unclear if Rodgers has given any guarantees about playing beyond 2023, but that’s a dilemma for another day.
Rodgers’ worst season in a while would qualify as one of the best ever for a Jets franchise cursed by poor quarterback play for most of its existence — and especially last season. The Jets still have work to do this offseason, especially on the offensive line, but Rodgers is joining an organization with an elite defense and an offense that also includes wide receiver Mecole Hardman and tight ends Tyler Conklin and C.J. Uzomah.
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The Jets started 6-3 in 2022 even as they received mediocre quarterback play from Zach Wilson. Things fell apart the second half of the season, Wilson was benched and the Jets lost six of seven games to fall out of playoff contention — an impotent offense wasting a stellar season from the defense, which Pro Football Focus ranked as the best in the NFL.
When the season ended, the Jets made it clear they planned to move forward with a different starting quarterback, with Saleh, Douglas and Johnson all publicly admitting their goal was to find a veteran. They met with Carr multiple times, but weren’t willing to offer him a contract until they knew what Rodgers wanted to do. So Carr signed with the Saints, and the Jets were left to sweat out one of the most unpredictable personalities in NFL history in Rodgers.
What comes next? Well, the Jets still have some holes on the roster to fill and might have to clear some more cap space too. They’ve already released wide receiver Braxton Berrios and restructured the contracts of five players: Uzomah, Conklin, guard Laken Tomlinson, defensive lineman John Franklin-Myers and cornerback D.J. Reed. Some of that cap savings, though, was applied to their other moves this offseason, like signing Lazard, Hardman and defensive tackle Quinton Jefferson. They re-signed linebacker Quincy Williams, kicker Greg Zuerlein, defensive lineman Solomon Thomas and center Connor McGovern; applied the second-round restricted free-agent tender to defensive end Bryce Huff; traded for safety Chuck Clark, signed offensive lineman Wes Schweitzer, quarterback Tim Boyle and punter Thomas Morstead. The Jets can still restructure other contracts (like those of linebacker C.J. Mosley and defensive end Carl Lawson) and part ways with others to save money.
On offense, the Jets have holes on the offensive line — PFF graded the Jets 29th in pass blocking and 27th in run blocking in 2022. They lost backups Nate Herbig and Dan Feeney to free agency. They could also use some insurance at running back in case Hall isn’t quite ready to return to form coming off a torn ACL.
The Jets will also have to determine what’s next with Zach Wilson. The 2021 No. 2 pick had a brutal second season, when he lost support of the locker room — and former offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur — and admitted to issues with his confidence. Wilson has a relationship with Rodgers, so maybe bringing him in will set things in the right direction.
However the rest of the offseason goes, all that matters is that the Jets found their quarterback, one of the best to ever play the sport.
“With Aaron Rodgers at quarterback, the possibility to win is always a thing,” Lazard said at his introductory press conference.
So what’s the expectation with him joining the Jets?
“Really, the Super Bowl,” Lazard said.
The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman contributed to this story.
(Photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
