Finally, the story of the NFL offseason can be penned into the official record.
Monday saw the Green Bay Packers trade Aaron Rodgers to the New York Jets for three draft selections (and another high conditional one), including the No. 13 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. The legendary Rodgers era in Green Bay is over as he mirrors his predecessor by joining Gang Green.
With a contending roster on paper, the Jets get a quarterback who might be able to take them over the top. At the same time, the Packers can finally start building around Jordan Love and planning their future around him if he blossoms as they hope.
But how will Rodgers actually fit in New York? Was this trade compensation worth the trouble? Did the Packers come out well to hold out for this offer?
Let’s summarize the most vital details of this blockbuster Rodgers trade between the Jets and the Packers and hand out some grades.
The details
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, here’s the compensation for this trade:
Jets get: QB Aaron Rodgers, the No. 15 overall pick in 2023, a 2023 fifth-round draft pick (No. 170 overall)
Packers get: The No. 13 overall pick in 2023, the No. 42 overall pick, the No. 207 overall pick, and a conditional 2024 second-round pick that becomes a first-rounder if Rodgers plays 65 percent of the Jets’ plays in 2023.
New York Jets
In the end, general manager Joe Douglas and the Jets didn’t have much of a choice, did they?
New York built a roster ready to compete with the big boys in the AFC. It had all of the prerequisite talent necessary to vie for a deep postseason run and so much more. Except for a quarterback. And from where the Jets stood, using a No. 13 overall selection or even trading up for a raw young passer wouldn’t be enough. They didn’t have the time to see if another signal caller could be better than Zach Wilson.
With Rodgers legitimately on the table for a trade, the Jets were backed into a corner. They simply had to make a deal.
The question moving forward will be whether this was truly worth it. Rodgers will be 40 come December and has already endured a lot of attrition on his body. The days of him carrying an offense by himself for an entire season are long gone. If the Jets are smart, they’ll let their defense and elite offensive weapons like Garrett Wilson and Breece Hall buoy him.
But I remain unconvinced there won’t be at least a few duds from the future Hall of Famer on the schedule. I’m not even sure he will finish the 2023 season healthy once the games get colder. It’s the nature of his advanced age, and it’s why that conditional pick concerning 65 percent of the snaps was thrown in.
This is a reality the Jets will have to live with, even if the sticker price for Rodgers was expensive. This is what they signed up for. They just have to hope Rodgers — their last legitimate option — makes it worthwhile.
Grade: B
Green Bay Packers
The Packers made out like bandits in this deal. There are no two ways about it.
Green Bay was done with Rodgers. Done. They wanted no part of a future with one of the more dramatic players in the NFL, regardless of position. If Rodgers were still playing at an MVP level that will earn him a bust in Canton one day, this would be a different story.
But that wasn’t the case here. The Jets might believe they can still coax that version of Rodgers out of him, but the Packers didn’t care anymore. The Packers had a first-round quarterback in Jordan Love waiting in the wings and weren’t interested in seeing what they could wring out of Rodgers’ dish rag as he nears the age of 40. Rodgers was only wasting their time.
To get a top-half first-round draft pick, another pick around the top 40, and a potential conditional first-rounder is a deal that will define general manager Brian Gutekunst’s career. If Love pans out and Gutekunst uses these picks well, the Packers aren’t going anywhere. They will continue to be a force near the top of the league.
At the very least, the executive deserves praise for getting this much in return for a player he didn’t want anymore. That is the stuff of a front-office legend. Kudos to him for holding out and staying patient because this day may go down quite fondly in the Packers’ history.
Grade: A+
