Report: Packers Trade Aaron Rodgers to Jets for a Haul originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
Start spreading the news: Aaron Rodgers is leaving Green Bay.
Ahead of the official start of the NFL Draft on Thursday, the New York Jets reportedly acquired the four-time league MVP in a blockbuster trade with the Packers.
The Jets and Packers will swap first-round picks. The Jets will also get a 2023 fifth-round pick (No. 170 overall).
The Packers will also get a second-round pick (no. 42 and sixth-round pick (no. 207). Then the Packers get a conditional 2024 second-round pick, that could become a first-round pick if Rodgers plays 65 percent of the plays.
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Rodgers, 39, spent the first 19 seasons of his career in Green Bay after being drafted at No. 24 overall in 2005. Coincidentally, Rodgers’ move to the Jets comes 15 years after Brett Favre made the same move from Green Bay to New York to clear the way for Rodgers.
Since taking over for Favre in 2008, Rodgers has been among the league’s best quarterbacks. In 15 years as a starter, he’s won MVP four times (2011, 2014, 2020, 2021), been named to the Pro Bowl 10 times and won Super Bowl XLV over the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 2010 season.
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As for the Jets, they were in dire need of a star signal-caller. New York’s top-five defense willed the team to a 7-10 record last season despite a lowly starting quarterback trio of Zach Wilson, Mike White and Joe Flacco.
Wilson, the No. 2 overall pick in 2021, has been a massive disappointment. White had been an admirable fill-in and is now moving on to the Miami Dolphins. And Flacco, 38, is well past his prime after winning Super Bowl MVP way back in 2012.
With Rodgers, the Jets expect to add an instant star despite a down season in 2022. For a team that’s cycled through quarterbacks Mark Sanchez, Geno Smith, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Josh McCown, Sam Darnold and Wilson since the Favre experiment, Rodgers is certainly worth the price.
The Packers will now hope for a similar post-Favre trajectory after trading Rodgers. Jordan Love was selected in the first round in 2020. Like Rodgers, he sat for three years behind a future Hall of Fame quarterback and saw limited snaps. Love has a long way to go before any judgments are made, but the two stories – at least on the surface – have plenty of connections.
