How the 49ers can Get Aaron Rodgers
As I was saying.
The 49ers almost certainly will have an opportunity to get Aaron Rodgers this offseason. And they should get him.
After the Packers lost to Buccaneers in the NFC Championship on Sunday, Rodgers wouldn't say where he will play next season.
"He sounded like a guy who was preparing to walk away from Green Bay," ESPN's Adam Schefter said. "Now, it was right after the game, so it was a highly emotional time. It's a long, trying season for everybody. And clearly Aaron Rodgers, as he himself said, wants to step back and take some time to make a decision.
"Let's just break this down. He himself said last week that his future was a beautiful mystery. Those were the words he used -- a beautiful mystery. We know that he was not particularly enthralled with the team's selection of Jordan Love (in Round 1). We know that he's at the point of his career where clearly he's frustrated with these playoff defeats.
"Now, again, let's get ahead of ourselves. He's under contract with the Green Bay Packers for three more seasons. So they control him for three more seasons, unless Aaron Rodgers says: 'I'm not going to play there anymore. I'm going to retire. I'm going to go rogue here and force my way out of there, and I want to be traded. And I want to be traded, let's just say, to Southern California where I own a home 20 minutes from the Rams facility. Or I want to be traded to the Bay Area where my football career started.'
"Now, I'm not telling you that it goes that way. I'm just telling you that was an unusual press conference. There were a lot of emotions. And he has to take some time and step back and figure out what he wants to do. And people think the Packers control him, when in fact Aaron Rodgers can flip it rather quickly by basically saying, 'I'm not going to play there, or I'm not going to play anymore -- trade me.' That would be his option. I'm not saying he's going to that. I'm just saying there's a lot of different ways this can go during the course of the offseason."
Here's how I think this will go down:
1. Within the next few months, Rodgers will inform the Packers he wants to be traded. And they'll trade him rather than force him into retirement because they won't want to make him a life-long enemy.
2. Rodgers will pick the 49ers as his new team because he's from Northern California and would like to play with George Kittle, Brandon Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel. I'm just assuming about the second part. I bet Rodgers would have loved the Packers to get Aiyuk instead of Jordan Freaking Love.
3. The 49ers and Packers will wait until after June 1 to make the deal official, which will allow Green Bay to create more than $17 million in salary cap space.
4. The 49ers will trade Nick Bosa and a first-round pick in 2022 for Rodgers.
5. The 49ers will extend Rodgers' contract to make him affordable so they can re-sign Trent Williams and Jason Verrett.
6. The 49ers will trade Jimmy Garoppolo to the New England Patriots for a second-round pick in 2022.
7. The 49ers will keep their 2021 first-round pick, which they'll use on an edge rusher to replace Bosa, or an offensive tackle to replace Mike McGlinchey.
8. The 49ers will win the Super Bowl next season.
9. I will look like a genius.
10. The 49ers will give me a nickel.
