Packer Central

Jets Say They Will Release Aaron Rodgers; Packers’ Brian Gutekunst Wins Trade

With the Jets having announced they are moving on from Aaron Rodgers, it is now more clear than ever that the Green Bay Packers won the blockbuster trade.

Bill Huber

New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers (8) walks off the field after what figures to be his final game with the team.
New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers (8) walks off the field after what figures to be his final game with the team. / Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – On the March 17, 2023, edition of The Pat McAfee Show, NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport was discussing the still-on-hold trade of Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers to the New York Jets.

“The Packers have zero leverage. Zero,” McAfee said.

Moments later, Rapoport said “two smart people” would figure out how to make a deal.

“Who’s the smart person?” McAfee interjected.

The Jets’ Joe Douglas had proven himself a quality general manager, McAfee said. “Has Gutekunst?”

Rapoport, caught off-guard, stammered for a moment before saying NFL general managers are smart.

“Oh, yeah, there have never been sh-tty f-cking general managers,” McAfee said.  

On Super Bowl Sunday, with the Jets having fired Douglas almost three months ago, Fox’s Jay Glazer broke the news that the Jets’ new leadership regime of general manager Darren Mougey and coach Aaron Glenn have decided to move forward without Rodgers.

On Thursday, the Jets made it official.

“Last week we met with Aaron and shared that our intention was to move in a different direction at quarterback,” the new leadership tandem of coach Aaron Glenn and general manager Darren Mougey in a statement.

“It was important to have this discussion now to provide clarity and enable each of us the proper time to plan for our respective futures. We want to thank him for the leadership, passion, and dedication he brought to the organization and wish him success moving forward.”

The move cannot become official until the start of the league-year on March 12.

As it turns out, Gutekunst had plenty of leverage. A couple months after missing the playoffs with an 8-9 record, he managed to dump an aging, expensive, drama-filled quarterback on the Jets. It was a get-out-of-jail-free card for the Packers, who were able to reset their salary cap, turn the page at quarterback and quickly assemble another playoff team that looks built to last.

This isn’t meant to criticize McAfee. Anyone in sports media is certain to have a bad take or two. McAfee’s loyalty to Rodgers, which certainly played a part, is understandable.

In the trade, the Packers and Jets swapped first-round positions in 2023 – with Green Bay moving from No. 15 to No. 13 – and Green Bay gained a second-round pick in 2023, a sixth-round pick in 2023 and a second-round pick in 2024 (which would have been a first-rounder had Rodgers not suffered a torn Achilles in his Jets debut).

To be sure, Gutekunst failed to turn those draft picks into the next wave of stars. Those picks turned into:

First round (No. 13) of 2023: Defensive end Lukas Van Ness.

Second round (No. 42) of 2023: Tight end Luke Musgrave.

Sixth round (No. 207) of 2023: Kicker Anders Carlson.

Second round (No. 41) of 2024: Traded for No. 45 of the second round, No. 168 of the fifth round and No. 190 of the sixth round. Those picks became:

Second round (No. 45): Linebacker Edgerrin Cooper.

Fifth round (No. 168): Center/guard Jacob Monk.

Sixth round (No. 190): Was packaged with the team’s fourth-round pick (No. 126) to move up to No. 111 for safety Evan Williams.

Van Ness has been a disappointment with seven sacks in two seasons. The Jets at No. 15 took a pass rusher, as well, with Milwaukee native Will McDonald, who had 10.5 sacks in 2024. The Packers hope their new defensive line coach, DeMarcus Covington, will get the best out of Van Ness.

Musgrave was off to an excellent start as a rookie until he suffered a lacerated kidney. He had a quiet training camp in 2024, fell hopelessly behind Tucker Kraft and made almost no impact before suffering an ankle injury that required surgery. He caught seven passes for 45 yards in seven games this season.

The Packers booted Carlson after an up-and-down rookie season and shaky training camp.

The salvation will be Cooper. As it turns out, maybe getting a second-round pick instead of a first-rounder because of Rodgers’ injury was a blessing in disguise.

Cooper had an All-Rookie season in which he had more tackles for losses and as many turnover-producing plays as the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, Jared Verse. Cooper, Hall of Famer Brian Urlacher and two-time Pro Bowler DeMeco Ryans were the only rookie off-the-ball linebackers since at least 1999 with at least 80 tackles, 3.5 sacks, 13 tackles for losses and four passes defensed.

It's a bit of a stretch to say Williams was part of the Rodgers trade, but it helped facilitate the selection of another All-Rookie defender.

Yes, it would have been nice had Gutekunst turned the draft compensation into more difference-makers. However, the trade allowed him to turn the page to Jordan Love, who has shown glimpses of being a franchise quarterback.

Moreover, it allowed Gutekunst to get out of, if not salary-cap hell, then at least salary-cap purgatory. And it became a fresh start for a franchise that had gone stale with Rodgers, as became obvious in 2022, when the Packers were 4-8 and rallied to the brink of a playoff spot before another big-game clunker by Rodgers in the finale against Detroit.

It will be fascinating to see what’s ahead for Rodgers. As Glazer said, “all signs point” to Rodgers wanting to play in 2025. However, Rodgers’ 2022 passer rating in his final season with the Packers was 91.1, the lowest of his career. Rodgers wasn’t given enough weapons in Green Bay? With the Jets, he had Garrett Wilson and Davante Adams but posted a career-low 90.5 passer rating and went 5-12.

Rodgers might not want to retire from the NFL but will the 41-year-old be retired by the NFL?

Meanwhile, even on the heels of a disappointing season in which the Packers failed to beat any of the NFL’s best teams and went one-and-done in the playoffs, the long-term future of the franchise is bright.

Love is young. The team is young. There is money to be spent.

The Packers, whose general manager’s intelligence was questioned, won the trade.

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.