On April Fools’ Day, Rodgers Trade Talks Continue

Will the Green Bay Packers seal the deal that sends Aaron Rodgers to the New York Jets? Here is an "update" on negotiations.

Author:
Bill Huber
Updated:
Apr 1, 2023 11:48 AM EDT
Original:
Apr 1, 2023

In this story:

Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – What does Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst want from the New York Jets in a trade of Aaron Rodgers?

“I want all the picks,” Gutekunst said to laughs at the NFL meetings in Phoenix on Monday.

Gutekunst wasn’t kidding, though.

“I want all the picks!” Gutekunst screamed at his counterpart, Jets general manager Joe Douglas, just hours earlier while poolside at the posh Biltmore Hotel.

Douglas smiled. He wasn’t giving up “all the picks” for a 39-year-old who might wake up the day before OTAs next month and choose plant medicine and goat herding over football. Heck, he wasn’t going to give up any good picks – at least picks that would be good for the Packers.

“Since Aaron’s kind of running the show here,” Douglas began, “he thought I should offer five third-round picks.”

It was a devious plan by Rodgers to screw his former team. Rodgers knew Gutekunst’s mastery of the trade-value chart. Either Gutekunst had a Rainman-like ability to memorize the point totals and do the math or it was from the countless hours of staring at the one wallpapered in the bathroom of his suburban Green Bay mancave.

On the Rich Hill trade-value chart, for instance, five third-round picks placed smack-dab in the middle of the round is the equivalent of the 19th pick of the first round.

Gutekunst’s face turned red – redder even than when his 1,456th consecutive call to Rodgers went directly to the quarterback’s voicemail. The Packers haven’t drafted a competent player in the third round since Morgan Burnett in 2010. His own third-rounders had collected Oren Burks, Jace Sternberger, Josiah Deguara, Amari Rodgers and Sean Rhyan.

It was such a motley crew of players that the sober members of the rock band Motley Crue were offended by the reference.

“But you don’t have a third-round pick in this year’s draft,” Gutekunst pointed out.

“You’re welcome,” Douglas replied with a wink.

Gutekunst started talking about Gatorade bottles – “I think Lazard took them all, so we could use about 30 to get through offseason practices” – when Douglas cut him off.

“Hang on, Brian. Aaron’s calling.”

“Aaron’s calling … you?” Gutekunst stammered in disbelief.

Given a moment to ponder his next move, Gutekunst knew the Jets weren’t going to give up this year’s first-round draft pick. Rodgers needed it to draft a left tackle who would buy him a golf cart. And Gutekunst sure as hell didn’t want third-round picks, knowing the vitriol he’d see from the fans when he logged onto his burner Twitter account.

Gutekunst’s counter came in the version of song.

Three No. 2s.

Two conditional No. 1s.

And a partridge in a pear tree.

It was a ballsy ask by Gutekunst. No, not the haul of draft picks. Douglas is well-known for his love of fruit, in general, and pears, in particular. Moreover, NFL Commissioner-for-Life Roger Goodell infamously has been a stickler about trades for players including at least some football compensation.

Back in 2006, in his first major decision as commissioner, Goodell voided a trade in which the Packers sent Ahmad Carroll and a set of boxing gloves to, coincidentally enough, the Jets for four tickets to a Broadway performance of A Christmas Carol and a pair of gardening gloves. However, in 2008, Goodell did allow the late Ted Thompson to trade Brett Favre and an iPhone, complete with a fancy two-megapixel camera and unlimited data, to the Jets.

“What the hell’s a selfie?” Thompson famously asked at the time.

Earlier this week, Douglas offered former Packers receiver Malik Taylor and former Packers lineman Adam Pankey as throw-ins in a trade that centered on “a lifetime supply of seventh-round picks and your choice of our backup long snappers for the next decade.”

In what could be seen as a breakthrough in negotiations, Douglas did sign off on the 30 Gatorade bottles, on conditions that Gutekunst would have to send 10 back if Rodgers retired at the end of the season.

After Gutekunst declined and started asking about some Newark-area high school receivers, Douglas responded, “What if I re-signed Joe Flacco and made him part of the trade?”

Trade talks continued on Saturday, with the Jets offering defensive backs Bryce Hall and Michael Carter II in hopes that Gutekunst would fall for some April Fools’ confusion and think the offer really was for standout running backs Breece Hall and Michael Carter.