Rodgers Seeks Trade to Jets in Momentous Day in Packers History
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – After 18 seasons, one Super Bowl victory, four MVPs and 520 touchdown passes, an era is about to end. Whether it happens in one hour, one day or one week, the Green Bay Packers will be trading legendary quarterback Aaron Rodgers to the New York Jets.
Rodgers confirmed the obvious during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday.
“At this point, I made it clear that my intention was to play and play for the New York Jets,” Rodgers said. “I still have that fire and want to play. It’s just a matter of getting that done at this point.”
Rodgers said he entered his four-day darkness retreat “90 percent” sure he was going to retire. He contemplated retiring for one day and playing for one day. When he emerged from the dark, he checked his phone. At some point during those days, he said, the Packers had shifted direction at quarterback.
“Everything I was told during the week I was in Green Bay [after the season] was take as long as you want and we want you to retire a Packer,” Rodgers said. “You want to come back and play, obviously the door is wide open. So, that was the information I was going on. Now, when I came out of the darkness, something changed. I’m not exactly sure what that was but something changed.”
The Packers, who almost unbelievably had no idea what Rodgers was going to tell McAfee, are ready to move on. Rodgers is ready to move on. The Jets are waiting. A trade is a welcome inevitability for all sides.
“They want to move on and, now, so do I,” Rodgers said.
After three years of watching him toil patiently behind the scenes, the Packers are eagerly passing the baton to Jordan Love, an outcome the 2020 first-round pick had been expecting. In a parallel the Packers can only hope is an omen of things to come, Rodgers also spent three years on the bench before being handed the baton following the trade of Brett Favre to the Jets in 2008.
One Hall of Fame career led directly to another. Can history repeat itself? It seems unlikely, but it did 15 years ago.
“He’s going to be a great player,” Rodgers said.
There’s only one way to find out, and that time is now.
After year upon year of being a perennial Super Bowl contender with Rodgers, the Packers will try to reload with Love, whose limited resume includes a strong fourth quarter at Philadelphia in November.
The trade compensation from the Jets – whether it’s a draft pick, a young player or both – will help the rebuild. The ability to get out of the remainder of Rodgers’ contract will help, too. Just not in 2023. With Green Bay, Rodgers is scheduled to count $31.6 million against the cap. With New York, Rodgers will count $40.3 million against Green Bay’s cap. That’s an additional $8.69 million on this year’s cap but a $40.7 million savings in 2024.
Retirement and/or trade rumors swirled around Rodgers following each of the last three seasons.
In 2020, his disillusionment with management – a wound ripped open with the first-round pick used on Love – had him seemingly on the verge of forcing his way out of Green Bay after winning his third NFL MVP.
Rodgers returned, though, and, throughout the course of 2021, he and general manager Brian Gutekunst built a much stronger relationship. That didn’t stop the rumor mill from churning after the playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers. His good friend, offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, got the head coaching job with the Denver Broncos, who needed a quarterback.
But Rodgers as a four-time MVP returned in 2022 on a three-year, $150 million contract extension that created badly needed cap space to help Gutekunst fill out the roster in hopes of making another run at the Super Bowl.
When the 2022 season ended with a bitter loss to the Detroit Lions that kept the Packers out of the playoffs altogether, Rodgers and his longtime friend and teammate, Randall Cobb, walked off the field arm in arm.
“I don’t think so,” Rodgers said that night when asked if the decision to return was his alone to make. “I think there’s got to be mutual [interest] on both sides.”
That mutual interest never really existed. While Gutekunst spoke with optimism about the future of Love, it was the Jets who pursued Rodgers with vigor.
“I think all options are on the table right now,” Gutekunst told a small group of local reporters at the Scouting Combine. It was a startling phrase considering Rodgers had been given a three-year, $150 million contract barely one year earlier.
Then, on Friday at the Wisconsin state girls basketball tournament, team President Mark Murphy spoke of Rodgers in the past tense. Murphy talked about bringing Rodgers back to retire his number, not of Rodgers returning to the team.
“Oh, yeah, we would” honor a trade request, Murphy said.
At the end of his press conference following the Detroit game, Rodgers was asked what he’d miss if in fact he’d just played his final game with the Packers. Clearly fighting back emotions, he pondered an answer for 10 seconds. After joking about some media members, he turned serious. “I’ll miss the guys. I’ll miss the fans.” He paused. “Yeah. Thank you.”
This time, the moment was right for a split between the iconic franchise and the legendary quarterback.
With three years on the bench, coach Matt LaFleur and Gutekunst said Love was ready to play. As he enters the final year of his four-year rookie deal, it was time.
The complicated nature of Rodgers’ contract extension made this offseason the least-worst time to make the move from a cap perspective. Rodgers will turn 40 in December and is coming off perhaps the worst season of his career. That the team went from 13 wins and the NFC title game in 2019 and 2020 to 13 wins and a one-and-done postseason in 2021 to eight wins and missing the playoffs in 2022 no doubt played a role, too.
“I will say our season last year certainly adjusted some things and our thinking a little bit,” Gutekunst said at the Combine.
With Love waiting in the wings, Rodgers was aware of the possibilities.
“Change is a part of this business, it’s a part of life, and I think being open to it and embracing whatever that change looks like is an important part of coming to peace with whatever decision lies ahead of you,” Rodgers said on The Pat McAfee Show last month.
“I think there’s been a lot of fun dreaming about retiring as a Packer because there’s something really special about that. But if the competitive hole still needs to be satiated and it’s time to move on, then I hope everybody would look at that with a lot of gratitude and not any resentment. Or, even on the flip side, ‘Let’s fucking get rid of this old guy. It’s time to move on.’ I hope there’s some gratitude on both sides if that happens.”
The Packers’ first-round choice in 2005, Rodgers was nothing short of magnificent. Thrown into the ultimate pressure-cooker of the Favre drama, he was booed and jeered by a sizable number of the fans lining the practice field for his first training camp as the starter in 2008. In his starting debut against Minnesota, a 24-19 victory at Lambeau Field, he went 18-of-22 with one touchdown pass – the second of 475 in regular-season play.
Even while spending his first three seasons parked on the bench, Rodgers in NFL history ranks eighth in completions, ninth in yards, fifth in touchdowns and second in passer rating.
His 4.52 touchdown passes for every interception is No. 1 all-time; Patrick Mahomes (3.92) is second, and Russell Wilson (3.14) and Tom Brady (3.06) are the only other quarterbacks at better than 2.75. If Rodgers starts the 2023 season with 16 consecutive interceptions, he’d still be ahead of Mahomes.
Those numbers add up to winning. A lot of winning. He is 147-75-1 record as the starter, a regular-season winning percentage of .661. Eleven of his 15 seasons ended in the playoffs. Even with this season ending with a dismal 8-9 record, only the Patriots (171-71) won more regular-season games than the Packers (153-87-2) during his tenure.
Rodgers leaves behind a bit of a complicated legacy. With a few exceptions, the Rodgers-led Packers entered every January with a legitimate shot to win the Super Bowl. At times, such as his unforgettable “run the table” season of 2016 when he threw 18 touchdowns vs. zero interceptions down the stretch to reach the NFC Championship Game, he hoisted the team atop his shoulders.
However, he won only one Super Bowl. Injuries and meltdowns on defense and/or special teams were to blame for several of those failures. In 2009, 2014 and 2015, the Packers lost in overtime without Rodgers getting a chance with the football. Other times, such as the 13-10 loss at home to San Francisco in the 2021 playoffs and the 20-16 loss at home to Detroit in Week 18 of 2022, he failed to deliver in the clutch.
“It’s pretty tough right now, especially thinking about the guys that may or may not be here next year,” Rodgers said after losing at home to Tampa Bay in the 2020 title game, easily his best chance to finally get back to the Super Bowl.
“There’s always change. That’s the only constant in this business. It’s really tough to get to this point. Really, really tough, especially with there being only one bye week in the playoffs. It’s a grind just to get to this point. And that makes the finality of it all kind of hit you like a ton of bricks. That’s why it’s a gutting feeling in your stomach. Ugh.”
Due in part to the offseason trade of star receiver Davante Adams and a broken thumb sustained in London in Week 5, Rodgers in 2022 ranked 16th in passer rating, 20th in completion percentage and 23rd in yards per attempt. He threw 12 interceptions compared to a total of 13 the previous three seasons combined.
Those are mediocre numbers by any standards – not just his impeccable standards. All season, you waited for Rodgers to get on one of those legendary rolls. It never got close to happening.
“Yes,” he said, when asked if he’s still capable of elite play.
Rodgers no doubt will welcome trying to prove that while following the same path as Favre. Rodgers has spoken highly of Jets coach Robert Saleh and, of course, built a strong relationship with Hackett during their three seasons together. Backed by the No. 4 scoring defense in the NFL, it will be a chance to rewrite the ending to his career.
It also will mean a fresh start for a franchise that couldn’t quite get back to the top of the mountain despite the perennial greatness provided by Rodgers.
In 2007, Favre’s final pass with the Packers was intercepted by the Giants in the NFC Championship Game. In 2022, Rodgers’ final pass with the Packers was intercepted by Kerby Joseph.
“I have a lot of pride in what I’ve accomplished in this league,” Rodgers said that night. “You want to go out winning the Super Bowl, but it’s very rare that ever actually gets to happen. You don’t want to lose your last game and miss out on the playoffs, but this has been a great position and a really tough business. It doesn’t always end with rainbows for everybody.”
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