Packers Won Aaron Rodgers Trade, Though By Little of Their Own Doing

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Did the Green Bay Packers win the Aaron Rodgers trade? Well, at least they didn’t lose it.

The big loser, of course, was the New York Jets and just about everyone affiliated with them. They gave up an enormous amount of cash and draft capital to acquire Rodgers, only to go from a 7-10 team without him in 2022 to 7-10 when he was injured in 2023 and 5-12 with him in 2024. The coach was fired. The general manager was fired. And Rodgers was unceremoniously dumped.

With the Packers set to play against Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers, here’s a look back at the trade and where things stand heading into Sunday night’s game between division-leading teams.

Packers Failed to Maximize Trade

The Packers acquired four draft picks for the four-time MVP. This should have been the starting point for the team’s reload. The Packers recovered quickly, but it had almost nothing to do with the draft haul.

2023 First Round (No. 13 overall): DE Lukas Van Ness

The Rodgers trade included a first-round pick swap, with Green Bay moving up to No. 13 and New York moving back to No. 15.

The 13th pick of the draft, Lukas Van Ness ranks 13th in the draft class with 8.5 sacks. Had he been the player the Packers expected, maybe they wouldn’t have felt the need to trade for Micah Parsons, a trade that has paid off on the field but cost the Packers two first-round picks and a record-setting contract.

Van Ness has 1.5 sacks and three tackles for losses this season. Van Ness didn’t start at Iowa and has started only once in about two-and-a-half seasons in Green Bay. He will miss Sunday’s game with a foot injury.

Two picks later, the Jets selected a defensive end, as well, with Will McDonald. He had a breakout second season with 10.5 sacks but has only two sacks this year – both against Rodgers in Week 1.

2023 Second Round (No. 42 overall): TE Luke Musgrave

Luke Musgrave looked like he might become a real difference-maker as a rookie. However, an injured kidney opened the door for the other tight end the Packers drafted in 2023, Tucker Kraft.

Green Bay Packers tight ens Luke Musgrave (88) is tackled during the 2023 game at the Pittsburgh Steelers. | Philip G. Pavely-Imagn Images

While Kraft has become one of the best tight ends in the league, Musgrave has fallen off the face of the earth. After catching 34 passes in 11 games as a rookie, he has only 12 catches in 13 games the past two seasons. The fourth tight end off the board, he’s sixth in the draft class with 46 receptions and 466 yards. Kraft has 13 touchdowns to Musgrave’s one.

2023 Sixth Round (No. 207 overall): K Anders Carlson.

The Packers not only moved on from Rodgers after the 2022 season. They moved on from longtime kicker Mason Crosby. Anders Carlson lasted one year in Green Bay, leading the NFL in combined missed field goals and extra points as a rookie, and wasn’t even on a team for training camp this year.

2024 Second Round (No. 41 overall): LB Edgerrin Cooper

In a trade with the Saints during the 2024 draft, the Packers moved back from No. 41 in exchange for No. 45 of the second round, No. 168 of the fifth round and No. 190 of the sixth round.

At No. 45, they selected linebacker Edgerrin Cooper, who was an all-rookie selection last season and who Rodgers called a “really good player in this league” when talking about Green Bay’s defense this week. Cooper led all rookies with tackles for losses last season but has just one this year. His speed is a key reason why the Packers are No. 1 in yards allowed per play.

2024 Additional Picks

With the trade back from No. 41 to No. 45, the Packers picked center/guard Jacob Monk at No. 168 of the fifth round. Monk, who was activated from injured reserve last week, hasn’t played a snap on offense in his career.

Meanwhile, in a separate trade with the Jets, the Packers packaged their fourth-round pick at No. 126 and No. 190 to move up to No. 111 to select safety Evan Williams. Williams was all-rookie last season and has started five games this season as one of the league’s better young players at the position.

At Least Packers Have Jordan Love

Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love (10) and quarterback Aaron Rodgers (12) fist bump during training camp in 2021. | Julia Martins de Sa / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

From Green Bay’s perspective, the saving grace has been the play of quarterback Jordan Love. Drafted controversially in 2020 after the Packers had reached the NFC Championship Game in coach Matt LaFleur’s debut season, Love was as ready as possible mentally and physically for the challenge when he was handed the keys in 2023.

“It was definitely difficult coming into an organization who, they’ve had a lot of success at the quarterback position and understanding who you’re taking over for,” Love said on Wednesday. “A Rod had done a lot of really good things, won a lot of MVPs, won a Super Bowl, so definitely a lot of success he’s had here. It’s definitely going to be a tough transition.

“I think the main thing for me was just trying to block all that out and just understand that for me, this is a great opportunity. Something I’ve been waiting for, for three years being behind him, watching him. So, I knew in the back of my head I was ready, and how best can I go out there and try and block all that extra noise out and just play my game and make my own name here.”

Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love (10) runs the ball against the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2023. | Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

Love hasn’t been MVP-level Rodgers great – neither was Rodgers during his first three seasons – but he’s a solid, ascending player. Teams with bad quarterback play have little chance of winning on any given Sunday, let alone a season full of Sundays. In Love’s 39 career regular-season starts, the Packers are 22-16-1. Of the losses, only four have come by more than one score.

“I think he’s done a really nice job,” LaFleur said this week. “I think some of the circumstances that he’s been in haven’t always been the easiest, as is the case for many quarterbacks in this league.

“But the great ones find a way to get it done, anyways, and I think he’s done a heck of a job with that. Is it perfect? No, but it’s never going to be perfect. Are there elements of his game that he’s going to continue to work on? Absolutely, and I think he can play at an even higher level, which is that much more exciting.”

The Packers went 8-9 in Rodgers’ final season in Green Bay and failed to make the playoffs when they lost at home to Detroit in Week 18. With Love, the Packers went 9-8 in 2023 and 11-6 in 2024, making the playoffs both seasons. This year, they are 4-1-1 and the No. 1 team in the loaded NFC entering Week 8.

“It’s tough when you get the keys because there’s a lot of expectation on you,” Rodgers said in a Zoom call on Thursday.

He would know, having replaced Brett Favre in 2008 after three years on the bench.

“I think the three years were really beneficial for him, as they were for me early in my career,” he continued. “Similar career arc as far as I felt like he started to improve in the second year, played really well in the preseason into the third year, and then just like me in my third year when we played Dallas, he got a chance against Philly when I got banged up and went in and played really well.

“Whether or not that was the moment when the team was like, ‘OK, maybe we can move on down the road’ or not, I was really happy for him because he’s such a great kid.”

After posting solid passer ratings of 96.1 in 2023 and 96.7 in 2024, Love is sixth with a 108.1 passer rating this season, just ahead of Rodgers’ ninth-ranked 105.0. Love’s completion percentage and touchdown-to-interception ratios this year are far better than his career marks.

“It’s always difficult the first year,” Rodgers said, “and the second year is so difficult because now you’ve got 16, 17 games on film, and now you’ve got your six division games, you’ve got opponents spending a lot of time working on those opponent scouts during the offseason. And so the second year is almost more difficult than the first.

“But you’ve seen the consistency with him and he just continued to ascend. That’s how you last a long time in the league.”

The Final Verdict

At age 41, Rodgers might be in his final season. Love will turn only 27 in a couple weeks so will last for a “long time.” If he continues to grow, he will give the Packers many seasons of playoff-caliber football and perhaps a shot or two at winning a Super Bowl.

Trading Rodgers and unloading his contract allowed the franchise to hit the reset button. While the Packers failed to take full advantage of the draft picks, general manager Brian Gutekunst has made enough other good moves for the team to quickly rebound to contender status.

The decision to draft Love in the first place will forever be a worthy debate, but his presence and ascendance have kept the team’s championship window wide open.