Getty Josh McDaniels with Mark Davis.
The Las Vegas Raiders bet big on Derek Carr heading into the 2022 season and lost. Head coach Josh McDaniels could embrace a full rebuild after a 6-11 season but the team has too much veteran talent to give up right now. Maxx Crosby, Josh Jacobs and Davante Adams are all top-20 players in the NFL.
While the Raiders have good talent, they don’t have a quarterback yet. Carr will be cut or traded in the coming weeks and it’s unclear who his replacement will be. The team holds the No. 7 overall pick in the draft, which puts them in a good position to draft a quarterback. It also gives them a valuable asset to use in a trade for an established quarterback. Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has been linked to the Raiders in recent weeks due to Adams going out and recruiting him.
In a recent mock draft by Pro Football Network’s Ben Rolfe, he projects Las Vegas to send the No. 7 pick and a 2024 second-round pick to the Packers for Rodgers. Green Bay would use the pick on TCU wide receiver Quentin Johnston.
“The irony of the idea that the Green Bay Packers use a first-round pick acquired in a trade for Aaron Rodgers on an offensive weapon should not be lost on anyone. If the Packers go down the route of trading Rodgers, they could be a candidate to try and move up for Young or Stroud.”
Is Rodgers Worth 2 High-Value Draft Picks?
Rodgers is one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history and will be in the Hall of Fame one day. He’s also the back-to-back MVP of the league. Reuniting him with Adams on the Raiders could allow him to return to MVP form. That’s good enough to win you a lot of games next season.
However, Rodgers is 39 and hasn’t even decided yet if he’s going to play next season. There’s a real possibility that he retires in the coming weeks and all of this speculation is pointless. If he does commit to playing, giving up a top-10 draft pick and a second-round pick is a steep price to pay. Rodgers could come to the Raiders for a season and decide to retire when he turns 40. That means the team gave up a haul for one year of Rodgers. The Raiders aren’t good enough to take such a big risk. They aren’t a quarterback away from being Super Bowl contenders.
Rodgers Going on ‘Darkness Retreat’
For his part, Rodgers is about to embark on a journey that should end with him making a decision on his future. The quarterback told Pat McAfee on the February 7 episode of “The Pat McAfee Show” that he’s going on a four-day/four-night “darkness retreat” following Super Bowl Sunday.
“I’ve got a pretty cool opportunity to do a little self-reflection in some isolation,” Rodgers said. “And then after that I feel like I’ll be a lot closer to a final, final decision.”
This retreat will feature Rodgers being alone in darkness for four days and four nights. He admitted that retirement is a real possibility and he’s using this retreat to help make a decision.
“For sure; it’s a real thing, 100 percent,” Rodgers said of retirement. “That’s why it’s going to be important to get through this week and to take my isolation retreat and just to be able to contemplate all things my future and then be able to make a decision that I think is best for me moving forward and in the highest interest of my happiness and then move forward.”