Getty Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers in 2022.
You’ve probably heard the rumors by now: If the New York Jets don’t complete the trade for Aaron Rodgers soon, the San Francisco 49ers could swoop in and steal the four-time MVP quarterback.
At least, that’s what WFAN NYC radio and Fox Sports One host Craig Carton is claiming. “So here is the reality,” he detailed on his television show. “San Francisco does not have a first-round draft pick in this draft, they gave them all away for Trey Lance. They do however [have] compensatory picks… So the conversation has been multiple third-round picks in this draft and a first-round draft pick in next year’s draft.”
Although many immediately doubted this supposed inside information on social media, it’s always nice to hear a well-connected figure refute it publicly. Ironically, Carton’s former WFAN co-host and current colleague, Boomer Esiason, was one of the first to do it on April 5.
Nobody else is swooping in on Aaron Rodgers, @7BOOMERESIASON says:
“You don’t do business in the NFL by screwing over another general manager at the last moment, you just don’t do it,” Esiason voiced on WFAN’s “Boomer & Gio” after hearing Carton’s claims. “That’s just not the way you want to conduct business — especially when you get an owner involved. [Woody Johnson] has got to get on his plane… and go talk to Aaron Rodgers, and Aaron Rodgers says he only wants to play for the Jets.”
Boomer Esiason Explains Why Craig Carton’s Niners Claims About Aaron Rodgers Are ‘Ridiculous’
The former Jets and Cincinnati Bengals quarterback, Esiason, is typically pretty tapped in when it comes to the inner workings of the league — being that he’s spent the majority of his life in or around it as a player and a CBS Sports analyst with “The NFL Today.”
“There’s three sides to this,” Esiason explained to his partner and listeners on April 5. “There’s the [Green Bay] Packers, there’s the Jets, and there’s Aaron Rodgers. Aaron Rodgers wants to play for the Jets, that’s what he told the Jets. So, this notion that there’s some team in [the NFL] that’s going to swoop in and basically undercut what the Jets have been doing over the last three months is really ridiculous to me, because that would be a total insult to [Packers general manager] Brian Gutekunst.”
Later, he went on: “To do something like this, and you pull out from under the New York Jets… would be like such a blight on [Gutekunst’s] reputation within the NFL… When I hear about all these other crazy scenarios, I’m like guys, these people have reputations in the league and you want to be ethical within the league itself.”
Esiason also referenced Jets GM Joe Douglas shooting down questions about Lamar Jackson at the NFL League Meeting because he wanted to operate in good faith with Gutekunst and the Packers.
The former NFL QB concluded: “You do not want to lead one of 31 [other] owners down a path where he is getting on his G6 or whatever the hell it is, and flying all the way across the country to go talk to your disgruntled quarterback who doesn’t want to play for you anymore, and you don’t want him to play for you anymore [either].”
ESPN’s Mike Greenberg Says He’ll Drop F-Bomb If Aaron Rodgers to Jets Falls Through
In other news, ESPN host and Jets superfan Mike Greenberg isn’t taking this Niners news as well as Esiason and his listeners.
“I actually thought of this when I was getting set to come on,” Greenberg told Pat McAfee live on his show on April 4. “I’ve never cursed on the air in my life. In my entire life! I’ve been a professional broadcaster since 1990, and I’ve never cursed on the air. If the Jets don’t get Aaron Rodgers, if somehow this thing winds up that he either retires or plays on another team, I will come on this show and I will say the f-word out loud.”
“I’ve been a professional broadcaster since 1990 and I’ve never cursed on air.. If the Jets don’t get Aaron Rodgers I will come on this show and say the F word out loud” 😂😂
Well, I guess some Jets fans got spooked by Carton’s 49ers report after all.