The Green Bay Packers trading Aaron Rodgers to the New York Jets has been all but a foregone conclusion for weeks — or, at least, it had been up until Wednesday.
A lack of urgency on the part of Green Bay and haggling over price were the two factors gumming up the works of a deal that Rodgers has said publicly he wants, and which the Jets have invested in already by agreeing to a four-year, $44 million contract with former Packers wide receiver Allen Lazard. But a third factor persistently lurking in the background made its presence felt on April 4: another team entering the fray to inflate Rodgers’ trade value via a bidding war.
That team in question, the San Francisco 49ers, is both an old nemesis of the Packers’ during the Rodgers era and an old flame of the quarterback’s stretching back to draft day 2005.
On the Tuesday edition of the Craig Carton Show, the program’s host and namesake cited sources who told him that San Francisco is willing to offer a 2024 first-round pick for Rodgers as well multiple third-round selections in this year’s NFL Draft.
The 49ers own the rights to the No. 99, No. 101 and No. 102 overall picks in 2023, all of which are compensatory selections the team picked up due to significant losses of personnel and coaching staff members this offseason.
49ers’ Trade Offer is Upgrade From Deal Packers Expected to Strike With Jets
GettyGreen Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
The deal from San Francisco that Carton reported Wednesday isn’t vastly superior to what Green Bay is expected to get from New York.
Initial holdups were linked to the Packers’ persistence that the Jets include the No. 13 overall pick in 2023 in any trade for Rodgers. However, general manager Brian Gutekunst backed off that ask publicly last week at the Annual NFL Owners’ Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona.
“I think [the Packers are] going to get [a] second-round pick from the Jets this year [and a] second-round pick next year that can become a first-round pick depending upon what the Jets do with Aaron Rodgers this year,” Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio told the Pat McAfee Show on March 29. “And on the back end, [the] possibility that the Jets get something back from the Packers [in 2025] if he only plays one year.”
The Jets own the rights to picks No. 42 and No. 43 in the 2023 draft. If they land Rodgers, a second-round selection in 2024 figures to come up somewhere in the late-50s to mid-60s. The 49ers, on the other hand, would presumably convey a first-round selection in the high-20s or low 30s in 2024 were they to play the upcoming season with Rodgers under center. That would complement a couple of selections right sandwiching the No. 100 overall pick in the upcoming draft.
Report Supports Notion That 49ers Back in on Rodgers Trade
GettyQuarterback Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers waves to fans as he walks to the locker room after defeating the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field on December 4, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
The main reason for the Packers to choose the Jets as a trade partner for Rodgers over the 49ers is simple: Green Bay won’t have to worry about playing the four-time MVP quarterback shy of the Super Bowl, which isn’t a likely projection for the outcome of either of the Packers’ next two campaigns as the team transitions to Jordan Love.
The offer from the Niners, which Carton reported Wednesday is potentially on the table, is only a little better than what Florio reported the Jets are willing to give up to acquire Rodgers’ services. Rather than actually sending Rodgers to San Francisco, it is more likely Green Bay would try to leverage an offer from the 49ers in an attempt to make the Jets up their price, perhaps by adding an extra second-rounder this season or upgrading the centerpiece of the deal to the No. 13 pick in the 2023 draft.
Justis Mosqueda of SB Nation’s Acme Packing Co. posited as much when he questioned Wednesday Carton’s status as a source on the interworkings of the Packers organization. Mosqueda suggested that perhaps Carton’s report represents an attempt by Green Bay to bully the Jets into foregoing their ask of a conditional 2025 pick from the Packers should Rodgers retire after only one season in New York.
“Carton doesn’t have a long history of reporting on Green Bay, so it doesn’t seem like he’s a likely source for leaks from the team,” Mosqueda wrote. “After months of the will he, won’t he, will they, won’t they drama surrounding Rodgers, though, it’s becoming hard to trust anyone who claims that they know what’s going on.”
One person who almost certainly does know what’s going on in Green Bay is ESPN reporter Rob Demovsky. He appeared on the Wednesday edition of NFL Live to report that at least one other franchise expressed interest in dealing for Rodgers, though he did not specify if that team was the 49ers.
“The difficulty there is that we know that Rodgers has stated publicly that he wants to play for the Jets and he would obviously have to approve any trade to another team,” Demovsky said. “Early on, I was told that there was at least one other team that was interested in Rodgers, but to this point, that has not materialized.”
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New Packers Trade Proposal Flips Rodgers to NFC Rival For 1st-Round Pick