Getty New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers reacting in the middle of training camp practice.
A massive pay cut from Aaron Rodgers could pay immediate dividends for the New York Jets.
Joe Caporoso of “Badlands” joined me on my radio show in Syracuse, “The Manchild Show with Boy Green”, on Friday, July 28 and proposed an interesting trade idea that Gang Green could consider.
“Could you watch a guy like Mike Evans if the [Tampa Bay Buccaneers] bottom out in the first part of the year?”
Exploring the Dynamics of a Bucs, Jets Trade for Evans
I followed up with Caporoso on Twitter to see what a potential trade could look like between the Bucs and Jets.
“Always a way to get creative. Can stack mid-round picks, use a player, can trade into 2025. They have a 2-year window with the deck cleared to be as aggressive as possible so I don’t write anything off.”
A complicating factor in all of this from a Jets perspective is limited top-level assets.
Gang Green’s top two picks in the 2024 NFL draft are considered frozen assets and can’t be used in any trade discussions. The Jets agreed to send a conditional second-rounder in the Rodgers trade with the Green Bay Packers.
If he participates in 65 percent of the snaps during the 2023 season that second will become a first-rounder.
In other words, if the Jets wanted to land a guy like Evans or any other sexy name they’d have to get creative to pull off a trade.
Evans is 29 years of age and he will turn 30 before the start of the 2023 season. He is entering the last year of his $82.5 million contract and is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent next offseason.
Swapping Corey Davis for Evans Could Make Sense for Jets
The Jets flirted this offseason with then-free agent wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic said on “The Can’t-Wait Podcast” that there were several people in the building that believed that was a done deal.
Then the Baltimore Ravens swooped in with an offer last second that the Jets weren’t willing to match.
If OBJ would have ended up in New York, the belief is veteran wide receiver Corey Davis would have been released or traded from what I’ve been told.
For now, Davis remains on the roster, but his spot on the team remains in a precarious position despite what the team has said publically.
Getting back to Evans, he is an incredibly talented football player that has achieved a lot during his NFL career.
He has won a Super Bowl, has had nine straight 1,000-yard seasons to start his career, and has four Pro Bowl nominations to his credit. Evans is also a competitor.
The days of Tom Brady slinging him the football are over. The remaining quarterbacks of note on the Bucs’ roster are Baker Mayfield and Kyle Trask. If things go south for Tampa early in the season, they might be inclined to flip Evans for an asset before they lose him for nothing the following offseason.
Evans would bring size and star power to the Jets’ receiving corps. It would also take some pressure off of Garrett Wilson and simultaneously provide another offensive weapon that opposing defenses would have to account for.
You don’t normally see teams take on rental players like Evans, but the Jets have been very clear that they’re all in on this season and anything that can improve the roster is on the table.