NFL
The Aaron Rodgers Trade Package Will Look a lot Like the Brett Favre Trade
Tim Crean started writing about sports in 2016 and joined Sportscasting in 2021. He excels with his versatile coverage of the NFL and soccer landscape, as well as his expertise breaking down sports media, which stems from his many years downloading podcasts before they were even cool and countless hours spent listening to Mike & The Mad Dog and The Dan Patrick Show, among other programs. As a longtime self-professed sports junkie who even played DII lacrosse at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York, Tim loves reading about all the latest sports news every day and considers it a dream to write about sports professionally. He's a lifelong Buffalo Bills fan from Western New York who mistakenly thought, back in the early '90s, that his team would be in the Super Bowl every year. He started following European soccer — with a Manchester City focus — in the early 2000s after spending far too much time playing FIFA. When he's not enjoying a round of golf or coaching youth soccer and flag football, Tim likes reading the work of Bill Simmons, Tony Kornheiser, Chuck Klosterman, and Tom Wolfe.
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When the Green Bay Packers and New York Jets complete the Aaron Rodgers trade this offseason, it will again be a case of history repeating itself. In 2008, the teams made a Brett Favre trade to make room for Rodgers. Fifteen years later, the two organizations are making another deal to make way for Jordan Love. And if NFL insider Mike Florio is correct, the two trades will look similar in terms of compensation.
The Brett Favre trade compensation could be similar
After drafting a young quarterback in the first round of the NFL draft while Brett Favre was still in the tail end of his prime, the Packers were ready to cut ties with the Hall of Fame QB so Aaron Rodgers could start. A decade and a half later, the exact same thing happened with Jordan Love and Rodgers.
And just like the Brett Favre trade, the Aaron Rodgers trade will likely end with the Packers QB on the Jets in the AFC East.
In 2008, then-Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum made a great deal and only gave up a conditional fourth-round pick to bring Favre to the Big Apple.
Those conditions, per Bleacher Report, were “The pick turns into a third-round selection if Favre plays in 50 percent of the plays this season, a second-rounder if he plays in 70 percent of the plays and the Jets qualify for the playoffs, and a first-round pick if he plays in 80 percent of the plays and Jets make it to the Super Bowl.”
The Jets ended up finishing 9-7 that season and missing the playoffs. Favre did start all 16 games, though, so the final compensation in the Brett Favre trade was a third-round pick.
Now, in 2023, the Aaron Rodgers trade could look similar.
The Aaron Rodgers trade compensation could be similar
NBC and Pro Football Talk NFL insider Mike Florio joined the Pat McAfee Show Wednesday to discuss the potential Aaron Rodgers trade between the Jets and the Packers.
One of the tidbits he shared is what the compensation in the deal could look like now that the Packers have stopped “irrationally” demanding the Jets’ No. 13 overall pick (more on that below).
“I think [the Packers] are going to get a second-round pick from the Jets this year. Second-round pick next year that can become a first-round pick depending upon what the Jets do with Aaron Rodgers this year,” Florio explained.
The insider also said there could be some give-backs in the deal if Rodgers retires after 2023.
“And on the backend, possibility that the Jets get something back from the Packers if he only plays one year — in 2025,” Florio hypothesized.
So, unless the Jets win the Super Bowl, Florio believes the Jets get Rodgers for two second-round picks. And if he only plays one season in New York – like Brett Favre did — it sounds like the final compensation could be a net second-round pick from the Jets.
That’s a good deal for the Jets and for the Packers, considering Rodgers’ current team has no leverage. They just need to get the deal done soon, though.
A Jets-Packer deal could get done soon
Ever since the longtime Packers quarterback came out of his darkness retreat, an Aaron Rodgers trade to the Jets has been in the offing.
The Packers have been playing hardball, but the truth is, they don’t want Rodgers, Rodgers doesn’t want them, and the Jets are the team with all the leverage in this situation.
Green Bay brass, including general manager Brian Gutekunst, has been driving a hard bargain, asking for the Jets’ first-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, No. 13 overall.
On the Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday, Mike Florio shared that his Jets sources have called the Packers’ demands “irrational and unreasonable” for a 39-year-old signal-caller with over $100 million (around $60 guaranteed right now) left on his contract.
So, with the draft now about a month away and the specter of not getting any picks for Rodgers until 2024 looming, the Packers are now coming down their sky-high demands.
The 2023 NFL Draft is the ticking clock now on this negotiation, so the teams are likely to complete a deal soon. However, the Packers are lucky that the Jets aren’t pushing back harder because the last thing the NFC North team can afford is for New York to back out now.
