Packers fans were desperately hopeful that Green Bay would emerge victorious over the Lions in their Week 18 matchup at Lambeau. Of course, beating their upstart rivals from Detroit to secure a Wild Card spot in spite of a disastrous start to the season would have been the perfect end to their miniature redemption arc, even if a gruesome demise likely faced them the very next week in San Francisco. Under the surface, though, there was another reason the Green Bay hopeful were desperate for their season to take just one more gasp of life; delaying the Aaron Rodgers media circuit.
As a Packers fan, I can personally attest to this. For a few months early last year, a barrage of horrible mock trades were polluting the Twitter timelines of anybody who cared about NFL football in the slightest. My interactions online mostly consisted of me being accosted by accounts with edited Youngboy NBA profile pictures and names like beardown17(MOONEYSZN). Low-effort small talk changed from the same things Wisconsinites talk about every spring (“I can’t believe it’s April and still snowing!”, “Is it too early to bring out the grill?”, etc.) into theorizing whether or not Rodgers would don the Green and Gold again come September. But in the end, cooler heads prevailed, and he returned to the frozen tundra. Now, only a few short months later, the wheel has begun to turn again.
We didn’t have to wait long at all. In fact, we didn’t need to wait for Rodgers to leave the field after his season finale. While on the field shaking hands with the Lions, Chris Collinsworth made reference to “speculation that will last for months” in Green Bay. He didn’t need to specify. And while it’d be easy to brush aside the current happenings as merely reruns of last year’s proceedings, when many saw Rodgers relocating to Denver as a done deal, things seem… different this time.
But before we can discuss differences, we must know what remains the same. While the players in our drama may wear different colors, they are similar in other, more crucial ways. The main protagonists (or antagonists, depending who you ask) in last year’s Rodgers sweepstakes were the Packers and the Broncos. Denver had a talented roster with a stable of more-than-capable playmakers and a great defense that felt it needed a veteran passer to take the leap from good to great. This year, early reports connect Rodgers with the Jets. The Jets, by all accounts, fit the exact same profile.
Not to be lost in all this, Nathaniel Hackett, who was Rodger’s offensive coordinator for his MVP-winning campaigns in 2020 and 2021, had been recently hired on as Denver’s head coach in a pretty transparent attempt to woo Rodgers. If you keep on top of the comings-and-goings in the NFL, you’ve probably heard that Hackett was hired to be the Jets offensive coordinator (ironically, he will be replacing Mike LaFleur, who is the brother of Rodgers’ current head coach). So, if so much has stayed the same, why do I think there’s a very real chance of the Packers quarterback making the Big Apple his new home?
For one, several key free agents could be on their way out in Green Bay. Aaron has not been shy about letting his opinions on roster-building be known over the last few seasons, and this offseason could be a particularly volatile one for the Pack. Among their pending free agents that Rodgers has specifically mentioned he wants back are such players as Mason Crosby, Marcedes Lewis, Randall Cobb, and Robert Tonyan. I’m certainly no front office insider, but I’d be pretty surprised to see all of those players return, especially considering the Packers need to find over $17 million in cap relief between now and next season. Such little wiggle room also leaves Green Bay’s options in regards to free agency particularly scarce. The Packers certainly need some quick fixes on the roster if they want to avoid a rebuild, and especially so if they want to keep Rodgers on the roster. Rodgers has even said so himself, and I certainly don’t blame him. At his age, he doesn’t have time to wait around, and going to a team that not only can knock some items off of his wishlist while also giving him a chance to compete for a title makes plenty of sense. That team can absolutely be the Jets, who are in the hole a mere $2 million (about as close to breaking even as possible in the NFL), and having essentially all their core pieces still under contract for at least the next several years.
So, the destination makes sense for Rodgers, but is now the time for the Jets to make such a landscape-shifting move? Absolutely.
It’s true that NFL owners are in it for the money. At the end of the day, as much as we might like to pretend otherwise, the NFL is a business, and those that buy teams do so with the expectation of making profit. This doesn’t, however, mean that the owners aren’t also fans themselves. Jets Chairman Woody Johnson certainly remembers the so-close-yet-so-far Brett Favre experiment of yesteryear, and has himself recently said that he thinks a star quarterback is the missing piece his squad needs. He’d love to take another stab at washing away the stained image that comes to most people’s minds when you say “New York Jets football”, and who’s to say that another 39 year-old Packers superstar quarterback won’t help him do so?
So if they have approval from the Big Chair, is the front office willing to take the shot at acquiring Rodgers? If they have an interest in staying employed, they’d better.
While it’d be a stretch to say Joe Douglas and Rob Saleh (the Jets head coach and GM, respectively) are on the hot seat after a promising 2022-2023 season, expectations are growing, and they’ll need to rise up to meet them. The Jets were a force to be reckoned with for much of the season, but they faltered when it mattered most, and missed the playoffs. While cries of “same ol’ Jets” were sung far and wide, Gang Green finally had a taste of NFL relevancy for the first time in far too long, and now they need more. It may seem a ways off right now, but another few years of postseason-less football, and the rabid New York media market will be calling for heads to roll. How might they avoid this? Well, perhaps they could consider bringing onboard a quarterback who has made the playoffs 11 times in his 15 seasons as a starter. If only such a player might be available…
Speaking of the New York media, I have an inclination towards feeling as though Rodgers would love to be in the kind of spotlight that playing in the city that never sleeps brings. Much to the chagrin of many NFL fans, Rodgers has, more and more in recent years, become the face of speculation and controversy in the NFL. Whether it be his stance on vaccinations (sorry, “innoculations”), his ayahuasca binges, or his now weekly appearances on the Pat McAfee Show, Rodgers has continuously managed to be front and center, and it’s certainly not by accident. Being the frontman for the small-town Green Bay Packers is nice, but becoming the face of the franchise for a team located in one of the largest cities on the planet? You can’t tell me that doesn’t entice Rodgers at least a little bit.
Now, before I end my little spiel, let me address my fellow Packers fans. Even if it hurts to hear, we’ve been spoiled by elite quarterback play. I’m 25 years old, and in my lifetime, I’ve never known a Packers team that wasn’t captained by a future Hall of Famer under center. Because of how ingrained Rodgers and Favre have become in Packers lore, it’s become somewhat of a taboo to speak of what happens if and when this golden (or green-and-golden, am I right?) era ends. I’m here to tell you it doesn’t have to be. Is this coming era of Packers football going to reach the heights of what we’ve had the great fortune of experiencing in the last few decades? Likely not. But that’s ok! Maybe if we want the Packers to once again become the Lombardi-toting, favorites-by-default franchise it has been, a fresh start may be just what they need. You know what they say about the phoenix and the ashes, right?
And who knows, maybe Jordan Love is the kind of player we all cautiously hope he could be. Wouldn’t that be sweet?
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