Green Bay Packers ‘back off’ from unreasonable demand of Jets’ first-round pick for Aaron Rodgers

The Green Bay Packers appear to have lowered their asking price by wanting the first-round draft pick of the New York Jets in trade negotiations for quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

“The delay had been that the Packers were adamant about getting the 13th pick in this year’s draft, and I think they moved away from that,” ProFootballTalk’s Mike Florio said on The Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday.

“The key this week was when Brian Gutekunst, the Packers’ general manager, said, ‘We’re not necessarily going to get a first-round pick.’

“That for me was a big concession, to recognize that they no longer require 13 total in 2023.”

Despite reports that the Rodgers trade saga may drag on until the April draft, two well-known Packers insiders reported that the trade was 99 percent done.

Gutekunst said a first-round pick won’t be necessary to send Aaron Rodgers to NYJ

A recent report also indicated that a major part of the heist was that the Jets wanted to insert a clause that would allow them to receive compensation from the Packers if Rodgers retired after just one season.

The same report indicated that the two sides had already agreed that the Jets would send Green Bay second-round picks this year and next.

“Two words I heard from the Jets in relation to the Packers’ demands were: unreasonable and unreasonable,” Florio said.

“I think something happened in Arizona that made them a little more reasonable.”

Rodgers said instead that after he returned from his isolation retreat last month, he “heard from a number of people that I trust in the league, mostly players, who were doing some shopping, who were interested in really move”.

“The Packers would like to move on,” Rodgers said. They have made me know with so many words. They have let other people know with direct words.

“I haven’t been holding anything back at the moment,” he added later, revealing, “It’s been a tradeoff that the Packers are trying to get for me, and kind of on their heels.”

However, Gutekunst made conflicting claims earlier this week and suggested the Packers were unable to reach Rodgers.

Rodgers and Gutekunst met shortly after Green Bay’s season ended with a 20-16 loss to the Detroit Lions that snapped the Packers’ streak of three straight playoff appearances. Gutekunst said they had planned to have follow-up talks.

“Those never happened,” Gutekunst said. ESPN. Then there came a time when we had to make some decisions, so we went through his representatives to try to talk to him. [about] where we were going with our team. And at that point, we were informed that he would like to be traded to the Jets.’

Gutekunst said he wanted to have more talks with the 2011 Super Bowl champion early in the offseason to discuss how the veteran quarterback might fit into the Packers’ future plans.

‘[With] our inability to communicate with him or for him to respond in any way, I think at that point, I had to do my job and reach out and understand that a trade might be possible and see who was interested,” Gutekunst said.

A Rodgers trade would clear the way for 2020 first-round pick Jordan Love to take over as Green Bay’s starting quarterback.

Whether or not anything happened during the owners meetings regarding the trade is currently unknown, though a player on the alleged wish list Rodgers gave to the Jets was also seen in Arizona.

Wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. made headlines this week when he appeared at meetings and was seen speaking with representatives from various teams, including hugging Jets coach Robert Saleh.

Rodgers previously said he wished the Packers had told him early in the offseason that they intended to release him in the 2023 season.

Odell Beckham was photographed greeting Washington Commanders coach Ron Rivera in Arizona