Aaron Rodgers is traded to the New York Jets, ending his 18-YEAR stay at Green Bay

Aaron Rodgers’ blockbuster trade to the New York Jets is finally complete, ending his 18-year tenure in Green Bay, which saw him win a Super Bowl and four MVP awards.

New York not only receives Rodgers, but also the number 15 from the Packers and a fifth round pick in Thursday’s draft. In return, Green Bay will receive the Jets’ 13th overall draft pick, plus the second and sixth rounds, and a conditional pick for the 2024 second round, which will become a runner-up if Rodgers plays 65% of snaps this season.

According to Schefter, Rodgers will wear number 8 for Gang Green, despite Joe Namath’s blessing to wear his usual number 12. The four-time MVP wore number 8 while in college.

Packers GM Brian Gutekunst said during his Monday night press conference that the deal is not yet complete. “We expect to have done this before design,” he said.

After considering retirement and a return to the Packers, Rodgers finally requested a move to New York last month. The teams have now agreed on a deal that sends the 39-year-old quarterback from Green Bay to the New Jersey-based Jets, but only after weeks of posturing and tedious negotiations.

Now New York will ostensibly become the epicenter for NFL media through 2023, given the level of intrigue that constantly surrounds Rodgers. As such, the Jets could play as many as six primetime games, according to Schefter, when the schedule is released next month — a sharp increase from their only appearance on TNF vs. Jacksonville in 2022.

According to several reports, the Packers were seeking a future first-round pick as part of compensation for Rodgers, who previously said Green Bay’s demands stood in the way of the deal. They eventually did, but perhaps not in the way they initially hoped.

Rodgers became convinced to join the Jets after meeting team buyers in March, including owner and former US Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Woody Johnson. Shortly thereafter, Rodgers submitted his trade request to the Packers. He revealed the request in a bombshell interview with Pat McAfee in March.

“My intention is to play for the New York Jets,” Rodgers told McAfee.

Of course, New York and Green Bay had yet to negotiate a trade that satisfied both teams—a process Rodgers said was delayed by the Packers’ demands.

“I haven’t stopped anything at this point,” Rodgers told McAfee on March 15. “It’s compensation the Packers are trying to get me, and they kind of dig in.”

Despite the difficult negotiations, Jets GM Joe Douglas remained so confident in his ability to acquire Rodgers that he went out and signed one of the quarterback’s favorite targets, ex-Packers receiver Allen Lazard, to a four-year, $44 deal million.

New York’s social media account posted a side-splitting video imminent following coverage of Rodgers’ move to Florham Park.

Jets players have been recruiting Rodgers for weeks leading up to the trade.

Sauce Gardner, Breece Hall and Garrett Wilson appeared in a YouTube video earlier in March, with the former burning a cheese head he had previously used to taunt Rodgers following the Jets’ improbable win at Green Bay last year.

“You have to come here so we can win the Super Bowl,” Gardner said after tossing the cheesehead into a fire pit in the backyard of his home.

The Jets’ finished with a losing, 7-10 overall record at the end of last season, but have one of the most promising offenses in the league, often appearing a field general away from competing with teams considered Super Bowl contenders .

Rodgers will replace Zach Wilson at quarterback after two disappointing seasons caused the former BYU star to drop to third on the depth chart in 2022.

Despite his struggles, team officials have been steadfast in their plan to keep him in the building, allowing him to develop under a veteran like Rodgers.

With Wilson demoted, quarterback duties were left to Mike White — who has since signed with the Miami Dolphins — and Joe Flacco, 38.

The waning Packers, meanwhile, fell to 8-9 last season and appear to be in need of a rebuild that will be aided by trading Rodgers and his remaining paycheck.

Rodgers has $108.8 million left on his current contract, which runs through 2026, though that season and 2025 are considered “dummy” years and are strictly on the books for accounting purposes.

But the Jets aren’t hurting for cap room because Rodgers’ bonus was split pro rata over the last three years of the deal. According to ESPN, he totals $15.8 million towards his team’s salary cap in 2023 and $32.5 million for 2024.

Meanwhile, the Packers are still carrying $40.3 million of Rodgers’ 2023 salary — a whopping 18 percent of the NFL’s $224.8 million salary cap for this year.

A draw for Rodgers to New York was the presence of his former offensive coordinator at Green Bay, ex-Denver Broncos head coach Nathaniel Hackett.

“There are many reasons why the Jets are attractive,” Rodgers told McAfee on March 15. “There’s one coach who means as much to me as any other coach I’ve ever had, and he just happens to be the coordinator there.”

Rodgers spoke to McAfee for the first time since his four-day obscurity retreat, where he was expected to contemplate his NFL future.

As he told McAfee, Rodgers entered the semi-underground residence on his way to retirement.

“At this point I have to admit that I retired 90 percent and played 10 percent,” said Rodgers. ‘That’s where my thoughts were. My thoughts were, “I’m tired of this.” I hadn’t returned to my workouts yet and I thought that was best for me.

Rodgers would spend one of his days in Oregon retiring and the next day thinking about returning to the NFL for another season, he explained.

When he reappeared after days without his cell phone, Rodgers learned that the Packers were out to move him. He said the club had previously told him the ‘door was wide open’ if he wanted to return to Green Bay, but Rodgers found that was no longer the case after his retreat in the dark.

“It was clear to me at that point that even though the Packers would say the right thing in public, they were ready to move forward,” Rodgers said. “I don’t know what changed that or what moved that, or if they just said, ‘We have to make a decision here because he hasn’t made a decision yet.'”

Rodgers stressed that he doesn’t feel like a victim, but regrets that the Packers didn’t tell him that after the Packers ended their disappointing 8-9 season in January.

It’s not the first time the Jets have traded for a 39-year-old Packers quarterback, following the 2008 acquisition of Brett Favre that paved the way for Rodgers’ ascension to Green Bay.

In that deal, Favre was traded for only a conditional pick in the fourth round, which was probably fair compensation, as the Jets only finished 9-7 and missed the playoffs as the future Hall of Famer suffered injuries.

Regarding his legacy in Green Bay, Rodgers told McAfee that he is “arguably the greatest player in franchise history,” while repeatedly mentioning how grateful he was to play for the Packers, for whom he won his only Super Bowl.

“I got to be the Packers’ starting quarterback for 15 years,” Rodgers said. “So I love you, Green Bay. Thank you. I’m as sad as some of you, but we’ll see each other again.”

The Rodger-Jets speculation has been seeping in for weeks and has only intensified since former Las Vegas Raiders quarterback David Carr signed a four-year, $150 million deal with the New Orleans Saints earlier this month.

Without Carr as an option, the Jets turned their full attention to the four-time MVP.

Subsequently, New York restructured the contracts of left guard Laken Tomlinson, cornerback DJ Reed and tight end Tyler Conklin, saving about $20 million in cap space, which is somewhat necessary given Rodgers’ existing contract and other potential signings from the Jets.