Aaron Rodgers Era Mercifully Ends As Trade Is Now Official
Aaron Rodgers has a talent for drawing things out for way longer than necessary. It became obvious as the 2023 off-season unfolded that he and the Green Bay Packers had reached their natural conclusion together. The organization needs to give Jordan Love an opportunity and wants to escape Rodgers’ hefty contract. The future Hall of Fame quarterback contemplated retirement, but in the end, decided to return for another year. As a result, he’s heading to the New York Jets. It finally became official on April 14th.
The deal feels like a good one for both sides. Green Bay gets two quality draft picks back and escapes the contract. New York lands a top 10 quarterback who can bring their talented roster together for a legitimate playoff run. It will be interesting to see how much gas he has left in the tank. If he’s close to the player he was in 2021, the Jets could be a team to watch in the AFC. If he’s more like what we saw last year, then they’re in a rude awakening. As for the Packers, they’ll use the picks to retool a roster that has faded from its peak three years ago while hoping Love is the next man up.
Aaron Rodgers era will be defined in two ways.
One is his utter domination of the Bears and his incredible string of individual accomplishments, including four MVP awards. The other is an incredibly disappointing postseason career. While it’s true Rodgers won a Super Bowl in 2010 and nobody can take that away from him, the fact is he should’ve won more. For the guy to make the playoffs nine times between 2011 and 2021 and fail to even reach the Super Bowl in that span is difficult to fathom. It’s an indictment of the organization as a whole.
They had two of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history for an unbroken period of 30 years and managed only two championships. The San Francisco 49ers had Joe Montana and Steve Young for 20 years and won five. Tom Brady won seven by himself in 20 years. There is no excuse for that level of underachievement. Try to imagine how Packers fans will feel if Aaron Rodgers takes the Jets to the Super Bowl the year after leaving. It would be quite the punch line.