NFL
Aaron Rodgers Trade: Packers QB’s ‘Pat McAfee Show’ Appearance May Tank the Jets Deal
All NFL fans knew that Aaron Rodgers’ appearances on the Pat McAfee Show would get him in trouble someday. And that day may have come in mid-March when Rodgers told his buddy McAfee he was “90% retired” before deciding to come back (mostly) to spite the Green Bay Packers. And as the Aaron Rodgers trade to the New York Jets continues to drag on without resolution, the latest reports are that Jets owner Woody Johnson cooled on the deal after he heard that.
The Aaron Rodgers trade from the Packers to the Jets could be in jeopardy
“I went into the darkness 90% retiring, 10% playing,” Aaron Rodgers said on the Pat McAfee Show on March 15. “I’ve shifted my focus to entertaining what playing would look like, and the Packers granted permission for the Jets to come out and visit. We had a nice visit.”
Nice visit aside, the fact that Rodgers started his offseason darkness retreat “90% retiring” was apparently news to Jets owner Woody Johnson.
As the Aaron Rodgers trade saga continues to drag on, new reports are emerging that Johnson is now concerned about bringing in a 39-year-old QB who was nearly retired just a month ago.
According to Yahoo! Sports’ Charles Robinson on the Wilde and Tausch show on ESPN Milwaukee Radio, that the Packers “are stuck on an asking price” of a 2023 2nd round pick and a “straight-shot” first-round pick in 2024 with a possible 2025 pick going back the other way of Rodgers plays just one season.
Robinson also revealed that “the Jets and Woody Johnson specifically, they’re just not going to do it.”
Johnson wants to put conditions on the 2024 pick in case Rodgers does decide to retire next offseason, and the Packers are holding firm. Complicating this matter is the fact that the Packers don’t have a true owner who Johnson can interface with, as Boomer Esiason recently railed about.
Now, the other rumor — which also emanated from the Pat McAfee Show — is that Rodgers is telling the Jets there’s no rush to make the deal, as he won’t be coming to New York until May at the earliest anyway.
However, it now seems as though the longer the Jets (and mostly owner Woody Johnson) get to ruminate on an Aaron Rodgers trade, the more worried they get.
There is no hard deadline before draft day to get the deal done, but not making this happen would be a disaster for both franchises. It would be a bigger catastrophe for the Packers, though, who have already moved on with Jordan Love and would have to pay Rodgers $59.5 million next season if he stays.
Chances are, the Packers will be the ones to blink first, but with these recent reports, it does seem like the Jets completely walking away from the deal is a real possibility, especially if Rodgers decides to go on the Pat McAfee Show again and open his mouth before the trade is consummated.