Despite lasting 2 years longer in Lambeau than his predecessor Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers took the Green Bay Packers to just as many Super Bowl wins (just one) and now looks to follow Favre’s footsteps and head to the Big Apple.
First announced by Rodgers on “The Pat McAfee Show” on ESPN during the March 15th broadcast, he claimed he made his decision back on March 10th. According to league sources the two teams have been in contact and are trying to restructure Rodger’s deal as well as discussing equitable trade compensation.
Rodgers said “I made it clear my intention was to play and to play for the New York Jets, and I haven’t been holding anything up. It’s the compensation that the Packers are trying to get. … The Packers want to move on and have let me know that in so many words.”
This decision follows a four-day darkness retreat that Rodgers undertook to sort out his future and his goals for the rest of his NFL career. He claimed that when he emerged from the darkness he learned that the Packers had changed their minds and no longer wanted him to play his entire career in Green Bay, something he wished they had told him during the last offseason.
As NFL teams make tremendous moves at the start of free agency many suspected Rodgers would be on the move. With his hinting toward wanting to reunite with Davante Adams, it seemed like the Las Vegas Raiders were the obvious choice. When they chose Jimmy Garoppolo, that scratched that option and made the Jets seem right.
With an opportunity to have Nathaniel Hackett as his offensive coordinator yet again, perhaps Rodgers can return to the same greatness he had under him from 2019-2021. During those seasons Rodgers won two NFL MVPs, his third and fourth awards. To return to that level of greatness, sources say Rodgers has given the Jets a “shopping list” of players to help him succeed. No matter how many pieces of that list they get, the AFC East just got a lot more interesting.
