The New York Jets are all-in on Aaron Rodgers, but did trading for him just get more expensive?
These are uneasy times for New York Jets fans.
The anxieties of the fan base have been rising with each day the team’s quarterback situation remains unresolved.
Now, Derek Carr is no longer an option, leaving one possible answer on the table: the eccentric and unpredictable Aaron Rodgers.
As long as Carr was on the market, the Jets appeared to have leverage over the Packers in a possible Rodgers trade. After all, if Green Bay tried to hold them over a barrel, they could just pivot to Carr.
However, it appears that the Jets and Carr were mutually using each other: New York to try to pressure Rodgers into making a decision, and Carr to extract every last dollar from the Saints, the team that was reportedly his preference from the get-go.
Now that it’s Rodgers or bust, do the Packers suddenly have the upper hand on the Jets in a possible trade?
Not necessarily. On one hand, not having that pivot to Carr does narrow the Jets’ options. However, it doesn’t sound like the Packers would have any other trade partners for Rodgers besides the Jets, which evens out the playing field.
Furthermore, if Rodgers does want to come to the Jets (which is the only way they will acquire him, anyway), all he has to do is say the word, and the leverage falls back squarely into the Jets’ camp.
Of course, the Packers could refuse to trade Rodgers and leave him to retire, but that would cost them $24 million in dead cap with no return. Making such a move with no trade return would be cutting off their nose to spite their face.
General managers can be vindictive, but Brian Gutekunst has not shown himself to be fiscally irresponsible (except, perhaps, when signing Rodgers’s current deal). Retirement is squarely a leverage play for Rodgers, not Green Bay.
Ultimately, the Carr news hasn’t changed too much about a possible Rodgers trade. If it’s going to happen, it’ll be only if Rodgers wants it. If Rodgers wants to go to the Jets, the Packers lose leverage in a trade.
What has changed is how Jets fans feel about the situation. When reports start coming out about how some in the Jets’ building preferred Jimmy Garoppolo to Carr, that sounds like trying to shape the narrative for a situation in which Rodgers does not come to New York.
It’s a scary prospect for many fans who were all-in on the top two veteran quarterbacks.
These are the times that try Jets fans’ souls. Stay tuned for another episode of The QB Files.
