The hiring of head coach Nathaniel Hackett has only added fuel to the fire of Aaron Rodgers being traded to the Denver Broncos.
It is the NFL rumor that just won’t go away, but that is for good reason. Though the Green Bay Packers continue to insist that they don’t plan to trade Aaron Rodgers, this move is starting to make even more sense than it did one year ago.
Rodgers, who recently turned 38 years old, is coming off another failed postseason with the Packers, one in which they were the No.1 overall seed in the NFC. The Packers have Jordan Love, who they used a first-round pick on in the 2020 draft, and it just seems like the right time to move on.
Brett Favre was 38 years old when he was traded by the Packers
The Packers have been here before.
Following the 2007 season, the team traded Brett Favre to the New York Jets after 16 seasons as the starting quarterback. Favre just happened to be 38 years old as well.
Favre still had some good football in him, but the Packers knew they had Rodgers behind him. Now, they have Love and unlike the Favre situation, where they were given just a conditional draft pick in return, they could fetch a king’s ransom for Rodgers.
If George Paton decides to engage the Green Bay front office in trade talks, he certainly has the kind of capital needed to make a deal.
However, the Packers would own the biggest bargaining chip of all. Green Bay general manager Brian Gutekunst simply has to say that the Broncos are getting the player that just won the Most Valuable Player Award for the second year in a row.
Only four players in the history of the game have ever done that, and they are all in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Jim Brown was the first, followed by Joe Montana. Peyton Manning actually won the award back-to-back two separate times.
The other guy to do it? Favre.
This will drive the price for Rodgers up, particularly if it is not Gutekunst’s preference to trade the future Hall of Famer.
How would an Aaron Rodgers trade work??
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) January 28, 2022
"This trade is gonna be hard because there's so many different variables.. we're talking at least multiple 1st round picks" ~@RapSheet#PatMcAfeeShowLIVE pic.twitter.com/3oUlSY11au
Last year, I took a look at a potential trade bringing Rodgers to Denver. In that deal, the Broncos gave up a considerable amount.
And while Broncos fans may think it would be too much to give up for an aging quarterback, that is the price you are going to pay for a guy who presumably turns you into an instant Super Bowl contender.
In a deal for Rodgers, the Broncos would give up multiple draft picks and likely multiple first-round choices. They would also likely have to part with at least one, if not two, of the better players on the roster.
It’s highly likely the Packers would ask for either Courtland Sutton or Jerry Jeudy in return.
Like Favre when he was traded from Green Bay, Rodgers still has a lot of good football left in him. His last two seasons are proof of that and as long as he is playing at that level, the Packers can ask for whatever they want to.
Paton and the rest of the front office will have to decide if that price is worth it.