Back in the Spring of 2021, Denver Broncos fans were gearing up for the first round of the NFL Draft with a brand-new GM and somewhat renewed optimism for the franchise. The Broncos held the 9th overall pick, and even though they were clearly in need of a quarterback, the arrival of George Paton as GM seemed to give a much-needed breath of fresh air around the organization as Paton would be bringing fresh eyes to the roster and a completely different way of evaluating talent.
Just before the draft started, rumors started to emerge that the Broncos were shockingly on the cusp of potentially acquiring Aaron Rodgers in a trade with the Green Bay Packers. Rodgers was fresh off of an MVP season at the time, so Broncos Country was understandably in a frenzy over the reports as the clock ticked closer and closer to the start of the draft.
To make a long story short, rumors of Rodgers being traded to the Denver Broncos would persist for an entire year, but nothing came of it. Rodgers ended up re-signing with the Packers in the Spring of 2022 and the Broncos immediately pivoted to a trade to acquire Russell Wilson from the Seahawks.
Denver Broncos dodged a bullet by missing out on Aaron Rodgers?
Rodgers put together another MVP season for the Packers in 2021, but experienced a major dropoff in 2022. And the Packers missed the playoffs after getting beat on their home field by the Detroit Lions to end that particular season.
Rodgers was a distraction all throughout the 2022 season for Green Bay and the team wasn't winning games in the midst of it. The Packers had enough after 2022 and were ready to move on from the Rodgers era and pivot to Jordan Love, their first-round pick in 2020. Rodgers was traded in the 2023 offseason to the New York Jets, who would have done just about anything to get a quick fix at the quarterback position with Robert Saleh's defense playing at an elite level.
Rodgers got everything he wanted in New York with the Jets. He got to basically hand-pick the coaching staff (although publicly the Jets have stated they hired Nathaniel Hackett on his own merit) and the player personnel offensively had a very non-coincidental Green Bay flare.
What the Jets put together in 2023 is what the Broncos were seemingly expecting to put together in 2022.
And that is even clearer now in hindsight. The Broncos didn't hire Nathaniel Hackett to coach Russell Wilson -- they hired him to coach Aaron Rodgers. Again, we're operating under assumptions here, but these are strong assumptions based on reports that have been out in the open for a long time. Rodgers was simply blinded by green greed in 2022 and my personal theory is that if the Broncos had been sold to the Walton-Penner group even six months sooner, then Rodgers would have never re-signed in Green Bay.
The Broncos simply didn't have the cash on hand at the moment to give to Rodgers, but the Packers did. And to me, that is always the reason this whole blockbuster of Rodgers to Denver never happened.
Betting sites believed the Broncos were getting Rodgers. Insiders were heavily insinuating that Rodgers wanted Denver. But it never happened.
And even though the Broncos had to endure one of the most embarrassing moves in franchise history -- the trade to acquire Russell Wilson (and subsequent contract extension) -- I still think fans of this team should be grateful that a deal to acquire Rodgers never got done.
The Broncos dodged a bullet, as it were.
Rodgers missed the entire 2023 season due to injury. He has been a complete distraction off the field as the Jets continue to struggle offensively.
It's still extremely early for the Broncos with Bo Nix at the helm, but given the state of the New York Jets with Nathaniel Hackett as their offensive coordinator and head coach Robert Saleh being fired, that franchise is facing a total rebuild in the near future while the Broncos are clearly building something.
We don't know for a fact that Nix is going to work out, but we do know for a fact that the clock is ticking on Rodgers' time in the NFL. And the Jets didn't get a Peyton Manning-like window out of him at this point. We'll see how the rest of the season plays out, but based on how the last three years have gone for Rodgers dating back to his final season in Green Bay, it's looking like the Broncos may have gotten lucky that things went the way they did.