It’s been reported that draft compensation has been the hold-up regarding the trade negotiations involving Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers heading to the New York Jets. We started getting a bit more information on those compensation talks.
Yahoo Sports NFL reporter Charles Robinson appeared on the Wilde and Tausch podcast on ESPN Radio and shared some insight into the trade talks. He reports that the Packers’ asking price for Rodgers is a second-round pick in 2023 — of which the Jets have two of thanks to the trading of Elijah Moore to the Cleveland Browns — and a straight first-round pick in 2024. That means no “graduating picks” or anything of that sort. Green Bay wants a first-round pick next year, no questions asked.
Green Bay is also willing to include some sort of compensation pick in 2025 for the Jets if Rodgers decides not to play in 2024, per Robinson.
The Jets, and specifically owner Woody Johnson, are saying no. They do not want to budge immediately off of a first-round pick in 2024 and part of that has to do with what happened this past season with the Denver Broncos and Russell Wilson with all the picks the Broncos traded to the Seattle Seahawks for Wilson only for him to lead Denver to a 5-12 record and give the Seahawks the 5th pick in the upcoming draft.
Robinson also mentions Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford and how his elbow injury helped play a role in Los Angeles crumbling in 2022, also finishing 5-12 and allowing the Detroit Lions to end up with the 6th overall pick.
Robinson goes on to say that Johnson and the Jets seem content with sending a second-round pick next year, meaning ultimately a pair of twos, and attaching some sort of graduating condition on that 2024 pick.
The crazy thing about all this is that the Packers and Jets reportedly had the parameters of a deal in place. According to Robinson, those parameters may have been a third-round pick in 2023 (before they traded that pick to Cleveland) and a first in 2024. Then Johnson got scared off after Rodgers appeared on The Pat McAfee Show and said he was “90% retired.” The Jets perhaps felt comfortable that Rodgers would play for two more years, so hearing he was nearly retired before his darkness retreat created concern for Johnson. They don’t want to guarantee a first to the Packers for potentially just a one-year window.
Another factor in all this, according to Robinson, is that the Jets don’t want to guarantee a first-round pick to the Packers, have everything fall apart in 2023 and now they’re handing over a high pick in 2024 to Green Bay in a draft year that will have at least a couple of potential stars in the making at the quarterback position in USC’s Caleb Williams and UNC’s Drake Maye. If things go south for the Jets in 2023 and they don’t have that high pick in 2024, it could set the franchise back years.
Robinson believes there have been different scenarios involving picks talked about through this process, including a potential pick swap in the first round, where the Packers would move up to No. 13 and the Jets would drop back to No. 15. But the key continues to be the Packers seem set on getting that guaranteed first-round pick in 2024 from the Jets.
The 2023 draft is only two weeks away. It may not be a hard deadline for this deal to get done, but if it doesn’t happen by then, it’s anyone’s guess as to when this will get done, especially if both teams are as dug in as they are regarding the picks.
You can listen to Robinson here, starting at about 36:00.
