Packers initial demands in Aaron Rodgers trade to Jets, revealed

Before agreeing to a deal on April 24th, the Packers tried to extract a "Matthew Stafford-level" deal from the Jets for Aaron Rodgers.

For weeks, everybody knew Aaron Rodgers was going to leave the Green Bay Packers to join the New York Jets. In fact, Rodgers himself even broke the news on the Pat McAfee Show, announcing that he'd be a Jet 43 days before the Green Bay Packers and New York Jets actually hashed out a deal. Here was one of the most complicated and gnarled trade negotiations in recent memory. How do you accurately value an aging quarterback who won't commit to playing more than one year and will only play for one team? Both teams had leverage—the Jets knew that Rodgers wouldn't sign off on a trade to any other team; the Packers knew that the Jets were desperate for Rodgers. As such, the teams haggled over draft pick compensation for weeks with the Packers holding firm that they would need a sizable return to part with Rodgers.

“The Packers initially wanted a return in the neighborhood of what Detroit got for Matthew Stafford in 2021 (two firsts and a third),” reported Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated's in Monday's “Daily Cover” story about the Aaron Rodgers trade negotiations. The Jets didn’t want to give up a single first-round pick, let alone two, given that they had no assurances Rodgers would play more than a year. And both organizations were led by men—Jets owner Woody Johnson and Packers president Mark Murphy—who were part of, and marked by, the last blockbuster quarterback deal made between these two franchises.”

On April 24th, the deal finally went through—the Packers agreed to Aaron send Rodgers, a 2023 first-round pick (No. 15) and a 2023 fifth-round pick (No. 170) to the Jets for New York's 2023 first-round pick (No. 13), a 2023 second-round pick (No. 42), a 2023 sixth-round pick (No. 207) and a conditional 2024 first round pick that reverts back to a second rounder if Rodgers plays fewer than 65 percent of the team's snaps.

In the tend, both teams got their wish, kind of. The Packers received a bounty of premium draft picks, acquiring, at bare minimum, two second round picks to kickstart their rebuild; the Jets landed a franchise quarterback at a relative discount compared to what the Broncos traded for Russell Wilson or the Rams gave up for Stafford.