Packers: Grading Aaron Rodgers trade to the New York Jets

It finally happened! After months of trade discussion and rumors, the Green Bay Packers finally traded Aaron Rodgers to the New York Jets in a blockbuster deal.

It’s a bittersweet day for Packers fans everywhere. Trading Rodgers marks the end of an era that brought a Super Bowl, four MVPs, perennial contention and pain. A whole lot of pain.

Ultimately, Rodgers wore out his welcome with many fans and the front office. Still, quarterbacks like him don’t grow on trees, and we may never see one of his caliber donning the green and gold ever again (hopefully, we do). With ESPN’s Adam Schefter reporting the deal, let’s grade the Packers’ performance in the trade.

Let’s hand out a grade to the Green Bay Packers for their trade of Aaron Rodgers to the New York Jets that finally went down.

Let’s start at the top.

Green Bay held firm to get most of what they wanted. Moving up two spots in the draft may seem minuscule, but it dramatically improves Green Bay’s chances to land the top wideout in this draft class, Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Smith-Njigba would perfectly complement Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs, and is the only receiver worth considering in the middle part of the draft.

The Packers also landed the 42nd overall pick in this year’s class, giving them another opportunity to land an immediately impactful player. With three top-50 picks, Green Bay will have a great chance to address multiple holes on their roster.

It was well worth it if it cost them a fifth-for-a-sixth-round pick to move up in the first round. The Packers have had success in the later rounds of the draft and dropped 37 spots on Day 3. They had to give the Jets something.

The biggest factor will be the conditional 2024 pick. It’s a second-rounder as of now, but it would escalate to a first if Rodgers plays 65 percent of his snaps in 2023, a feat he’s accomplished in each of the last five years.

Without including the 2024 pick, Green Bay comes out ahead by 566 points, according to the NFL trade value chart, the value of the 34th overall selection. If it only ends up being a second-rounder, it would increase the Packers’ points to the value of the 18th overall pick (I took the 566 points previously mentioned and added the value of an average second-round pick–426 points). If it escalates to a first-rounder, Green Bay could get a top-10 pick value for Rodgers (the average value of a first-rounder is 1131 points).

In the end, it looks like the Packers received closer than what they hoped for than the Jets did. They also get long-term salary cap relief to help them continue building their roster. As of now, it looks like a good deal for the Packers:

Grade: B+