Aaron Rodgers Has Chosen the New York Jets, but Deal Is Not Done Yet
Josh Frey
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On Wednesday at 12 PM CST, 450,000+ concurrent viewers tuned into The Pat McAfee Show on YouTube for one main reason: the awaited decision on where quarterback Aaron Rodgers would play NFL football in 2023. That decision is official: Aaron Rodgers has chosen the New York Jets as the team he wants to play for.
In typical Rodgers fashion, the Packers QB beat around the bush for about 15 minutes by discussing his recent “darkness retreat” before diving into his thought processes from the past few years.
An interesting tidbit from his chat with McAfee was that his mindset going into the retreat was “90% retiring.” He also made it clear that Wednesday wasn’t ‘decision day’, and that the decision has been made for awhile.
Rodgers expressed that early on in the offseason, the Packers left the door open to him returning. However, as time went on, and particularly after “coming out of the darkness” as Rodgers put it, their tone had seemed to change in that regard.
“It was clear to me at that point, while the Packers were saying the right thing in public, they were going to move on,” Rodgers said.
Then, apparently Rodgers decided on Friday that he was ready to move on, and he wanted to play for the Jets. However, another report from Tom Pelissero surfaced just before this interview that there had not been an agreement between the Jets and Packers on a trade.
“I made it clear my intention was to play and to play for the New York Jets. I haven’t been holding anything up at this point,” Rodgers stated. “It’s been compensation the Packers have been trying to get for me and kind of digging their heels in.”
With both the Packers and Rodgers set to move on, Green Bay now looks poised to move forward with 2020 first-round pick Jordan Love at the QB position.
Love has appeared in 10 games through his first three NFL seasons, making his only career start in Week 9 of the 2021 season. Through his young career, the new Packers starter has recorded 606 passing yards, 3 TDs, and 3 INTs.
The Minnesota Vikings will, of course, play these new-look Packers twice during the 2023 season after 15 long years of battling against Rodgers twice a year. Throughout his Packers career, Rodgers terrorized Vikings defenses, leading Green Bay to a 17-11-1 record through 29 starts. He recorded 7157 passing yards, 57 TDs, and just 8 INTs over those 29 starts while completing 68% of his passes.
Again, we still have to wait to see what kind of trade actually gets done between the two sides, but it seems safe to expect those talks to ramp up in the aftermath of this announcement.
Josh Frey is a Class of 2020 graduate of The College of Idaho with a bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing. When he’s not writing about the NFL, Josh enjoys running, gaming, or rooting for the Milwaukee Brewers and Bucks. Check out his Twitter account: @Freyed_Chicken.