Aaron Rodgers to the Vikings Gets Ignited Online
Only a matter of time, folks.
The New York Jets are in the middle of, shall we say, a poor season. The end result has been the firing of head coach Robert Saleh and general manager Joe Douglas. Change is afoot. Does that mean Aaron Rodgers is the next to go in The Big Apple?
Consider the word from ESPN’s Rich Cimini: “With a totally new regime in 2025, it likely means Aaron Rodgers won’t be back. A new GM and new HC will probably want their own QB. Rodgers has a good relationship with Douglas, and last week he advocated for Jeff Ulbrich — and it’s hard to imagine him wanting to even be back.”
Note: Kevin Seifert appears to be tossing along the follow-up comment in a tongue-in-cheek manner (the emojis suggest as much), but consider the word from Seifert in response: “Vikings have one QB under contract for 2025 and he has never played a down of regular-season NFL football. It’s happening.” The suggestion is that Rodgers to Minnesota is starting to become a thing, even if it’s only in jest.
Aaron Rodgers, The Vikings, & The 2025 QB Situation
The best guess is that Aaron Rodgers and the Jets won’t continue in 2025.
On The Athletic, there’s a piece co-authored by Dianna Russini and Zack Rosenblatt. The quote that offers the hint: “Rodgers is fond of both Douglas and Ulbrich and had been hoping for some continuity in 2025. As such, it’s increasingly unlikely the quarterback returns next season, and it’s believed that [team owner Woody] Johnson won’t want him back anyway.”
For the sake of argument, let’s say the predictable happens: Rodgers ventures into free agency one last time. Does a fit in Minnesota really make sense?
Working in favor of the fit is the simple fact that Minnesota boasts a top-tier defense alongside tremendous offensive weapons. Any QB who steps into this scenario is set up to succeed, which is more than can be said for an awful lot of teams around the league. The cherry on top is that Kevin O’Connell has proven to be excellent at working with his quarterbacks, getting career-best play out of Kirk Cousins and Sam Darnold (which is to say nothing of the Josh Dobbs magic).
Plus, there’s the similarities with Brett Favre that people are so quick to point toward. Dustin Baker lays it out in his piece on Vikings Territory: “Brett Favre, fired up this path — to a tee — playing in Green Bay for years, joining the Jets, flopping with that experiment, and becoming a Viking soon after. The parallels are spooky.”
Favre to the Vikings would have been unthinkable at a certain point in time. When it happened, the 2009 season was magical, one of the best in franchise history (2010 was, well, less than magical). Oh, and in the same VT piece, Baker points to a Packers podcaster who ventures into the Rodgers-to-Vikings theory, as well.
Now, let’s sift through the wreckage of all of those words to pick out the plausible.
The Jets moving on from Aaron Rodgers seems likely. Minnesota does only have a single QB under contract for 2025 — J.J. McCarthy — and that young QB is coming off of a major knee injury. Looking to sign a strong QB2 thus makes a lot of sense. In fact, the possibility of bringing Sam Darnold back shouldn’t be completely dismissed.
One more thing: Mr. Rodgers could very plausibly have interest in becoming a Viking. Elite weapons, excellent offensive tackles, a top-tier defense, playing under a brilliant HC/OC, and the chance to get revenge on the Packers. The issue is simply that Minnesota seems unlikely to reciprocate the interest.
An awful lot has been invested in Mr. McCarthy. Indisputably, the plan is to hand things over to him before too long. There’s a case to be made that Minnesota should proceed cautiously in 2025 given the injury and inexperience, but bringing Rodgers to town has disaster written all over it.
Aaron Rodgers will turn 41 in early December. He has a 63.4% completion rate alongside 2,442 yards, 17 touchdowns, and 7 interceptions. His passer rating sits at 88.9 and his PFF grade is coming in at 75.9, 17th among 38 quarterbacks. Someday, he’ll be in the Hall of Fame and be remembered as one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history.
Finishing off his career as a Viking, though, is supremely unlikely. The Vikings are far likelier to rally around their sophomore passer while sinking financial resources into the roster more broadly.
Or, perhaps, lightning strikes twice and this piece looks pretty foolish by March of 2025. The Vikings, after all, have never been a dull franchise.
Stay tuned.
Editor’s Note: Information from Pro Football Reference and PFF helped with this piece.
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K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on Twitter, as a co-host for Notes from the North, and as the proprietor at The Vikings Gazette, a humble Vikings Substack.