Aaron Rodgers had to play at least 65% of the offensive snaps for the New York Jets this season for the Green Bay Packers to acquire a 2024 first-round pick for him.
With Rodgers’ season ending after four games due to a torn Achilles tendon, that condition will not be met and the Packers will ultimately receive a 2024 second-round pick to complete the trade for the four-time NFL MVP.
However, that wasn’t the only term in the language of the trade papers between the Jets and Packers, according to multiple sources who spoke to CBS Sports this week. Although the Jets are guaranteed to send their second-round pick to the Packers, the Jets still do not have full control of their 2024 first-round pick because not all terms of the trade have technically been met yet.
The NFL doesn’t allow teams to distribute picks that aren’t under its complete control, so the Jets’ first- and second-round picks will essentially be held in escrow for the entire 2023 season. At the end of the year, Green Bay will have the Jets’ second-rounder and Gang Green will officially own its first.
If the Jets want to trade a player who would require first-round compensation before the Oct. 31 deadline, they will have to create terms that add a condition in addition to a condition to meet the league’s requirements.
According to a source, the Packers included certain language in the trade to guard against surprises. The language referred to any possible transaction the Jets could make to avoid Rodgers’ salary or a Rodgers trade for any reason.
The language would protect the Packers and their trade compensation if the Jets tried to release Rodgers and sign him later, or if Rodgers were to force a trade this year. And since both could theoretically happen – even though there’s virtually no chance of it actually happening – the trading conditions haven’t been met yet and therefore both picks are still in escrow.
The reasoning behind this kind of language likely comes back to one player, and it’s an NFL storyline twist that could only happen to the New York Jets: Brett Favre.
The Packers famously traded Favre to the Jets in 2008 for a conditional fourth-round pick who ended up becoming a third-rounder. Favre, who spent much of the 2000s playing with retirement, played one season for the Jets before the two teams parted ways. Favre retired and was placed on the reserve/retired list until the Jets officially released him from that list in the spring of 2009.
He signed with the Vikings as their starting quarterback in August. This angered many in Green Bay for several reasons, not the least of which was the fact that the Packers were trying to protect themselves from the franchise star being traded to the opposing team.
The Packers added a poison pill to the Favre-Jets trade documents that would have forced the Jets to give up three first-round picks if they ended up trading Favre to another team in the NFC North. The Packers had already filed tampering charges with the league against Minnesota before he moved to New York, but the league ruled there was no violation.
But the Jets had released Favre after one season, and at that point no team could restrict his free agent movement anywhere. So he signed with a team the Packers were suspicious of, without further compensation.
Poison pills were eliminated in the 2011 collective bargaining agreement, but these Packers apparently still needed their own protection in case something untoward happened to Rodgers.
But the Jets can still use the pick with some help. A team can agree to the above trade term — retaining a future first or combination of picks until the 2024 first becomes available — or the Jets can return to Green Bay and revise the language in the deal. Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst and the rest of the organization could agree to release the Jets from any contingent obligations now that Rodgers is out for the season and unlikely transactions that could impact the Packers would not occur.
All of this only matters until the NFL trade deadline on Oct. 31 at 4 p.m. ET, and it really only matters if the Jets want to use a first-round pick on a player by then. At that price, the only player the Jets would target would be a quarterback.
Jets head coach Robert Saleh has emphatically stated that the team now belongs to Zach Wilson, the No. 2 overall pick in 2021. Tim Boyle will start as the lone backup against the Cowboys in Week 2, although the Jets will add a third quarterback as early as next week .
But if things change for the Jets and they decide to go aggressive on the quarterback market for the second time in a calendar year, it won’t be as easy as simply sending next year’s top pick.
And they have Favre to thank – or blame – for that.