Aaron Rodgers was displeased when the Green Bay Packers selected Jordan Love in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft. He was unhappy that the Packers did not confer with him before trading up to draft Love with the 26th overall pick.
The plan, from the Packers’ perspective, was for Love to observe and “learn from Rodgers, as Rodgers did with [Brett] Favre, but Rodgers wasn’t into it.” In the words of former ESPN sports writer Kavitha Davidson, “He was a little salty about it, and he kind of felt that, ‘I’ve earned the right not to be looking over my shoulder,’”
When asked what Aaron Rodgers thinks of the Packers taking Jordan Love in the first round, @peter_king said, "I'll tell you what he thinks, he's pissed off…" pic.twitter.com/aymwtJZS7w
— The Gresh & Fauria Show (@GreshFauriaWEEI) April 24, 2020
Despite Rodgers’ displeasure, the decision to draft Love has ended up turning out quite well for the Packers.
As noted by Sports Illustrated:
“By the numbers, Green Bay Packers quarterback Jordan Love is the best passer in the NFL. He’s No. 1 in the NFL with a 118.8 passer rating.”
Furthermore, based on his standout performance in 2023, Love made PFF’s list of the top 101 players in the NFL.
Now that the 40-year-old Rodgers is with the Jets, would the Jets dare to risk earning Rodgers’ ire by drafting a quarterback?
Aaron Rodgers Meltdown 1.0
Rodgers’s last few years with the Packers and its leadership were strained. His feud with the Packers was protracted, and it was waged largely in the public domain. The Star Tribune described the rift as “Packers QB Aaron Rodgers vs. those who run the Packers.”
His displeasure with the team after the drafting of Love festered throughout the 2020 season and into the offseason.
In April 2021, Packers Wire reported:
“Make no mistake, this drama surrounding Aaron Rodgers officially started when the Green Bay Packers drafted Jordan Love in the first round of the 2020 NFL Draft.”
Rodgers made it known that he was disgruntled. He said he wanted out of Green Bay. The falling-out “turned into a very messy situation” in which “both sides [were] culpable.”
Rodgers held out in the summer of 2021, skipping organized team activities (OTAs). He told ESPN’s Adam Schefter that he felt strongly about boycotting the Packers.
Rodgers’ reaction to the Packers drafting Love has been described as a “pout-a-thon“, featuring “nonstop passive-aggressiveness.”
Per Vox:
“[Rodgers] played a will-I-stay-or-will-I-go game for his last couple of seasons in Green Bay — a stressful and frustrating situation for all parties involved. “
Echoing this viewpoint, Justis Mosqueda, producer for SB Nation’s Acme Packing Company (a site dedicated to the Green Bay Packers), said:
“Right after the season ends, he basically goes into a press conference and says, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to be back next year, that might have been it.’ That’s a very weird thing for any athlete to do.”
.Finally, in 2023, Rodgers was traded to the Jets at the age of 39.
Despite the drawn-out riff with the Packers front office, Rodgers’ performance on the field was consistently excellent. In 2022, he earned his fourth league MVP.
Will the Jets Select a QB in the 2024 NFL Draft?
The New York Jets have the tenth overall pick in the first round of the upcoming draft.
The Jets’ track record with first-round quarterback selections has been less than stellar, at least in the last half-century.
More than 50 years ago, the Jets did make a splash with the selection of a young quarterback from Alabama. With the twelfth overall pick in the 1965 NFL Draft, the Jets selected Joe Namath. Of course, Broadway Joe went on to lead the Jets to their lone Super Bowl victory in Super Bowl III, and Namath is now in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The more recent first-round selections the Jets expended on quarterbacks are highlighted (or, perhaps more accurately, “low-lighted”) by the following picks:
- 2009 — Mark Sanchez (5th overall selection)
- 2018 — Sam Darnold (3rd overall selection)
- 2021 — Zach Wilson (2nd overall selection)
By and large, Wilson and Darnold were unmitigated disasters.
While Sanchez started out his career with the Jets fairly well, his performance deteriorated, and he will unfortunately always be remembered for the infamous “butt fumble”.
#TBT to another #Patriots-Jets Thursday night game: pic.twitter.com/MRYi4bdqDa
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) October 16, 2014
🗓️ 11 years ago today: The Butt Fumble
Jets QB Mark Sanchez runs into his own lineman and fumbles the ball allowing the Patriots to return it for a TD 😅
Is this the worst play in NFL history?pic.twitter.com/csv7BWWyl2
— Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) November 22, 2023
Despite the recent strike-outs in selecting quarterbacks early in the draft, might Gang Green give it another go?
The Sporting News reports that this is indeed a route the Jets may go.
According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the Jets could take a quarterback in the first round without irking Aaron Rodgers:
“Do they take one in the first round? I don’t know who’s going to be there. If a top guy they like a lot is there and they could, I don’t know, sit him for two years behind one of the greatest of all-time, we know that can work. … And I think Rodgers would handle that differently than he did earlier in his career.
“If the Jets take one and it turns out to be what Jordan Love is now in Green Bay, that’s the biggest win you can have as an organization. You don’t have to do what they did to get Aaron Rodgers. So I think, to me, if the right guy is there that can be an option.”
OLLY OLLY OXEN FREE!@RapSheet told @eallenjets that the #Jets ‘have done quarterback work’ ahead of the 2024 #NFLDraft. 👀
‘To me, if the right guy is there [in the first round] that could be an option.’
Ian Rapoport admitted he’s not sure what QB will be available at pick… pic.twitter.com/IKf6J0dbed
— Paul Andrew Esden Jr (@BoyGreen25) April 4, 2024
Thus, it looks like there is no need for concern about a meltdown 2.0 if the Jets decide to draft a quarterback in the 2024 NFL Draft.
For more related sports news, focused primarily on the USC Trojans, SMU Mustangs, Sacramento Kings, and Los Angeles Rams, please follow me at @vshjah_Victor.
