I find it extremely hard to believe that in either of the past two offseasons, Green Bay would have refused to pull the trigger if some team had offered them a pair of first-rounders — or even a first-, second-, and third-rounder — in exchange for Aaron Rodgers, regardless of whether they thought Jordan Love was ready to hit the ground running. I think a lot of fans have been overestimating Rodgers' value on the trade market, his recent MVP wins notwithstanding.
Originally Posted by: Nonstopdrivel
I Tweeted something similar to this. Packers got 3rd rounder for 38 year old Brett Favre coming off a 13 win season and somehow some of us are thinking 39 year old Rodgers coming off 8 wins is gonna get us multiple day one picks and possibly a day two pick.
I gotta wonder how much Russell Wilson trade is on folks minds in NFL circles.
Originally Posted by: Zero2Cool
Some good points here, I don't know if there's an apples to apples comparison. Probably the closest comparable situation is Brady and Manning, but they signed as free agents, so it's hard to gauge what Rodger's value is now or what it might have been the past year or two. Going back a bit further, other than Favre, the last aging HOF QB I can remember being traded for a high pick would have to be Joe Montana. The 49ers got a 1st round pick for him and his wheels were already clearly falling off, though he was a bit younger, I think 35 at the time.
I would say the game has changed since Montana and Favre played, gotten much safer for QBs in particular and we can see that with how well Tom Brady has held up (though he is obviously an outlier) and how well Rodgers has played the last few years, having one of his best years at age 38.
Now, would a team give up a 1st or more for Rodgers? I think if a team saw him as the missing peice to a superbowl run perhaps, but that's a pretty big if. It would probably depend on how willing Rodgers would be to commit to 2-3 more years as well. I wouldn't hold my breath there.
The Wilson and Stafford trades are interesting, but you guys are right, there's a big difference between 33 and 39-40 year old QBs.