One of the worst seasons of Aaron Rodgers’ NFL career was his last one as a member of the Green Bay Packers. With 3,695 yards—his lowest total in a single season—26 touchdowns—his second-lowest total in a full season—and 12 touchdowns—the second-most he’s thrown in a whole season—he completed 64.6% of his throws. The Packers decided to deal him to the New York Jets since his play was clearly declining and Jordan Love was waiting in the wings.
The Packers ended up obtaining Lukas Van Ness, Luke Musgrave, Anders Carlson, Edgerrin Cooper, Jacob Monk, and Evan Williams as a result of the trade, which provided Green Bay further draft selections.
In the meanwhile, the Jets received almost little immediate value from the transaction other than a lot of fanfare leading up to the season.
Regretfully, Rodgers suffered an Achilles tear four plays into his Jets rookie campaign. But prior to that, the Jets’ offseason initiatives were the subject of the greatest excitement in a long time. HBO’s “Hard Knocks” provided fans with even more excitement for what they believed was going to be a Super Bowl season by documenting team meetings and practices.
Things changed when Rodgers got hurt. Once again, New York ended 7–10, and Rodgers was in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Many Jets supporters started to see why some Packers fans had been relieved to move on when he made contentious comments on the Epstein List and in the podcast episode where he asserted that modern architecture isn’t genuine.
The fact that Rodgers, a 40-year-old quarterback, is recovering from a serious injury is the primary cause for concern. He intends to play for a number of more seasons, but his physical condition isn’t guaranteed.
In the meantime, the Packers in Green Bay made defensive and offensive changes, starting first- and second-year pass catchers for their first-year starters. Despite some unsatisfactory early results, Love went on to have the greatest debut season of any starting quarterback in Packers history:
Quarterback Yards Completed, Touchdowns Made, InterceptionsRating for Passage
Jordan Charm4,159, 32, 11, 96.1, 64.2%
Aaron Butler4,038 28 13 93.8 63.6%
Brett Favre 3,227 18, 13 85.3%
Love outperformed both Aaron Rodgers and Brett Favre in their first seasons as the starting quarterback of the Packers, as the above table shows.
NFL writer Cody Benjamin rated Love as the 10th best quarterback in the NFL and Aaron Rodgers as the 11th in a recent rankings piece on CBS Sports. Benjamin wrote about love.
“Love, one of the most exciting players of late 2023, needs to show that he can control his natural throwing ability like Brett Favre, but after a year as Green Bay’s starting quarterback, he certainly seems to have the moxie of a long-term standout. His youthful armaments are also still developing.
Regarding Rodgers:
“He may very well stay in the top five at the position and help the Jets have a team that can compete for the playoffs if he stays upright.
But there’s a lot of mystery here; Rodgers hasn’t exactly produced stellar numbers in three years, nor is he simply 40 years old and coming off a season cut short by a catastrophic injury.
It will be fascinating to watch Rodgers’ performance in 2024. Of course, he and the Jets still think he can play at a high level. Even if it wasn’t great by his standards, most quarterbacks would consider his 2022 season to be respectable.
In contrast, Love is just growing stronger and the players surrounding him are gaining more expertise. Seeing whether one has a stronger season will be interesting to watch.
