Aaron Rodgers - Where Are We?
Edition #344
Good morning ❄️🌨️
I was holding off writing today’s post in the hope that we’d have a big trade to talk about. We do have a trade for the Jets, but perhaps not the one we were all expecting.
We had two big news pieces yesterday in relation to Braxton Berrios and Chuck Clark and we’re going to touch on those.
Then we’re going to have a look at the Aaron Rodgers situation and where it stands. Where are we in terms of the trade compensation, and where are we in terms of the contract? I’ll try and update you on everything below.
✂️ The Jets are planning to release Braxton Berrios next week when the league year officially starts. That move was always expected as it will open up $5 million worth of cap space, but there will be $3,232,500 worth of dead money as a result. After catching 46 passes for 431 yards and 2 touchdowns in 2021 and having a kick return touchdown, Berrios was far less productive in 2022 catching 18 passes for 145 yards and 0 touchdowns. He did have 2 rushing touchdowns and a touchdown pass to Zach Wilson, but the production failed to match the salary.
🤝 The Jets also agreed to trade a 7th-round pick in 2024 to the Ravens in exchange for safety Chuck Clarke. Clarke has been with the Ravens for 6 years after being drafted in the 6th-round out of Virginia Tech. He’s been a starter in Baltimore for three years and finished 2022 with 101 tackles and 4 passes defended while allowing 69.2% of passes to be completed into his coverage. He’s been extremely productive for Baltimore, so I’m somewhat surprised to see them dealing him so cheaply. He has 1 year left on his contract at $4.1M (once the March bonus is paid), so it’s a very reasonable cost as well.
1️⃣ I saw this yesterday from Yahoo and found it quite interesting. They polled 7 scouts and asked them to name their favorite prospect at each position. The Quarterbacks were interesting and I have a sneaky suspicion that Anthony Richardson is going to end up going #1 overall. From a Jets perspective, it’s interesting to see Anton Harrison come out as the top lineman. From a DWH perspective, love that Bijan Robinson love.
❌ Compensatory picks were handed out yesterday and unsurprisingly, the Jets didn’t receive any extra picks. San Francisco was given 7 extra picks based on minority coaches and personnel getting hired away by other teams and losing certain free agents. There’s a chance that the Jets will be awarded some picks next year if players like Connor McGovern sign good deals away from the franchise.
🧀 Sauce Gardner, Breece Hall and Garrett Wilson held some weird burning of the cheesehead ritual to try and lure Aaron Rodgers to the Jets with Sauce commenting “I need you to come here so we can win a Super Bowl.” - I mean the Jets are already going to look a bit silly if Rodgers decides to retire but add this on top and man.
🧐 He did make a comment - “If Aaron Rodgers comes to the Jets, it’s package deals all over” - He wouldn’t say who, and you never know if this is just Sauce being Sauce, as in talking a lot and playing, he did mention OBJ at one point. The reality is that having someone like Aaron Rodgers makes the Jets a more desirable spot for free agents, I don’t think that’s very secret.
Jeremy Fowler was talking last night on a Twitter space and he had a lot of interesting things to say about the Jets and Aaron Rodgers, here are the highlights:
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Jets Way to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.