Doesn’t this need to be factored into the trade compensation?

Talking about whether Aaron Rodgers plays in 2024-25. That should certainly factor into his trade value, don’t you think?

You don’t want to break the bank for a one-year rental if that is what it turns out to be.

So let’s say the Jets do agree to give up their 2023 first-round pick, 13th overall, for Rodgers, I do think they need to get back a fairly high conditional pick, in 2024, if Rodgers retires after one season. Maybe not a first-round pick, but maybe a 2 or 3.

If Rodgers, a four-time MVP, plays two full seasons for the Jets, some would argue he’s worth a first-round pick.

However, the Jets need to protect themselves if he turns into a one-year rental and retires after the 2023-24 season.

It makes no sense to give up a first-round pick, if that is indeed what the Packers want, without protection, if the player only plays one season for you.

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While many people feel it was done to appease quarterback Aaron Rodgers who is expected to land with the Jets eventually, it also fills a big need.

Talking about the Jets signing of former Green Bay receiver Allen Lazard.

One thing the Jets have lacked in the last couple of years is a huge receiver, like the 6-5, 227-pound Lazard, who will go up and win jump ball, win 50-50 balls.

6-3 Denzel Mims is going at climbing the ladder to grab high passes, but is so-so on contested passes; there is a difference. 6-2 Corey Davis was okay in his area, but he’s not like the Lazard, who is like a power forward playing basketball.

The only player in the building last year like Lazard was on the practice squad, 6-4, 219-pound rookie free agent Irvin Charles. He could be good, but hasn’t caught an NFL regular season pass yet.

Look, we all know the Lazard signing has a lot to do with Rodgers, but they also need this kind of guy, regardless of the QB.

And Lazard’s also a tremendous run blocker, a key in their outside zone rushing attack; you need good blocking receivers on the outside.

Perhaps they overpaid a tad, but nonetheless, this signing fills a Jets need.

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It was the rage on sports talk shows earlier this week, and Aaron Rodgers was getting roasted over it.

On March 14, ESPN’s Dianna Russini tweeted, “Aaron Rodgers has provided the NY Jets with a wish list of free agents he would like them to target and acquire, per sources. It includes Randall Cobb, Allen Lazard, Marcedes Lewis and….Odell Beckham Jr.”

Rodgers took a lot of heat over this, with some accusing him of being a prima donna making such demands.

Well, here is his full response to this report during an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday:

“It’s so ridiculous. I didn’t respond to Dianna Russini, I think her name is. I would say the same thing I told [Adam Schefter], lose my number. Nice try. I will speak for myself.

“I’m sure people will have their sources, but from what I’ve seen, I had a sheet of paper when I met with the Jets [with] ‘sign these people.’ That’s not the reality. That is so ridiculous. It’s so stupid to think I would that it, #1.

“Now did they ask me about certain guys I played with over the years, of course? Did I talk glowingly about teammates I love – yeah. Why wouldn’t I? I love those guys on the list, of course. Did I make demands about certain people? I mean it’s just . . .

“People want these things to be true. I’m in this meeting dressed in ceremonial regalia giving them a list on parchment with people they need to sign.

“Objectively, a lot of people can look at (WR) Allen Lazard and see he is a very good player we would want on our team. Then anybody with a brain, on a team, would call me and ask, ‘What kind of guy is Allen Lazard, what’s his work ethic, and I would say, ‘He’s a great f-in dude.’ Anybody would be lucky to have him in their locker room, and if somebody asked me about Big Daddy (TE Marcedes Lewis) and Cobby (WR Randall Cobb). I don’t know who else is on that list, I’d say the same thing. (McAfee says ‘Odell’). First of all, who wouldn’t want Odell on their team?

“Look, what are we talking about here, I don’t have demands. The only demand I have is for transparency.

“When something gets out there, it’s assumed to be true and it takes on a life of its own.”

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This probably would have happened sooner if not for . . .

the player winning the league MVP in 2020 and ’21.

Talking about QB Aaron Rodgers’ departure from Green Bay, which is likely to happen very soon, with him perhaps coming to work in Florham Park for the New York Jets.

“When [the Packers] drafted Jordan (Love, in the 2020 first round), this conversation (about me leaving Green Bay), would have happened a lot sooner, if I had not won back-to-back Covid MVPs,” Rodgers said on the Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday. “We are coming off last year with obviously missing the playoffs, didn’t have an MVP season.”

Rodgers talked to Packers officials about his future after the season.

“Everything I was told in the week (after the season) I was in Green Bay, (was), ‘Take as long as you want. We want you to retire a Packer. You want to come back to play, the door is wide open.’ So that was the information I was going on. When I came out of the darkness, something changed.”

The darkness Rodgers is referring to is the time he spent in late February at Sky Cave Retreats in Southern Oregon. He spent four days in a dark cabin to “have a better sense of where I’m at in my life.”

So when he left the cabin, his phone, which he didn’t have access to during the retreat, was rife with text messages.

“I heard from multiple people I trust around the league [that] there was some shopping going on – they were intent on actually moving me,” Rodgers said.

What changed? Maybe the Packers aren’t believers in darkness retreats.

But whatever changed, the Jets brass is happy it did, because now the four-time NFL MVP wants to be traded to their team.

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Long-time baseball executive Branch Rickey is considered one of the great innovators in the history of professional sports.

The GM of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1942-50 started minor league baseball farm systems, introduced the battling helmet, and most importantly signed Jackie Robinson, to break baseball’s color barrier.

And when it came to making player trades, he had a philosophy that executives still adhere to many years later.

“You trade a player a year too early rather than a year too late,” Rickey once said.

In other words, don’t wait until a player slips and then you can get very little or nothing for him.

Based on what Packers QB Aaron Rodgers said Wednesday on the Pat McAfee Show, the Packers subscribe to the Rickey philosophy.

“As is the case with the Packers, the way they do things, they like to get rid of players a year early, instead of year too late, in their minds,” said the 39-year-old Rodgers.

So Rodgers feels this led the Packers to draft Utah State QB Jordan Love in the 2020 first round, thinking Rodgers was perhaps a declining player.

The Jets don’t think he is and want to trade for him.

If the Jets can execute the trade, history will eventually tell us who was right.

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There has been a lot of reporting about this player over the last few weeks, and according to the player, “a lot has zero truth to it.”

There have been myriad stories about the future of Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers, and the QB thinks you need to take many of the reports with a grain of salt.

Like a report over the weekend, stating the framework for a trade between the Packers and the New York Jets for Rodgers was set. The teams are apparently still working on the trade compensation for the QB.

“There is some information out there that is true, for sure, there is a lot that isn’t true,” Rodgers said Wednesday on The Pat McAfee Show. “There is some that have parts of truth to it, there is a lot that has zero truth to it.”

So be careful what you believe these days, and that probably applies to reporting outside of sports as well.

The only thing we know for sure is that Rodgers would like the Packers to trade him to the Jets.

“My intention is to play for the New York Jets,” Rodgers said Wednesday to McAfee and co-host A.J. Hawk, a former Packer teammate.

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2023 NFL Playing Rule Proposals Summary:

1. By Philadelphia; amends Rule 5, Section 1, Article 2, to permit the use of zero (“0”) as a jersey numeral; to allow kickers and punters to use any jersey numeral between 0-49 and 90-99.

2. By Philadelphia; amends Rule 6, Section 1, to permit a team to maintain possession of the ball after a score by substituting one offensive play (4th and 20 from the kicking team’s 20-yard line) for an onside kickoff attempt.

3. By Los Angeles Chargers; amends Rule 4, Section 6, Article 3 and Section 7, Article 4, to make the adjustment of the play clock following an Instant Replay reversal consistent with other timing rules.

4. By Detroit; amends Rule 15, Section 3, Article 9, to expand the coaches’ challenge system to include personal fouls called on the field.

5. By Detroit; amends Rule 15, Section 1, to provide clubs more opportunities for a third challenge.

6. By Detroit; amends Rule 15, Section 3, to expand the Replay Official’s jurisdiction to allow for consultation regarding penalty assessment.

7. By Houston; amends Rule 15, Section 1, Article 2, to expand the Replay Official’s jurisdiction to allow for review on failed fourth down attempts.

8. By Los Angeles Rams; amends Rule 15, Section 1 and Section 3, to make fouls for Roughing the Passer called on the field subject to replay assist and/or review by a coach’s challenge.

9. By New York Jets; amends Rule 12, Section 2, Article 6, to expand the crackback prohibition to players who go in motion and go beyond the center to block (“split-flow block”) a defender below the waist.

Anybody who thinks they know what the guy is thinking is perhaps grasping at straws.

Talking about Aaron Rodgers.

Everybody wants to deliver a scoop, but what do they truly know?

A lot of people just throw things against the wall, and while they do this, they get linked to by aggregation sites and get plenty of clicks.

The bottom line is coming out of a meeting feeling good about how it went can be a little overrated.

The team might feel good about the meeting, but how did the player feel? Nobody is in Rodgers’ head.

Rodgers is likely doing his due diligence now. Calling around. Researching the Jets.

Hey, Rodgers could land with the Jets, but nobody knows what he’s thinking right now. He has a lot to ponder right now.

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ESPN’s Adam Schefter announced today that the Jets are acquiring Baltimore Ravens safety Chuck Clark in exchange for a 2024 seventh-round pick.

Clark is a solid pro, who amassed 384 total tackles and five interceptions during his six seasons in Baltimore.

The Ravens signed free agent safety Marcus Williams last year and added Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton in the first round of the 2022 draft, so Clark made it clear he wanted a change of scenery.

With Lamarcus Joyner probably not coming back, the Jets needed another safety, and likely would have signed one in free agency, so this got them an early jump on filling that need.

But even with the Clark trade, they could still use another ball-hawking safety with elite ball skills and instincts. Their safety coverage last year was a little inconsistent. Penn State’s Ji’Ayir Brown could make sense at some point after the first round.

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GM Joe Douglas has done a very good job of reshaping the Jets roster since his arrival.

While he still has a lot of work to do, the Jets are clearly a lot more talented than when he arrived, including landing the defensive (Sauce Gardner) and offensive (Garrett Wilson) rookies of the year from last season. That is quite an accomplishment for one organization.

And aside from doing a solid job reshaping the roster, he’s done a really good job of avoiding giving out reckless contracts, and caving to agent and media pressure, like in the Jamal Adams and Marcus Maye situations. No matter how much the agents and their surrogates in the media bashed the Jets, Douglas stood his ground, including trading Adams to Seattle for a package including two first-round picks, an incredible haul for a box safety who’s had issues staying healthy.

Generally, Douglas contracts just make sense – no Trumaine Johnson or Le’Veon Bell kind of deals.

And with Derek Carr, while Douglas wanted the player, he wasn’t going to give out a reckless contract. Carr ended up getting $37.5 million a year on a four-year contract.

If the Jets had blown him out of the water, like offering him $41-42 million a year, he’d probably be working in Florham Park.

Like on March 15, 2019, the Jets signed C.J. Mosley to a five-year deal for $85 million deal with $51 million guaranteed, kind of profligate for an inside linebacker at the time. Mosley, who was a beloved player in Baltimore, probably would have preferred to say with the Ravens, but they reportedly were offering around $13 million per. The Jets were offering $17 million per. If you were him, where would you sign?

Douglas isn’t going to do what former GMs did, overpay to get players to come to a team that has been struggling in recent years.

In other words, pay an extra tax.

He will make good competitive offers, but not bid against himself.

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It’s easy to criticize him for the drama he’s caused the last few off-seasons in Green Bay.

And the Packers are reportedly disgusted with it.

But honestly, Aaron Rodgers should probably be disgusted with them as well.

That organization has done plenty to waste some of his best years.

Two years ago, Rodgers led the Packers to NFL’s best record with 13 wins. Rodgers completed 68.9 percent of his passes for 4,115 yards with 37 touchdowns and a 111.9 passer rating. He had just four picks.

Yet, they lost to San Francisco in the playoffs due to a horrendous performance by their special teams, which were bad all year, and the head coach did nothing to fix it. Before that season, they fired the special teams coach after the unit struggled in 2020, but promoted the assistant special teams coach to replace him. Who fires a guy who heads a bad unit, and promotes his assistant to replace him? The replacement lasted one year and was the overlord of the 2021 special team’s disaster that led to their early playoff exit.

This past season, with a 39-year-old QB, coming off an MVP season, they trade Davante Adams, and go with a young receiving corps with two raw draft picks – Romeo Doubs and Christian Watson – in major roles.

If you have an older franchise QB, and you want to take advantage of him late in his career, why would you go so young at receiver in such a pivotal year?

You can go back over the years and see plenty of things Rodgers should be pissed at.

Like the former GM, the late Ted Thompson, being philosophically against spending big money in free agency. That led to some wasted years.

The discontent cuts both ways, and rightfully so.

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He’s a wonderful person and an okay player, but maybe it was for the best . . .

Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo announced on Monday that QB Derek Carr is closing in on a four-year deal with New Orleans.

The Jets were interested in the player and met with him twice, once in Florham Park, and also in Indianapolis.

Carr has started 142 games and has a 63-79 record in nine seasons.

The Raiders traded for Carr’s best friend, Green Bay Packers receiver DeVante Adams in 2022, perhaps the best in the game, and Las Vegas went 6-9 before Carr was benched for the last two games. He has only led the Raiders to a winning record two times in nine years and only played in one playoff game.

There are 15 quarterbacks in NFL history who have started more than 130 games and Carr is the only one who hasn’t gone to the Super Bowl and hasn’t won the MVP.

Not a bad player, but Bill Parcells always said, “You are what your record says it is.”

So while some Jets fans are bummed about the announcement from Rapoport and Garafolo, perhaps, as the old saying goes, “Sometimes the best moves are the ones you don’t make.”

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When they were hired, they were told things would be set up a certain way.

When the Jets added GM Joe Douglas and then head coach Robert Saleh, they were both hired by Christopher Johnson.

When they were hired, Christopher was running the team for his brother, Woody, who was serving as United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom (2017 to 2020).

Christopher does own part of the Jets, but not as much as his brother, so when Woody came back from his assignment overseas, in 2021, he took over the team again.

According to a league source, when Christopher hired Douglas and Saleh he told them he’d take “a light touch” when it came to football matters.

What Douglas and Saleh signed up for might have changed.

Former NFL GM Mike Lombardi, now with VSIN, said on January 9 – “The rub here is when the owner wants to fire an assistant coach and the head coach doesn’t want to do it. That’s happening at the Jets.”

The coach he was talking about was Mike LaFleur, who was let go as OC a few days after this tweet.

So the bottom line is Woody is a more hands-on owner than Christopher.

Hey, it’s not unusual for an owner to force the head coach to fire a few assistant coaches after a rough season. Many owners do that.

But when an owner gets involved in personnel decisions that can be a slippery slope, and the Jets should try to avoid this.

In the past, Woody was very involved in making trades for quarterbacks like Brett Favre and Tim Tebow.

Hey, Woody can do whatever he wants, he owns the team. However, it would probably be best for the Jets to let Douglas make the personnel decisions, like which QB to sign or trade for.

That is the job Douglas signed up for when Christopher hired him.

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With so much focus on the QB, sometimes other needs are obscured in the public discourse, and this is one of them:

The Jets need a massive, athletic DT, who excels against the run, to complement Quinnen Williams.

The Jets struggled against the run after the bye week, and a lot of runs went up the middle.

They tend to go with smaller, quicker defensive tackles, and sometimes, if they don’t beat centers and guards into gaps with their quickness off the snap, they can get engulfed by linemen sometimes 30-40 pounds heavier. It’s not a lack of effort or toughness, but more a size disparity.

Some might argue, that is what the system calls for, smaller, quicker interior penetrators, who can also run sideline to sideline.

Well, keep in mind, the San Francisco 49ers play the same system as the Jets, and it’s almost possible to run on them, and their starting defensive tackles are 6-7, 290-pound Arik Armstead and 6-5, 319-pound Javon Kinlaw.

It’s time for the Jets to get somebody like Armstead or Kinlaw to team with Williams.

Hey, there is nothing wrong with having a super-athletic three-technique DT who is a little undersized, but it’s probably best to have a thick run-stuffer next to him.

Maybe Clemson’s Bryan Bresee or Baylor’s Siaki Ika in the draft or perhaps somebody like Pittsburgh’s Larry Ogunjobi or Minnesota’s Dalvin Tomlinson in free agency could help.

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