When the New York Jets hired former Denver Broncos head coach Nathaniel Hackett this week to replace Mike LaFleur (the brother of Matt LaFleur) as the franchise’s offensive coordinator, media analysts and fans immediately believed it meant Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers would soon be on his way to the Big Apple.
Hackett served as the Packers’ offensive coordinator before heading to Denver after the 2021 season. And he was one of Rodgers’ favorite assistants in Green Bay.
The assumption this week was that New York was hiring Hackett to entice Rodgers to the Jets (he would have to be traded by the Packers).
But that might not be the case according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
Rapoport appeared on The Pat McAfee Show on Friday and he dismissed the idea that the Jets were hiring Hackett just to lure Rodgers to New York.
“I don’t believe the Jets hired Nathaniel Hackett to go get Aaron Rodgers” @RapSheet #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/zM17mwMAZE
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) January 27, 2023
“I do not think the Jets hired Hackett to go get Aaron Rodgers,” said Rapoport. “Now, they may try to get him. They’ve swung big before. And I would expect them to swing big on basically every target.”
“But if they hired Hackett to get Rodgers, I think that’s a mistake,” added Rapoport. “He doesn’t even run the team — he’s just a coordinator. He ran the team last year as the head coach in Denver and still didn’t get Aaron Rodgers.
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“I think they will make an attempt at it, but I still don’t know whether Rodgers wants to play, wants to retire, wants to get traded. Will the Packets trade him? Will the Jets give up compensation? There’s a lot more questions than answers right now.”
What Rapoport said at the end is the main takeaway — no one knows what Rodgers wants to do yet.
And even though he’s not a free agent, he still holds all the chips (the threat of retirement is real). So until we know that, there’s really no point in diving into trade speculation.
