When the New York Jets traded for superstar QB Aaron Rodgers, the idea was for him to stay for multiple seasons, and, in an ideal world, for him to rework his contract so that they could surround him with as much talent as possible. In short, this is a win now team. Well, after sharing that “I don’t really see this as a one-year and done thing” (and acknowledging how much the team gave up for him), he reworked his contract. According to ESPN, Rodgers restructured his deal to a two-year contract worth a fully guaranteed $75 million dollars. That’s a $33.715 million dollar pay cut from what he was owed ($108.715 million) he was still owed from the Packers.
Tom Brady made a career out of this. In a sport with a hard cap, there’s only so much money to go around. Brady would always take less to allow the Patriots and Buccaneers to put better players around him. Now Brady is considered the best QB ever, and his success has led to incredible off the field business opportunities, since everyone wants to be associated with a winner. While it’s too early to compare Rodgers to Brady, there’s reasons to believe that Rodgers may have taken a lesson from his former rival and colleague. Rodgers has shown that he wants to win, and anyone who’s a competitor wants to win Super Bowls. Rodgers has only been to one Super Bowl, and that was back in 2010. After back-to-back MVPs and being the top seed in 2020 and 2021, but falling short in January, it has to be bugging Rodgers. It stands to reason that he’s learned and wants to do everything he can to make the team successful. As a matter of fact, the Jets had free agent running back Dalvin Cook in for a visit as well. With the money they’re saving with Rodgers, the Jets are in a better position to fill in their end of the bargain, which is giving Rodgers as many weapons as they can.
It’s easy for things to look rosy in late July, before a single preseason snap, but it’s clear that the relationship between Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets couldn’t be off to a better start.