Aaron Rodgers Trade Rumors: At Least 1 Other Team Was Interested in QB amid Jets Buzz

It has seemed inevitable that Aaron Rodgers will end up on the New York Jets after he said last month that is his plan, but at least one other team was reportedly interested in the Green Bay Packers signal-caller this offseason.

"If the Packers feel like they can't get a deal done with the Jets, the question is whether they try to entertain anything from another team," ESPN's Rob Demovsky said on Wednesday's NFL Live.

"The difficulty there is that we know that Rodgers has stated publicly that he wants to play for the Jets and he would obviously have to approve any trade to another team. Early on, I was told that there was at least one other team that was interested in Rodgers, but to this point, that has not materialized."

It is a fascinating study of leverage, star power and high-profile teams that continues to play out without any trade completed to this point.

That Rodgers has to approve a trade takes away significant leverage from the Packers' perspective. If the future Hall of Famer won't play for a team outside of the Jets, Green Bay doesn't have much choice if it is going to get anything of note back in return.

That is the case even if there is interest from other teams around the league.

Yet the Jets are in a position where anything less than Rodgers lining up under center would be a problem after some of their players openly campaigned for him and the fans have surely assumed he will be on the team.

That the club could be a quarterback away from realistically competing with a strong defense and group of offensive playmakers already in place makes the urgency for a Rodgers deal all the more pressing.

Despite the situation still hanging in the balance, Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated reported this week that "there's been enough progress to think a deal is a relative certainty before the draft, and there's a good chance, too, that Rodgers is officially a Jet before [head coach] Robert Saleh addresses his team for the first time this offseason two weeks from today."

Finishing the trade before the draft begins April 27 means picks can be included and both teams will be in a better position to evaluate what they need to be competitive in 2023.

But until the trade is finalized, there remains the possibility it won't happen. Whether that means another team that expressed interest in Rodgers earlier in the offseason jumps in remains to be seen, but that would require a number of moving pieces to come together.

Not the least of which is Rodgers being all right with such a deal happening.