Insider links Jets with 49ers' Jimmy Garoppolo over Packers' Aaron Rodgers

New York Jets fans hoping their team will trade for Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers this offseason may want to avert their eyes.

Insider Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic wrote for a piece published Friday that San Francisco 49ers signal-caller Jimmy Garoppolo is "the most realistic" option for the Jets before the new league year opens in March. 

Unlike Rodgers, Garoppolo is on track to hit free agency next month and apparently already has no spot remaining with the 49ers even though there are worries rookie Brock Purdy could miss all of next season because of the torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow he suffered during the NFC Championship Game. 

Meanwhile, Derek Carr of the Las Vegas Raiders is publicly flirting with the New Orleans Saints.

"The Jets will have to give up significant draft capital to get (Rodgers), along with paying him $60 million (a bonus) shortly after trading for him," Rosenblatt mentioned. "His cap hit in 2023 would be $15.8 million and then $32.5 million in 2024. The wide range of possibilities with Rodgers makes it difficult to figure out whether a marriage with the Jets is a real possibility."

Rodgers is not revealing if he'll play for any team in 2023 until he completes a four-day "darkness retreat." It was said on Thursday that the Packers will want "at least two first-round picks and a third-round pick or two first-round picks and a player of significance" for the future Hall of Famer if he and the organization agree to part ways before free agency begins. 

Interestingly, Rosenblatt merely became the latest person to link Garoppolo with the Jets since the end of the 2022 regular season. Former NFL linebacker Thomas Davis said in late January that Garoppolo could be the perfect bridge signal-caller for the Jets, and Ian O'Connor of the New York Post previously argued Gang Green should actively target Jimmy G over Rodgers. 

Earlier this week, former Jets quarterback and current WFAN radio host Boomer Esiason suggested the Jets will settle for a second-tier option such as Garoppolo, Baker Mayfield or Andy Dalton over either Rodgers or Carr. 

The Raiders are thought to be the Jets' top competition in any supposed Rodgers sweepstakes. This past Wednesday, Brad Spielberger of Pro Football Focus predicted that Garoppolo will end up with the Raiders if they don't acquire Rodgers.