ESPN Analysts Float Preposterous Trade for Jets to Replace Injured Aaron Rodgers

Mike Greenberg and Bart Scott pitched the idea of New York’s acquiring veteran Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins.

Aaron Rodgers is out for the season due to a torn Achilles tendon and Jets coach Robert Saleh has been clear that Zach Wilson will be New York’s starting quarterback for the rest of the season.

But that doesn’t preclude the media from floating ridiculous trade ideas for the Jets in the wake of Rodgers’s injury.

ESPN’s Get Up! features longtime bombastic Jets fan Mike Greenberg, who wants New York to make a trade for … wait for it … Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins.

“I’m all in! Let’s do this, let’s make this happen!” Greenberg said of the idea to trade for Cousins.

"Kirk Cousins to the Jets! Who says no?"@Espngreeny is "all in" for New York to make the trade for the QB 😅 pic.twitter.com/GyE3HZiNcE

— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) September 15, 2023

The idea was initially floated by former Jets linebacker Bart Scott, who proposed that the team should trade its 2024 first-round pick to the Vikings for Cousins. Fellow analyst Mike Tannenbaum, a former Jets general manager, threw cold water on the idea of a trade for a 35-year-old QB on an expiring contract being worth a first-round pick.

However, nobody on the desk considered this factor: the Jets’ 2024 first-round pick is currently tied up in the trade package that landed Rodgers in New York. The Jets only send that first-round pick to the Packers if Rodgers plays 65% or more of the offensive snaps this season. Otherwise, it is a second-round pick next year that gets dealt to Green Bay.

Obviously, Rodgers is out for the season, so it ultimately will be a second-round pick that the Packers receive as compensation. However, that aspect of the trade won’t become official until the start of the new league year next spring. So unless the trade compensation is reworked between Green Bay and New York (which is extremely unlikely), the Jets can’t trade their 2024 first-round pick like Scott suggests.

Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins, 35, is in the final season of his contract with Minnesota, one of many factors that make a trade unlikely :: Gregory Bull/AP

Never mind the fact that Scott and Greenberg seem to believe the Vikings, who won 13 games last season, would be willing to harm their own playoff hopes to instead help the Jets.

It’s all preposterous, and none of it makes any sense. 

By the way, Cousins is playing excellent football through the first two games of the season. Although Minnesota has been marred by poor offensive line play and a lack of a running game, Cousins has completed 72.7% of his throws for 708 yards with six touchdown passes to one interception. The Vikings are 0-2, but there is plenty of blame to pass around before pointing the finger at Cousins.