What Would Packers Receive for Trading Aaron Rodgers?

The answer is a lot, probably, but there are some barriers in the Packers collecting a king's ransom if they were forced to trade the MVP.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – What could the Green Bay Packers get in a trade for Aaron Rodgers?

Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer tackled that question in a recent mailbag piece. Breer asked three NFL executives. One response:

Broncos get: QB Aaron Rodgers, 2022 fourth-round pick.

Packers get: QB Drew Lock, DE Bradley Chubb, G Dalton Risner, 2022 first-round pick, ’22 second-round pick, ’23 first-round pick, ’24 first-round pick.

Last week, I took the same question to two high-level talent evaluators with aspirations of becoming a general manager. As such, this is a question they’ve thought through because they could be in the shoes of Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst at some point.

“Three first-round picks but, because of Rodgers, those picks are going to be in the 20s or 30s,” one said. “So, I’d need a couple really good players, too. Here’s what I’d do: Tell Denver to pay for Bradley Chubb’s contract extension. It’s Aaron (Bleeping) Rodgers. You’re not going to give him away. Build a kick-ass defense, ride (Aaron) Jones and hope your new quarterback is good enough.”

Echoing the first and the one who spoke to Breer, the second high-level personnel man also said three first-round picks, a star player and quarterback Drew Lock.

“Brian liked Drew Lock back in ’19. So, he liked Jordan (Love) and he liked Lock, so now you’ve got two guys and you hope to hit on one,” he said, speaking before Green Bay signed veteran Blake Bortles. “Here’s what complicates things. Where is the market? Who needs a quarterback?”

To his point, five quarterbacks were selected in the first 15 picks of last month’s draft. It becomes a really short list of teams that, A, need a quarterback and, B, Rodgers wouldn’t veto by refusing to show up.

“Denver, obviously,” the second high-level evaluator said in mentioning the team linked most frequently to Rodgers over the past few weeks. “I’ve seen Las Vegas but the Raiders don’t have star players to send back. Aaron’s not going to show up in Houston. Obviously, there was no way in hell Gutey would send him to San Francisco just so he can watch Rodgers go home and win a Super Bowl. Same with New Orleans. They’ve got a championship roster but don’t have a championship quarterback.

“So, Gutey can ask for a king’s ransom, and he should. But the other team doesn’t have to pay it. I’d be like, ‘This is our offer. It’s better than the nothing you’ll get if he sits.’”

A third executive said he wouldn’t want to set a precedent of trading a disgruntled player.

“But, if it really gets to that point where he’s not going to show up, I probably would trade him,” he said. “I just wouldn’t trade him now because I don’t want to give that other team the opportunity to have an offseason with him.”