Packer Central

When Could Packers Play Against Rodgers?

The Green Bay Packers and New York Jets won’t meet in 2023, unless it’s the Super Bowl, but how about future seasons?

Bill Huber

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GREEN BAY, Wis. – In 2008, the Green Bay Packers traded Brett Favre to the New York Jets. A year later, Favre maneuvered himself to the Minnesota Vikings, setting the stage for four games between the Aaron Rodgers-led Packers and Favre.

When could the Packers face Rodgers?

The Packers, obviously, won’t play the Jets in 2023. Unless it’s the Super Bowl. That’s part of the attraction for Green Bay in making the trade happen.

However, it is possible they’d meet in 2024. At Lambeau Field, no less.

When the NFL added a 17th game to the schedule, it created an additional AFC-NFC matchup. As part of the schedule rotation, the NFC North will host the AFC East in 2024, with the first-place team playing the first-place team, the second-place team facing the second-place team and so on.

So, if the Packers and Jets finish in the same spot in the standings in 2023, they’d meet in Green Bay in 2024. That’s not totally absurd.

Even allowing for the Detroit Lions becoming the best team in the NFC North, if Jordan Love surprises and the defense lives up to the expectations it failed to hit in 2022, Green Bay could have a stronger-than-expected season. Meanwhile, the Minnesota Vikings could be fading and the Chicago Bears might not be ready. In the AFC East, the Jets could have an excellent season but still finish behind the Buffalo Bills.

Of course, this assumes Rodgers would sign up for another season in the Big Apple.

And, of course, this assumes that a trade will get done. As it stands, the two sides aren’t particularly close.

“Right now, it’s essentially a stalemate,” NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport said. “They are talking so it’s not like movement is not happening.”

Rodgers’ gargantuan contract and the fact he said on The Pat McAfee Show last week that he intends to play for the Jets add to the challenge of trading one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history.

Deadlines tend to spur action. For impatient fans, the problem is there aren’t any looming deadlines.

“I don’t see one any time in the near future,” Rapoport said, echoing what Packer Central reported on Wednesday. Offseason programs begin on April 17, though those aren’t practices and Rodgers doesn’t need to be in attendance.

The natural deadline would be getting a deal done before the draft, which begins on April 27. That’s a logical one but probably not set in stone, either, as getting a premium draft pick in 2024 instead of 2023 wouldn’t be the worst-case scenario.

Coming back full circle, the Packers will play at the Jets in 2026. Rodgers will be 42.

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.

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