Craig Carton has a history of breaking Jets related news. On Dec. 29, 2020, he reported head coach Adam Gase would be fired after the season. New York fired him less than a week later.
Carton is now entering the “Jets Related” rumors. On Monday Carton, during his WFAN afternoon radio show, suggested that “another team” could swoop in for Rodgers. Today he revealed that team.
“Aaron Rodgers would absolutely want to play for this franchise” Carton said teasing up his big reveal on Tuesday’s edition of his FS1 show. “The franchise is the San Francisco 49ers. They have Trey Lance, who’s coming off a broken ankle, Brock Purdy, who’s not going to be throwing till August or September, and they signed Sam Darnold. They do not have a quarterback right now. Maybe, Trey [Lance] becomes a stud. We don’t know. Aaron Rodgers is from the area and has always said, ‘I might want to go home one day.'”
“Now, he famously also said,’ I want to screw it to San Francisco for not drafting me’. Well, he’s already done that, okay? So, here’s the reality. San Francisco does not have a first-round draft pick in this draft. They gave them all away to get Trey Lance. They do, however, because of compensatory picks, have like five third-round picks. So, the conversation has been: multiple third-round picks in this draft, and a first-round pick in next draft,” Carton said. “They become the team to beat.”
Carton, despite his volume, doesn’t traffic deep in rumors unless he’s heard something. Adding to the steam was a recent report from Mike Florio of PFT that the Niners were interested in trading for Kirk Cousins.
Still I’m calling nonsense on all of this.
The 49ers have barely $3 million in cap space. Aaron Rodgers isn’t taking a pay cut to go anywhere. I don’t know how the 49ers could potentially accommodate his salary without disrupting the identity of their team.
The Packers aren’t going to trade within the conference. They definitely aren’t going to trade to the team that has been the source of their worst losses over the last few years. It is more likely that Rodgers gets traded to the Minnesota Vikings than the San Francisco 49ers. The Packers organization spends a great deal of time cultivating their reputation and they’re not going to throw it up for grabs by allowing one of their biggest rivals to potentially show them up. Imagine the disaster it would be for Cheeseheads watching San Fransisco win a Super Bowl year one with their former star quarterback.
San Francisco doesn’t possess the draft capital. I don’t care how Carton tries to frame, third round picks and a potential future one(that would be late in the first round) aren’t getting this done. Green Bay is currently leveraging the Jets for the 13th pick. They are not gonna turn around and take what Carton is suggesting.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure Green Bay is thrilled to have this information out in the open. Despite what many are saying, it’s my firm belief that Gutekunst is playing hardball for the 13th overall pick. Every potential option out there that pulls Aaron Rodgers away from the Jets is in Green Bay’s favor. But again this is nonsense.
