Jets Trade Pitch Would Flip Two 1st-Rounders for Rookie QB to Replace Rodgers

The Aaron Rodgers experience in New York has fallen flat, which leaves the Jets again thinking about the future at quarterback amid a lost season that is essentially dead before Thanksgiving Day.

Owner Woody Johnson wanted head coach Robert Saleh and general manager Joe Douglas to dump Rodgers for backup quarterback Tyrod Taylor a month into the campaign when the team was 2-2. The brass refused, and both Saleh and Douglas have been fired since.

Rodgers has one year remaining on his contract, but the Jets can release him or trade him ahead of next season, which both seem more likely outcomes now than the soon to be 41-year-old returning to the franchise in 2025.

Free agency is shaky at best, with Sam Darnold of the Minnesota Vikings -- formerly the No. 3 overall pick of the Jets in the 2018 NFL draft, who bombed out in New York after three seasons -- entering the 2025 class as arguably the top available QB alongside Pittsburgh Steelers backup Justin Fields.

Trading for a Super Bowl-caliber signal caller is exceedingly difficult, as the Jets just proved after their failed attempt to do so via a deal for Rodgers with the Green Bay Packers just two years ago.

That leaves New York with one option -- the 2025 draft. That isn't a foolproof plan either, despite the fact that were the draft held today, the Jets would select No. 6 overall.

The reasons for uncertainty are two: first, the 2025 class isn't overly deep at the QB position. Second, New York is currently behind at least three teams in the Las Vegas Raiders, New York Giants and Tennessee Titans that are liable to look QB as well come April.

However, the Jacksonville Jaguars currently own the No. 1 pick and just inked QB Trevor Lawrence to a $275 million extension that ties the franchise to him through 2030. So, the first pick in the draft could essentially come down to a scenario where the best trade offer to the Jags wins the rights to Colorado Buffaloes signal caller, Shedeur Sanders.

The Jets would undoubtedly need to include the No. 6 pick and more, likely another first-round selection in 2026 and then some, to move up the five spots to secure Sanders. However, doing so might also allow New York to fill its head coaching vacancy in the process.

Jeff Ulbrich is the interim head coach, but the Jets could potentially replace him with Deion Sanders -- Shedeur Sanders' father and head coach at Colorado -- as a package deal. There are other teams certainly that would be interested in Shedeur Sanders as the QB of the future, and there may also be multiple franchises interested in adding the dynamic father-son duo.

The Jets could get into that game by making a big move ahead of the draft and trading into the No. 1 spot, which is what it will likely take to bring what is otherwise a contending-caliber roster in New York into the Super Bowl conversation in the coming years.