National writers grade and analyze the Packers' trade of Aaron Rodgers

Nearly 24 hours after the Green Bay Packers reportedly finished off a trade to send Aaron Rodgers to the New York Jets for draft compensation, the reaction from around the internet has started to trickle in.

Take a look at how national writers are breaking down the transaction, often by offering grades for both sides.

There's a lot to like for the Packers' return in the trade

Garrett Podell of CBS writes that both teams get what they want. He gives Green Bay the grade of "A."

"Gutekunst being able to procure a first-round pick swap, the Jets' highest second round pick (No. 42 overall), sixth-round pick (No. 207 overall), and a conditional 2024 second-round selection that becomes a first if Rodgers plays 65 percent of New York's offensive plays is a massive victory," Podell wrote. "Green Bay getting three top-two-round selections, one being a first-round pick swap, for a Rodgers that turns 40 in December as he's coming off arguably his worst NFL season is all they could hope for. Plus, the Packers don't have to pick up the tab on his $58.3 million guaranteed contract option, a relief for their salary cap."

Jeff Howe of The Athletic gathered five GMs, executives and assistant coaches, and three of the five felt it was a victory for the Packers, while a fourth saw it as a win-win.

“(Rodgers is a) descending player who didn’t want to be (with the Packers) and will probably retire this year if things don’t go well,” one executive said. “I could see this blowing up in the Jets’ faces.”

Joseph Acosta of SBNation felt the Packers won the trade. "Moving up two spots in this years’ draft is small potatoes; their board probably doesn’t change that much when it comes to this years’ draft," he said. "Getting a second round pick that high in the draft is great as well, but I think what makes this haul an A is getting that conditional second to turn into a first if Rodgers plays 65 percent of the snaps."

Most of the writers were handing out As for the Pack.

Matt Verderame of Sports Illustrated: A-minus. "Ultimately, this is a new era for the Packers. After having 31 seasons of Brett Favre and Rodgers, Green Bay is moving into a new unknown. Gutekunst now has a year to evaluate Love before deciding whether he wants to look for another option or commit to the former 2020 first-round pick."

Vinnie Iyer of The Sporting News: A (though he gave the Jets an A-plus). "The Packers kept falling short of the Super Bowl with Rodgers of late despite being a mighty playoff team before '22. It was time to turn the page and shoot for a different kind of ceiling at the intersection of a reload and rebuild. Now they are assisted by big extra draft capital. ... Given the recent work of both front offices and coaching staffs, it's easy to trust this is the rare trade that will deliver big returns for both teams, the Jets in the short term and the Packers in the long term."

Dallas Robinson of Pro Football Focus: A. "Green Bay was backed into a corner — they had already talked about Rodgers in the past tense, and there was no way they could have him return to the team at this point. But they still walked away with an excellent package in exchange for Rodgers that will allow them to add talent around new starting quarterback Jordan Love. With Rodgers gone, Green Bay will have more than $54 million in cap space in 2024 — and that’s before they make decisions on veterans like David Bakhtiari, Aaron Jones, and Preston Smith."

The draft compensation is favorable to Green Bay

Bill Barnwell of ESPN does some math to try and gauge the value of the conditional draft pick in the mix.

"I would guess Rodgers has a 75% chance of making it to that snap total (65% for the conditional pick to become a first-rounder), and the Jets win about 10 games next season," Barnwell said. "In that scenario, they would owe Green Bay something like the 22nd pick in a typical draft. Teams typically discount future picks by about a round, so you might instead choose to value this as something more like a 2023 second-rounder. There's no right answer.

"If we treat that conditional pick as the 22nd selection with no discount, this would amount to a significant return for the Packers. The Jets would be sending 2,418 points of draft value on the Jimmy Johnson chart to the Packers and getting 1,073 points in return. The difference is 1,345 points, which amounts to pick No. 9 in a typical draft.

"Is that too much to pay for a 39-year-old quarterback making more than all but one other player in NFL history?

Seth Walder of ESPN gave the Packers an A-minus for the deal considering the draft compensation.

"Even if we assume the 2024 selection in this trade is a mid-second-round pick, by our AV-based draft value chart, the Packers traded Rodgers for something like the equivalent of a No. 10 overall pick (if we don't discount future year selections)," he wrote. "In all likelihood, though, that 2024 pick will become a first-round selection, making this trade even more valuable for Green Bay.

"Think about it this way. In a vacuum, Rodgers doesn't offer substantial surplus value over his contract because he's already paid at the peak of the quarterback market. In theory, that means he should be worth little in terms of draft capital. It made sense the Jets would still be willing to give up something to acquire him because of the circumstances. (He was probably the best player available and it gave them Super Bowl aspirations.) But the Jets didn't give up just something — they dealt major trade compensation."

But there were still some drawbacks for the Packers

Judy Battista of NFL.com gauged the winners and losers. She mentioned the Packers among the trade's winners… but also its losers, and she also put the Packers fans in the latter category.

"Rodgers started for 15 seasons, winning four league MVPs … and the Packers have just one Super Bowl title to show for that excellence," she wrote. "There is no shortage of blame to go around — a portion is reserved for Rodgers — but the organization bears some responsibility for not doing everything it could to give the quarterback the necessary teammates and coaches to take advantage of his best years.

"Between Favre and Rodgers, Packer backers have enjoyed three decades of extraordinary quarterback play. Neither player minded drama, and the annual late-career will-he-or-won't-he musings could grow tiresome for a segment of the fan base. But those who were ready to move on should be careful what they wish for. Love may turn out to be just as good, but at least for now, Cheeseheads are thrust into the same netherworld of quarterback uncertainty that much of the league endures every year."

Nate Davis of USA Today called the Packers a winner of the trade in the long term but called Brian Gutekunst one of the trade's losers, as well as coach Matt LaFleur.

"Though managing Rodgers' ego clearly became too much, the Green Bay GM's ability to communicate with his locker room – and its best player – has to come under some scrutiny given the way this all went down," Davis wrote. "And with Rodgers leaving Wisconsin, sure could become a lot more challenging to lure free agents to the land of Cheeseheads, especially if Love stumbles."

About LaFleur, Davis said: "The Green Bay coach, who won 13 regular-season games and the NFC North each of his first three seasons before a descent to 8-9 in 2022, will now truly have to earn some serious sideline stripes in the post-Rodgers era."

Was Rodgers the best player in Packers history? One writer doesn't think so

Jarrett Bell of USA Today wants it to be known that Rodgers was not the franchise "GOAT."

"Bart Starr (two Super Bowl victories, five NFL championships), field general of Lombardi’s dynasty teams in the 1960s, still gets the nod over Brett Favre in my book as the greatest player in Packers history, even though Starr played in the era before the passing game took over," Bell wrote.

"Yes, you can call Rodgers the greatest passer in Packers history, especially when considering how reckless the gunslinging Favre was. But Rodgers’ legacy also includes the reality that while often hailed as the NFL’s most talented quarterback, he never gave Tom Brady a run for his money in collecting Super Bowl rings.

"Rodgers knows. Or maybe not. There’s a lot of gray area in the Green Bay GOAT department."

Nancy Armour of USA Today believes Rodgers didn't realize how good he had it in Green Bay.

"But the first game Rodgers throws multiple interceptions, blames his receivers or offensive line for a mistake that was clearly his, or makes a snide comment he thinks is too clever for the masses to get, he’ll learn very quickly that he’s lost his Packers security blanket," she said.

"His relationship with the Jets, and their fans, is transactional. They expect the four-time MVP to make them contenders in the AFC East and beyond, and if he can’t deliver – at 39, it’s really more of a when – they will turn on him in a way Rodgers can’t even fathom after spending his entire career in the cocoon that is Green Bay.

From the Jets perspective...

Kevin Clark of The Ringer is skeptical that the move makes the Jets a true Super Bowl contender.

"I do not think the addition of Rodgers makes the Jets top-shelf AFC contenders like the Chiefs, Bengals, or Bills—or particularly close to that level right now—but it gives them a pathway toward that," he said. "Anything is better than (Zach) Wilson, and if Rodgers plays as even the 16th-best QB in the league, the literal middle of the pack, that will probably be enough to deliver a young, talented roster to the playoffs. Hell, the Jets almost got there last season despite Wilson."

Andrew Brandt, formerly an employee of the Packers who knows Rodgers from their time in Green Bay, pointed out that the lack of an owner in Green Bay might have been a factor in the outcome.

The New York Post also had Rodgers on its front and back page Tuesday morning.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Aaron Rodgers trade grades by national writers for Packers and Jets