NFL insider thinks Aaron Rodgers would consider surprise team instead of Jets

An Aaron Rodgers trade to the New York Jets feels more real with each passing day, but one NFL insider wants to throw a surprise contender into the mix.

Aaron Rodgers heading to the New York Jets is the next domino waiting to fall this offseason. After the Jets spent hours courting Rodgers in California, the two sides are nearing a deal with a trade framework reportedly already in place.

As Rodgers starts his journey down the the same path as Brett Favre, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler is muddling the scent off the Jets trail. Rather than see the Green Bay Packers quarterback join the Jets this summer, Fowler has spoken publicly about the possibility of Rodgers joining a different team: the Carolina Panthers.

It’s just an “entertaining” idea, so the NFL community really shouldn’t make too much of it.

The Panthers have not made any effort to recruit Rodgers so far this offseason, and the only thing that catapults them into these rumors is their desperate need for a reliable quarterback.

Aaron Rodgers rumored to “entertain” a trade to Carolina Panthers

Other than name-dropping the Panthers in a brief interview, Fowler doesn’t have anything to back up a potential Rodgers-Panthers trade. All he says is that the Panthers could “swing big” on Rodgers but that they don’t need to.

With the ninth overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, there are much stronger rumors proposing that Carolina will trade up into the top-five to boost their chances of landing a desirable quarterback prospect like Bryce Young or C.J. Stroud.

Even if they were to stay at ninth, the Panthers could conceivably still nab a quarterback (Will Levis and Anthony Richardson pose as prospects who may be taken outside the top-five). As Fowler himself states, Carolina has no reason to pursue the biggest whale in the quarterback market that is Aaron Rodgers.

Leave the Captain Ahab stunts to Woody Johnson and the Jets, who are presumably reeling in Rodgers as we speak.