After the New York Giants signed Russell Wilson and the Minnesota Vikings apparently decided to invest in J.J. McCarthy as their starting quarterback, it seems like Aaron Rodgers’ only choice for the 2025 season, other than retirement, is to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Nearly three weeks into NFL free agency, he continues to be quiet when it comes to what decision he could make. A report recently indicated that the Vikings are his preference, but it looks like that ship has already sailed.
But there is always the chance that another NFL team joins the sweepstakes for the former Green Bay Packers star quarterback. Grant Cohn, who covers the San Francisco 49ers for Sports Illustrated, seemed to speculate that the Niners could look to sign Rodgers. The Niners are currently trying to sign Brock Purdy, their current QB1, to a long-term contract extension.
“If Purdy won’t budge or compromise, the 49ers could reach out to Rodgers to gauge his interest in coming to Santa Clara,” Cohn wrote. “And I’m guessing he’d be quite interested because he’s from Northern California, he went to Cal and he should have been drafted No. 1 by the 49ers in 2005. I think he likes the idea of ending his career where it started and should have continued.”
Purdy could be looking for a deal that would make him one of the league’s highest-paid signal-callers, and that price could be a bit too steep for San Francisco. Cohn’s argument seems to be that Rodgers would be less expensive and that trading Purdy could yield a draft pick that the Niners could use on their QB of the future.
“The 49ers might like the idea of signing Rodgers to a two-year deal worth $30 million to $40 million per season and trading Purdy for a first-round pick. Especially if the alternative is not trading Purdy for a first-round pick and giving him a four- or five-year deal worth up to $60 million per season.”
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While Purdy has his shortcomings, isn’t quite an elite quarterback and isn’t worth $60 million a season, this proposal doesn’t seem like a prudent one. Rodgers is clearly over the hill and incapable of carrying teams the way he carried Green Bay for so many years. Once he were to leave San Francisco, the franchise would need another franchise quarterback, unless it were lucky enough to draft one using the pick it would acquire for Purdy.
Quarterbacks as good as Purdy — and he’s a very good one, if not an elite one — don’t exactly grow on trees. As the old saying goes, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
The Niners won’t necessarily get as lucky as the Packers did when they got to draft Rodgers with the No. 24 pick in the 2005 draft to eventually replace Brett Favre and then found Jordan Love at No. 26 in 2020 to eventually succeed Rodgers.
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