Aaron Rodgers' next stop might be a Giant mistake

Aaron Rodgers is just four seasons removed from his fourth NFL MVP award. He's just two years beyond getting a nine-figure free-agent deal, $75 million of it guaranteed, which at the time, by some accounts, made the New York Jets a favorite in the AFC East. He's also the NFL's career leader in passer rating, average yards per pass attempt, and interception rate. He's a lock for the Hall of Fame.

And yet he seems destined to finish his career with a grim final season and a bad team that's convinced there might be one last bit of magic in his right arm.

For a moment, when the Los Angeles Rams and Matthew Stafford were furrowing their brows at each other over a contract impasse, it looked like the perfect situation might open up for Rodgers. If Stafford left, Rodgers could walk into a playoff team for one last ride. But with Stafford staying, Rodgers is now short of options.

Cleveland? Vegas? Tennessee? New Orleans? Those were all basement-dwelling teams in 2024, and there's no reason to think that a 41-year-old Rodgers would spark a significant turnaround. Who would be the more desperate party in a Rodgers-Cleveland marriage? The quarterback who threw himself into six games against the Ravens, Steelers and Bengals? Or the franchise that signed a player who, despite many PR missteps over recent years, would at least not be the most unlikeable quarterback on the roster?

One more team has emerged as a possible favorite to sign Rodgers - the New York Giants. And it's hard to seriously believe they're a candidate.

The Giants were also very bad last season, tallying just three wins, and they failed to secure the first overall pick in April's draft by blowing their own foot off with a Week 17 win over the playoff-chasing Indianapolis Colts.

They also have a general manager and head coach who are on the shortest of leashes. When co-owner John Mara announced after Week 18 that he was keeping Joe Schoen and Brian Daboll in their roles, he also said an improvement in results "better not take long" because he had "just about run out of patience." He also said he wasn't convinced that the roster had improved under Schoen and that he couldn't say the franchise was moving in the right direction.

That obviously doesn't sound like an owner who wants to oversee a careful rebuild. The Giants were expected to be eager suitors of Stafford for just that reason - to avoid a rebuild - had he become available, and one can only assume it's why they might be in on Rodgers. In a vacuum, you can sort of see the logic. The Giants had terrible quarterback play last year. Daniel Jones was benched after 10 games, and Drew Lock and Tommy DeVito mopped up the rest of the season. Could a basic level of competence at the position mean a significant leap ahead for the team as a whole? And could Rodgers, even at 41 and well past the physical gifts of his prime, just be, you know, not terrible? He did throw for 28 touchdowns last year, which is more than Jones managed in any of his six seasons in New York.

But the Giants do not exist in a vacuum. New York is pretty much the opposite of that, and Rodgers spent the last two seasons on a Jets team that imploded. The Achilles injury that torpedoed his first year wasn't his fault, but last year wasn't much better - five wins, a coach fired, a GM fired, and a whole bunch of Rodgers-appeasing moves that didn't work out.

He also never looked like his old self except in the briefest of flashes, which probably should be expected given his age and recent injury. (There's Tom Brady in his 40s, and then there's everyone else). Rodgers threw for more than 300 yards just once last season despite a receiving corps that included Davante Adams and Garrett Wilson, and he had single-digit rushing yards in 14 of his 17 starts. Although he was never a big runner, he did average 5.0 yards per carry in his halcyon years between 2009-21. He's just not the weapon he once was.

There's also, well, the rest of it. Rodgers was a crank the past few seasons and didn't seem super committed to the role of team leader. The new Jets leadership reportedly told him that he needed to attend all practices and knock it off with the appearances on the Pat McAfee Show if the franchise was going to consider bringing him back. Then it decided to move on anyway and took a huge cap hit while doing so.

If the Giants decide they want a calm veteran presence at quarterback instead of an unproven rookie, they could get someone like Kirk Cousins, who comes with much less potential for off-field drama.

Rodgers was already a bust once in New York. Expecting better results with a worse roster sounds mad. But it would, admittedly, be fascinating to watch.

Scott Stinson is a contributing writer for theScore.