Jets GM Joe Douglas on 'tenuous points' of Aaron Rodgers trade, Zach Wilson regrets

Joe Douglas revealed there were some “tenuous points” in getting the Aaron Rodgers trade done, but during the months-long negotiations with the Green Bay Packers, the Jets GM never felt like they were going to walk away from the table.

“There were several points, I would say tenuous points, over the course from the combine to now,” Douglas said Thursday, in an interview with Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio.

“I can say never a point where we felt like we were just gonna turn our back and walk away. I felt like the conversations that [Packers GM] Brian [Gutekunst] and I were having were positive. And, of course, there was some sticking points here and there, but ultimately we were able to get on the same page,” he said. “But through the process, we had decisions that we had to make, in terms of which avenue we were going to pursue. And so ultimately we made the decision to pursue our number one choice and follow it through, see it through.”

Douglas said the trade process began after the season when the team was looking at “many different avenues to pursue at the quarterback position, adding a veteran quarterback.”

“As we went through our process, as we were putting our tiers together at that position, just happen to get a call from Green Bay,” he said. “At that point, they were still exploring the direction that they were gonna go in, but it was just a simple question ‘Hey, if we did trade, if we were gonna trade Aaron, would you guys have interest?’”

While it was clear Rodgers was the priority and there was mutual interest with the Packers, there would still be bumps along the way. But Douglas never believed Green Bay would keep Rodgers on the roster and pay him to sit on the bench.

“That was certainly one scenario that they could have followed through on,” Douglas said. “Whether or not we thought it was real or not, our focus was always just, ‘Let’s get this player in the building.’ And we know there was things they could do, they knew there was some different avenues that we could possibly go down. But ultimately, I think we were both working in good faith to get this deal done.”

On the money side of things for the Jets currently, Douglas revealed that the team is “still working on restructuring aspects of [Rodgers’] deal as we speak, but we feel like we’re in a really good place.”

A sticking point between the two sides late in the deal coming together was what would trigger the 2024 second-round pick to become a first-round pick. As SNY’s Connor Hughes reported earlier this week, Douglas and Gutekunst had a 45-minute phone conversation. The convention was the Packers wanted the trigger to be only be about playing time and the Jets wanted it to be about results.

“At the end of the day,” Douglas told Florio Thursday, “Green Bay was very steadfast in that they wanted to make this about play-time only. And so I felt like, once we got into the weeds on what the play-time percentage could be, we got to a point where we felt comfortable pulling the trigger on the deal.”

On Zach Wilson and regrets

Rodgers and Wilson have already gotten work in, Douglas explained.

“It’s been great to see those two guys work together,” Douglas said. “And to see Zach be a little bit of a shadow to Aaron and pick up on some things, how he communicates to teammates, his cadence, every small thing. You see all of these guys picking up on it these last two weeks.”

Florio asked about Wilson’s benching during the 2022 season and how it was seen as a reset for the young quarterback and if this could represent a season-long reset with the potential that he could still be the starter when Rodgers departs.

“When the change was made at the end of, the second half of last year, the intent was for Zach to reset and get back to basics and that’s carried over into this offseason so far,” Douglas said. “Zach has an unbelievable ceiling and Zach is wired the right way in terms of his love of the game, his work ethic, his attention to detail. And so, this is a great opportunity for him to shadow one of the best passers of all time in Aaron Rodgers and pick up everything little thing he can from him every day.

“I know he’s attacking this offseason like no other. His energy level is unbelievable, it’s good to see him with a huge smile on his face and really working every day to get better.”

When asked about things he wished he had done differently, Gang Green’s GM said with the abbreviated schedule of having to make a judgment on a young QB’s first three seasons it would have helped to have a veteran ahead of Wilson his rookie year.

"I feel like in today’s NFL whenever you take a quarterback in the first round, you take a quarterback high, times against you and you need to see what you have so you can make a decision in that three-year window," Douglas said. "Going back it would have been great to have a veteran quarterback like a Joe Flacco in that first season. But ultimately we made the decision to jump in headfirst with our youth movement."

While he believed that tossing many young players into the mix and taking some of those “growing pains" as the team grew together and "I think we saw some of the benefits of that last year."

"But sometimes you don’t take into account the ramifications of playing a young quarterback early in his career," Douglas said. "And so if I had to do everything over again, I would've probably had that veteran presence in the room early for Zach."