Three AFC Teams That Should Trade For Aaron Rodgers

As hard as it is to believe, the signs are pointing to the Green Bay Packers actually trading Aaron Rodgers this offseason. For real this time. Adam Schefter, the primary source of the Rodgers drama over the last three years, said last weekend that a trade is a real possibility. Today he's giving out specifics-- like that the Packers would not trade Rodgers within the conference.

This is standard practice for any team trading away a superstar. Nobody likes the idea of facing the old franchise hero in a meaningful moment, especially when that franchise hero is very good, and sending him out of the conference diminishes that possibility by a significant margin.

Green Bay is going to ask for a lot for Rodgers and whoever is trading for him needs to have a relatively clean cap sheet (or an easy path to clearing space) to take on his contract. There is a risk factor here given Rodgers clearly took a step back last season but he won MVP one year ago so there will be plenty of suitors.

We broke down broad trade destinations for Rodgers over the weekend when anything was possible. With the narrowed parameters, here are a few more possibilities for the future Hall of Famer's next stop.

New York Jets

The Jets are the most popular Rodgers destination and no list is complete without them. I won't spend too much time harping on why again after breaking it down in our previous post about Rodgers, but fuel was thrown on this particular fire by Peter King earlier this week. King theorized in his weekly FMIA column that Woody Johnson would happily fork over a couple of firsts for Rodgers, which makes complete sense. Rodgers completes the team and makes them very dangerous. If he really is on the block then someone is going to have to pay a heavy price to outbid New York.

Tennessee Titans

The Titans aren't mentioned much in Rodgers sweepstakes discussions because everyone assumes they'll run it back with Ryan Tannehill. But they should not be ruled out. Tennessee can ditch Tannehill this offseason for an $18 million dead cap hit, which is not small by any stretch of the imagination but doable. Mike Vrabel is a great head coach who can maximize every bit of his roster to win games, and that task would be made much easier by the margin of error having Rodgers provides. The Titans just hired a new GM and they may not want to make that significant of a splash that quickly, but they'll be in the running.

Indianapolis Colts

Jim Irsay is exactly the type of owner to tell GM Chris Ballard to do whatever the hell it takes to land Rodgers and disappear in a cloud of cigarette smoke. Does it make much sense for Indy, picking fourth overall in the draft? No. The offense needs almost a complete makeover and the defense needs a fresh influx of talent in the secondary. They don't even have a head coach as things stand and, disturbingly, the signs point to Jeff Saturday getting serious consideration for the full-time gig. But, again, we cannot rule out an Irsay directive and the Packers are under no obligation to send Rodgers to a winning situation. The Colts could make an offer featuring that No. 4 overall pick and it would be very hard to beat.