49ers rumors: Why Aaron Rodgers to San Francisco makes no sense

It’s the offseason, so there’s plenty of 49ers speculation and NFL rumors going on out there, including the notion Aaron Rodgers could be in San Francisco in 2022.

Just over a week into the full-blown part of the NFL offseason, the rumor mill is already starting to fly like crazy.

One of the latest pieces of conjecture? The San Francisco 49ers are a likely landing spot for Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

On the surface, it doesn’t seem too surprising. The cap-crunched Packers could easily capitalize on Rodgers’ offseason value amid a bad quarterbacking market for buyers, and the back-to-back MVP’s stock value will never be higher than it is now. And if Green Bay couldn’t win a Super Bowl with a stacked roster the last three seasons, what’ll change in 2022?

Tack on Rodgers’ well-reported frustrations with the Packers front office last year, which included rumors he’d be shipped off to the Niners, and there you go.

Those rumors appear to be repeating themselves again, only a year later.

Yes, Aaron Rodgers would make 49ers a Super Bowl contender

San Francisco managed to get to the NFC Championship game and to one Super Bowl in two of the last three seasons, thanks to effective-enough play from quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo, who’ll likely be another one of the prominent signal-callers on the move this offseason.

Garoppolo isn’t good enough to get the 49ers over the proverbial hump, though, which points to why the team invested so heavily in 2021 rookie quarterback Trey Lance a year ago.

Adding Rodgers, however, would instantly turn a stacked Niners roster that’s ready to win now into a top-end Super Bowl contender and probably the favorite in the NFC. Even if Lance was ready to go right now, his level of inexperience and Rodgers’ Hall of Fame-caliber résumé might be worth San Francisco taking the “all in” approach, not unlike what the reigning Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams did last season.

Would it happen, though?

How would 49ers trade for Aaron Rodgers anyway?

Sure, the 49ers could be interested in Rodgers. And Rodgers, whose relationship with Green Bay appeared to improve over the course of 2021, might be willing to accept a trade to his boyhood team, too.

Yet there will be the inevitable “why?” questions asked, such as the one from Bleacher Report’s Ian Kenyon below:

The more important question, though, is “how?”

Even if the Niners trade Garoppolo for as high as a first-round draft pick this offseason, which is a stretch, the needed capital to acquire Rodgers from the Packers would be enormous. Remember, the Rams acquired quarterback Matthew Stafford from the Detroit Lions in exchange for quarterback Jared Goff, two first-round draft picks and a third-rounder.

Rodgers, a four-time MVP, four-time first-team All-Pro and a 10-time Pro Bowler, would command exponentially more.

Read More: 4 trades Niners absolutely won’t make this offseason

That’s capital San Francisco simply can’t afford, especially without a Round 1 selection in the 2023 draft, one which was used to grab Lance.

Financially, with Over the Cap projecting the 49ers to hold approximately $20 million in cap space for 2022 after a would-be Jimmy G trade, it would be almost impossible for the Niners to absorb Rodgers’ post-trade $19.8 million owed without some significant roster jockeying and the need to sign the team’s 2022 draft class.

Not saying it couldn’t happen. But it would be awfully difficult.

At any rate, there appear to be far more obstacles in the way of San Francisco pulling off a blockbuster to have Rodgers join its ranks this offseason than reasons to suspect it actually happens.