Will GM Ted Thompson trade QB Aaron Rodgers for WR Randy Moss? Some people think it will happen.
Rodgers has never shown anything resembling promise during his brief appearances on the field, but the big problem with giving up on him now is that his playing opportunities have been too brief. It hasn't been a large enough sample size. Plus most of it has happened late in preseason games while playing alongside a number of guys who weren't even good enough to make the practice squad. After Favre retires, give Rodgers a season to prove himself.
The thing that is really surprising about Moss in 2006 was that he wasn't as bad as you might think. Football Outsiders said he was bad, but based on the way he phoned in last season, I expected him in the bottom five overall, down alongside WR Chris Chambers. Instead he is right below WR Bernard Berrian and several spots above WR Greg Jennings. Moss caught a dismal 43% of the passes intended for him, but that was the same percentage as Jennings. Plus, back in 2005, when Moss actually had an NFL QB throwing passes to him, he was a top 25 WR.
The trade would be a 24 year old, 1st round QB for a 30 year old, former Pro Bowl WR who will cost $20 million over the next two seasons and has a history of causing off-field problems. Leaving the names of the players out makes it sound bad. Trading for Moss should be a last resort if they don't have any success signing a different veteran WR in free agency.
It sounds like New England is interested too (scroll down a while) so nothing will probably come of these rumors. It seems likely that Oakland only wants to trade for draft picks and New England has a greater need since their WRs didn't perform too well in 2006, they might lose TE Daniel Graham in free agency, and rookie WR Chad Jackson tore his ACL a few weeks ago.