They’re already missing Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay.
David Bakhtiari, the Packers’ star left tackle, is set to begin his first NFL season without having to protect the quarterback, who was traded to the Jets on Monday.
“Well. I hate goodbyes, and this one especially,” Bakhtiari wrote on Instagram with a photo montage of he and Rodgers set to Nickelback’s “Photograph” on Tuesday. “The chapter is over on this one, but this friendship is a lifetime. You’ve been so instrumental in my life and I just wanna say thank you. And I love you brother. So enough with the sobby stuff.
“Here’s a fun collage with some of the good times we’ve had over the years all bundled together and tied with your favorite band. Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”
Rodgers returned the emotion in his Instagram story.
“Love you #69,” he wrote.
With the only starting QB he’s even known traded away, Bakhtiari will now focus on protecting fourth-year pass-thrower Jordan Love as his NFL career finally gets underway.
On Monday, after months of speculation and rumors, the Jets and Packers came to an agreement on a trade that brings four-time NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers to New York.
The trade immediately upgrades the Jets from rising team to playoff contender with the hopes that Rodgers will help break one of the longest active postseason droughts in sports.
The Jets receive: Aaron Rodgers, No. 15 pick (2023) and No. 170 pick (2023).
The Packers receive: No. 13 pick (2023), No. 42 pick (2023), No. 207 pick (2023) and a conditional second-round 2024 draft pick that conveys to a first-rounder if Rodgers plays 65% of the Jets’ plays in 2023.
The trade still needs to be finalized — the terms of Rodgers’ contract need to be worked out — and sent to the NFL.
Both teams will begin feeling this deal as early as Thursday at the 2023 NFL Draft.
For the Packers, it’s now about getting fourth-year QB Jordan Love ready to take over. With Gang Green, it’s about getting a whole host of new faces on the same page offensively.
The 39-year-old was out and about in Calabasas, Calif. when he got word of the trade, all smiles as he picked up coffee and groceries. For Rodgers and Jets fans, it’s hopefully just the beginning of their good times.
Read more of The Post’s Aaron Rodgers coverage
What the season holds for the new-look Packers, though, remains to be seen.
“We’re moving on from a Hall of Fame quarterback. I literally today talked to Jordan about this,” Bakhtiari said on the “Open Mike” podcast over the weekend. “I’m like, ‘The Packers rebuilt from Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers.’ What are we going to say? It’s not a rebuild? Like, that is what that is. And that’s totally fine. I’m not saying that we’re going to be bad. I’m not saying we’re going to be good. I don’t know and that’s the beauty. No one really knows how good they are.
“We start the season, everyone is batting 1.000. No one has any losses. No one has any wins. And let the season play out however it may be.”
Baktiari, a Packer since 2013, has an off-field relationship with Rodgers that appears to be just as strong as the one on it.
The two famously engaged in a 2019 beer-chugging episode at a Bucks game in Milwaukee.