The Aaron Rodgers-to-the-Jets trade. What's keeping it from happening?

The NFL's offseason is grinding and plodding, once again offering its annual reminder that as much as we want it to move fast it simply does not.

Did you think the Vikings' plan would look more coherent at this point? Too bad. They won't be rushed into decisions on Dalvin Cook and Za'Darius Smith, nor do they seem particularly concerned that their outgoing cornerback total is far greater than their incoming total so far.

And wouldn't it be nice if Aaron Rodgers was traded already? It's been about a month since reports suggested a deal with the Jets was imminent, and almost as long since Rodgers said he wanted to be a Jet.

So where do we stand with a trade?

"I can't really get into that," Packers President Mark Murphy said Tuesday. "I know Brian and Joe have been talking."

That's Jets general manager Joe Douglas and Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst, and, hey, I guess it's good that they're talking.

Murphy, who was about to leave on a five-day tour of Wisconsin to promote the Packers, also said this per ESPN.com: "I do anticipate quite a few questions [about Rodgers on the tour] and I anticipate saying that there is no update. It is interesting, 15 years ago, similar situation — which by the way was my very first Tailgate Tour."

He of course is referring to 2008, when the Packers were first in a position to trade a future Hall of Fame quarterback to the Jets — in that case, Brett Favre.

But the situations are fairly different.

First, Favre wasn't traded to New York until August. And that was after Favre retired in March, then unretired in July, all without the benefit of a darkness retreat.

The draft haul the Packers received in the deal? A third-round pick. That's it. Oh, and a provision that if he was traded from the Jets to the Vikings, the Jets would owe Green Bay three first-round picks. They got around that in 2009, of course, by simply releasing him before he eventually wound up in Minnesota.

If that's all it took to get Rodgers from the Packers, this deal would have been done a month ago.

Let's hope, at least, that this one doesn't take another four months to complete.