Aaron Rodgers is content to go year-to-year with the Packers, but that’s not necessarily ideal for their 2021 cap situation. This week, one agent told Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com that the uncertainty surrounding his contract has prevented the team from making moves in free agency. 
“It’s screwing the Packers in a lot of ways right now because there’s just no cap space,” the agent said. “They’ve called me about one of my players and said ‘Hey, this is where we are now, and until we get something big done — hint, hint — we don’t have any space.’ It’s kind of like a lose-lose situation right now. That’s what [is] surprising to me is, you’d think there would be a middle-ground situation to get something done.”
The Packers could do a simple conversion, turning a piece of Rodgers’ $14.7MM base salary into a signing bonus. However, that would only kick the can down the road, leaving them in a worse spot next year. A restructured deal could make sense for both sides, but it’s not a given that Rodgers is in a cooperative mood right now.
Meanwhile, Rodgers is still not over the team’s first-round selection of Jordan Love last year.
“All I can do is play my best and I feel like last year I did do that,” the reigning NFL MVP said recently. “[I] may have thrown a wrench into some timelines that may have been thought about or desired.”
Id wait till after the draft. Get him a #2 opposite adams.
I heard a radio personality say the problem wasn’t the receivers cause MVS is good, it’s weird a sports radio personality never watches games to see MVS lead the league in simple catch drops since he got there
Not even close, lol. Yeah, he’s had some drops like every other receiver in the league, but you’re clearly the one who hasn’t watched him play to see how many clutch catches he’s had, and how many times he’s been hung out to dry on horrible throws by Rodgers.
Which you can count one hand…coincidentally the same number of hands MVS looks like he has on the field.
In a “who is guiltiest” scenario, you’d be the only person picking Rodgers. Rodgers does so much for guys who simply aren’t that good. But for all of the physical tools MVS has, he still isn’t making tough catches and sometimes drops the easy ones.
Dark clouds circling GB. Like the Texans, the front office REALLY screwed up their QB situation. Unlike Watson, Rodgers has 0 legal charges against him.
Agreed. I think the front office and head coach royally screwed up drafting Love and they should just own it publicly. I think that would patch up some holes in their relationship with their all-time great / HOF QB. Then they should trade Love for a second rounder, extend Rodgers, and move on.
Not only was Love a weird pick, but drafting AJ Dillon when they already had Jones was a head-scratcher, too. They needed defense or maybe a WR.
Agreed. So their cap problems are really caused by the fact that they missed the opportunity to fill holes with cheap young talent. I’m really confused by the Jones situation. He has been VERY efficient/effective in his career, but his usage has been spotty. Some games he is forgotten while Williams gets snaps. I was sure after they drafted Dillon they would move on from Jones to save money. But then they re-signed him in spite of all these cap troubles. Makes no sense. Easier to blame Rodgers.
That people think rookie WRs and defenders would have made a difference a year ago is comical.
Rookie WRs and defenders would have made MUCH more of a difference than Jordan Love and AJ Dillon, and that is a fact.
PROVE IT, since you claim it’s a fact
Because Jordan Love and AJ Dillon made zero impact, it would be logical to say that anyone else would have been better.
Not franchising Jones at 8 mill and change a year, only to sign him to more guaranteed money over multiple years makes no sense when you have the cap situation they have this year.
Also Love wasn’t great at Utah st but wasn’t bad either but to get 1st round out of that? I would’ve let someone else make that call and filled my own position needs instead
I didn’t mind the Dillon pick with Jones and Williams both set to be free agents at the end of the season. You get a talented rookie with no pressure and no expectations for a snap count and let him learn the system and step into the starting role in 2021. The team SHOULD have also done that with O-line, D-backs, and D-line knowing how many of those contracts were also coming due. Even without a reduced cap they knew they would be losing a good amount of players. Love and Deguara were head scratching picks that now haunt them.
I don’t buy the fact that his contract is “screwing the Packers”. They offered the contract. If a team can’t win with the QB making 30mil+, maybe they shouldn’t pay them 30mil+. The idea of constantly restructuring contracts to “free up cap space” seems like something a government would come up with.
Not to mention he is currently a top 3 player in the league and should be paid as such. I don’t see them winning more than 8 games without him
bigeasye –
He was one of the top paid players in the league when he signed the contract a little over a year ago. New contracts have been signed since. Are teams supposed to re-do contracts every time someone else gets paid more? Every premium player who signs wants to be the highest paid when they get a new contract, so the deals just continue to escalate. It’s an ego thing. Players can’t have it both ways. If their egos say they need to be top-3 or whatever every single year, then they should ever sign a multi-year contracts. Such is life in today’s NFL. He’s making plenty of money (more than he could ever spend in his life) and so are the rest of these guys.
From what I’ve heard, Rodgers actually wants the Packers to guarantee the remaining years on his contract and isn’t really seeking a higher salary.
This is getting in the way of Aaron Rodgers’ and the Loving Packers?
What is Jeopardy?
Typical Packers move. Not knowing how to draft or sign anyone to help the biggest Prima Donna Crybaby that ever played in the league. The Crybaby then doing what he does best in stirring the pot.
Why is he a crybaby, because you said so? Packers have wasted his prime after 2010. He has every right to be frustrated with the organization.
Pretty much. This guy says this on literally every Rodgers article on site. He also goes out of his way to call Dan Campbell a clown on every Lions article on here. Curiously enough, he’s a Chiefs fan, who really don’t have anything to do with either one of those teams.
how have they wasted his prime since they’ve made it to the NFC game the past 2 years? maybe if he’d ran for a touchdown instead of throwing an incompletion or is that the front office’s fault also? now Rodgers knows how Favre felt since the Packers didn’t need a QB at that time. Favre wanted weapons too. is it a raw deal for Rodgers? maybe, but before they drafted Love, Rodgers’ play was sliding downward. Love was worth it just to light a fire under Rodgers’ hiney
Favre didn’t want weapons. Favre wanted to retire.
The Packers were a game away from the Super Bowl before Love was drafted. Rodgers, at worst, was a top five QB that year. If your quarterback wins MVP and throws 48 touchdowns and you don’t go any further than before, then yes, you as a team messed up. No one player should just be relied on to carry an entire team to the championship. Rodgers did enough two years ago. Then he did more. It’s not like he was holding the team back. They needed help in other areas, and instead just told Rodgers “do more”. Nobody’s saying that he’s easy to work with or even likable. He’s just right.
if Favre wanted to retire, why did he keep playing for 2 more teams? that doesn’t sound like retirement. when a player makes 35 million a year, he is expected to do more whether you like it or not. any Coach or GM will tell you that. you really have no idea what they told Rodgers to do and this isn’t about whether he’s likable or not. he got shut down by the Bucs defense when the Packers needed him the most, just like Mahommes did with the Chiefs.
That was the problem, man. Favre retired, un-retired, and re-retired. There was a lot of uncertainty about his career. If you remember, the questions about Favre possibly retiring began in the early 2000s. He played for the Jets and Vikings, but everyone knows that Favre’s retirement seesawing was pretty well known.
How is Rodgers a crybaby primary Donna when we rarely ever hear him talk? It’s always some unnamed “source” or “agent” who claims the GB front office is actually talking s4!t about their franchise qb because they want to sign his client. If thats even remotely true, doesn’t it kinda make them the crybabies? After all, they offered all the contracts (including 12’s…and Jordan Love’s) that got them in the cap mess they’re in.
Spoken like a true Bears fan.
Just another year of the Packers putting absolutely nothing around AR12 and getting their excuses ready, nothing to see here….
Resigning Aaron Jones is putting nothing around Rodgers? More than likely they’ll extend Davante as well. Also 26-6 the last two years. The organization is a joke alright.
They aren’t 26-6 without Rodgers. Who knows what might have happened had they spent the Love pick on an area of need instead of one that pisses off the player your offense runs through?
Prob should have been Patrick Queen
Sounds kind of like what Favre went through when the Packers drafted Rodgers.
except Rodgers never once hinted at retirement, and Love didn’t fall in their lap. Gute panicked and traded up for him 1 year after extending Rodgers. None of that adds up.
Rodgers WAS hinting at free agency when the Packers were forced to give him that huge contract. that’s why they drafted Love. look at the teams that give their QBs mega contracts and see how many of those teams ever make it back to a SB
There is no real reason for Rodgers to help the Packers here. They put their cards on the table when they drafter Love, just like they put their cards on the table when they drafted Rodgers.
Might as well trade Rodgers now and get the drama over with. They drafted Love, they need to ride with him.
Well, if he wants a chance to win a Super Bowl then there is a reason. Guess it comes down to priorities for Rodgers
I would agree, if the Packers had demonstrated that they wanted to win a Super Bowl on their end.
They’ve been close the last two years, and both times were short on offensive help for their QB, who played well that season. Despite that, they drafted zero starters last year (Dillon was really the only player who played at all), signed no one in areas of need, and spent their time building for some nonspecific future instead of looking right in front of them at what they have.
They have the competitive window that they’re trying supposedly to build for down the road. It’s open right now. They choose to ignore it because Gutekunst apparently just has to do it “his” way, with no contributions from anyone else. If he weren’t so incompetent, he’d suck up his ego and just use the strengths he has now and win while he has Rodgers. I don’t normally like to make such strong judgements from the outside. I really prefer not to. But I seriously can’t think of any other reason that they just refuse to win a Super Bowl now.
If he wins a couple of championships, Rodgers will likely retire, leave Gutekunst with a good and attractive team, and let him build his version of the Packers however he sees fit for his own legacy (with the added job security that Super Bowl rings bring). The Packers haven’t done everything they could to win a ring in the last decade. Blaming Rodgers is easy because of his public complaining, cap hit, and ego, but he is not wrong, and I’m not really sure what other avenue Rodgers has to try and make the team get off its behind and make the right moves. There’s no reason to trust them at this point, since they’ve proven their incompetence/egotism in purposefully ignoring their franchise starter to focus on their own ideas.
teams don’t make it to the NFC game 2 years in a row being short on offensive help. they just ran into a better team just like the Chiefs did
Brady threw three consecutive picks and the Packers couldn’t move the ball. Yes, they needed more offensive help. Nobody said that the offense stunk, but it’s just stupid to willfully not improve. You know that they could be better, and instead they gave up to do something that did contribute at all out of, at best, a sense of principle. It’s stupid and silly to willfully not improve your team just for the sake of proving something else.
yes, you’re right. just like when the Packers drafted Rodgers when they had no need for a QB. when the Packers can’t move the ball, that’s on Rodgers whether you want to admit it or not
Incorrect. The Packers drafted Rodgers after Favre talked about retirement after multiple seasons leading up to that point. It would be like the Steelers drafting a QB in the first round any of the last 3 drafts. Big Ben has talked about retirement for years, just like Favre did. Rodgers has not said a word about that, and still plays at a high level.
Imagine Rodgers being powty bc they drafted his replacement. As if he didn’t do the same thing to Brett Favre? But Brett wasn’t making 30m a year so shut up and auck it up you BJ Novak knockoff.
What a joke. As a packers fan, I am ok with the Love pick (though I don’t think they needed to move up to get him). Rodgers needs to get over it! He is amazing, one of the best all time but who knows how much longer he has playing at that level. GM made a move he believes, that allows the Pack to compete at a high level for a long time. Packers still went 13-3 and made the NFC championship game. Alexander, Amos, Savage, Jenkins, Gary, Jackson, Smith’s and many more the GM added were part of that equation.
Almost all of those were defensive players.
Team needs both but when you add a QB(trade up for him) a year after signing Rodgers and then draft a RB…and then pay the guy ahead of him a lot of money…it just shows you’re not planning for now. And as your teams best player on an NFCCG team, you are well within your rights to say “what the heck?”
It wasn’t as if Rodgers didn’t go out and play his butt off for GB either. So his issues are clearly warranted when they turn around and lose a game they should have been in and not just at the end.
Late in the game, a now player would have helped them potentially capitalize on two turnovers by Brady. After Love is taken guys like Shenault, Higgins, Claypool, Jaylon Johnson and Winfield JR. come off the board. Whether or not you think they’d all fit or have made a difference, they would have made an impact this season as well as future seasons.
I don’t disagree planning for the future but if you’re signing Rodgers, why aren’t you trying to win now?
Great post, Kyle.
you mean like when they drafted Rodgers and Favre wanted more weapons
Favre wanted to not participate in the off season. He wanted to say he was going to retire, not retire, retire, unretire, then finally retire. Rodger has always said he’d like to finish his career in GB and i happen to think he has earned that right.
The Packers have had double digit wins 8 times in the past decade but the fans in Wisconsin still can’t resist bashing management. As a Bears fan I find that rather comical.
Agreed….Packers fans…what can you say…..Rodgers needs to remember that way back in 2005 when he was drafted #1 with Farve as an aging but still very effective QB….now the shoes on the other foot and he wants to wax dramatically how the drafting of a potential replacement isn’t TEAM first while he counts the $money of his newly minted contract (at the time). What if the Packers had no plan for replacement and he gets that “retirement” injury and the Packers have no answer for the next 5 years or so…..will Packer fans cry fowl? I wonder?
Because almost 30 years of Hall of Fame QB play should net a franchise more than 2 Super Bowls.
It’s an interesting debate that I heard recently. Knowing what you know now, would you rather have the Packers last 10 years, or the Buccaneers? Both have one SB win, but the Packers have been competitive every year, with a ton of let down and heart break. Whereas the Bucs have been bad most seasons, which can make their winning years even more fun to watch.
I hear a lot of Wisconsin sports talk radio claim that the regular season is almost boring for many fans because it’s assumed they will make the playoffs and it’s just going through the motions at that point. I don’t know how I feel on the subject, but it’s an interesting discussion nonetheless.
I think your SB expectations might be unrealistic. Both Brees and Rivers are HOF bound yet they have one ring between them.
Well, both of those teams also wasted many years of those respective quarterbacks’ careers as well. The Saints’ defense was atrocious for much of the 2010s, in a record setting fashion. The Chargers have long been incompetent, so much so that they’re the only team in NFL history to be kept out of contention purely and only due to their special teams (referring mostly but not exclusively to the year when they had both the number one defense and number one offense in the NFL, only to be destroyed by their special teams). I do not say this out of any dislike for the Chargers, because I actually feel for them and their fans. But while a HoF level QB is enough to tip the scale in a lot of games, it isn’t enough to automatically erase mistakes.
I’d say that out of all the teams with HoF level QB the last twenty years (strictly considering the elite quarterbacks who were franchise icons), only Pittsburgh and New England adequately supported their quarterback on both sides of the ball. Denver did with Manning, but that was a limited run in comparison to the long term tenures that we’re interested in.
The Packers front office could have made A-arons roster bonus a signing bonus and saved 7mil in cap space without Rodgers consent. Why didn’t they do that? Because it would up the dead money cap hit when they trade Rodger next off-season. This restructuring won’t happen because the Packers have already committed to moving on from Rodgers; they’re not going to agree to any contract that increases future dead money because that would make it harder to move on. Rodgers isnt going to restructure unless the Packers give him some huge guaranteed money or contractual reassurance they won’t move on like a no trade clause.
Trade him