SUNDAY: Although Gutekunst did send the Texans a draft pick for Cobb, he is not moving on a Matthews reunion. The fourth-year Green Bay GM said he and his staff have not discussed bringing back Matthews, via Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com (on Twitter).
SATURDAY: While personnel suggestions from players on social media generally do not carry too much weight, the Packers have already acted on one of their starting quarterback’s requests since his return. Aaron Rodgers may be advocating for another of his high-profile ex-teammates to be brought back.
Already successfully pushing the Packers to reacquire Randall Cobb, Rodgers followed Cobb and David Bakhtiari in voicing Instagram support (h/t Bleacher Report) for the team to re-sign Clay Matthews.
During his lengthy press conference explaining some of his issues with the Packers, Rodgers discussed the team’s past decisions to let certain standouts walk. Cobb and Matthews came up in one expansive response. The Packers traded for Cobb soon after. While Cobb is back in Wisconsin after two years in Texas, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk notes the Packers are not believed to be interested in re-signing Matthews.
Green Bay let Matthews walk after the 2018 season, and he signed with the Rams. The Packers’ five-year, $66MM extension for Matthews delivered mixed results. While the 2013 deal did precede Matthews making his fifth and sixth Pro Bowls, those honors came in 2014 and ’15. The former first-round pick’s production declined in the years that followed. In 2018, Matthews recorded just 3.5 sacks and 12 QB hits in 16 games. Green Bay moved on from Matthews and edge-rushing mate Nick Perry, with GM Brian Gutekunst adding Za’Darius and Preston Smith in free agency. That outside linebacker changeover has worked out well for the team.
Matthews, 35, did not play last season. After the Rams cut bait on his two-year deal, he turned down an offer from the Broncos and sat out the season amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Matthews did provide a spark to the 2019 Rams, recording eight sacks and two forced fumbles in 13 games. He missed three games that season with a broken jaw.
The Packers still roster both outside linebacker Smiths and have 2019 first-rounder Rashan Gary at that spot, giving the team one of the league’s top pass-rushing stables. Matthews has not been connected to a team since the Broncos offer, which came shortly after Von Miller‘s season-ending injury last September.
Rodgers is such a baby. You don’t own the team. U don’t decide who you sign snd payroll. Shut up and play.
Or he can and should say whatever the hell he wants because A) the front office is listening and placating him and B) without him, the Packers are a 5 win team.
Funny that you people call him a ‘baby’ when all you do is whine and fill your diapers every time he says anything.
Then there’s the whole he actually never said it dealio. It’s taken from a social media post, hence the “?”. Rodgers wasn’t the only one.
He is a baby and we aren’t in the public spotlight making $40 million. 12 win or 5 win he will choke it away in another playoff loss by not running it in and then blame,e everyone else. With a 5 win team however you can add decent picks and it doesn’t prolong the inevitable or of rebuilding.
Two of your best players request a certain player to return. If anything they should just do it to please the locker room.
Clay has a history with the team, was great in his day, adds no drama and will cost next to nothing for them now.
Why not just sign him
Simmons-because he has nothing left, he swore he’d never set foot in GB again, and there are 2 guys named Smith and 1 guy named Gary who aren’t going to leave much meaningful PT for him. Not that I care about his feelings, but I kinda doubt he’d come back as a ST’er and garbage time LB’er.
Has nothing left? 8 sacks in 13 games is nothing? I understand he produced because of talent around him but they’d be asking him to be a rotation guy, not supplant the Smiths.
How many years ago was that? What did he do his last..oh, 3 years in GB (besides pull a hammy)?
Even if he DOES have anything left, he still said he’d never set foot in GB again (even as a visiting player), or that he likely won’t WANT to be a “rotational” player. He was pouty enough about being asked to play inside.
Unless he wants to play inside on a vet’s minimum, no thanks.
If the team doesn’t like it they are welcome to release him, fine him, or ignore him but they clearly think he more than just a baby sooooo….
Cobb should be happy that Rodgers got the Pack to bring him in. Don’t think he’s in a position to be asking for anything else. And Rodgers, who complains about Kumerow and a meritocracy when it comes to the roster, has no self awareness when he’s asking to bring back over the hill veterans who will cost younger players there chance at making the team.
If Rodger retired or got traded, Cobb would be gone before the ink drys on the paperwork.
Matthew’s is old, injured and waste of a roster spot. This is absurd.
Maybe they can bring back Ray Nitschke too.
Why is the headline concluded with a question mark? Did Rodgers ask the team to bring back Mathews or didn’t he? So many articles related to Rodgers seem to be pure clickbait. Sports journalists seem to learn their trade during summer internships at the National Enquirer.
Because they dont know if he has requested it to management or not. It clearly states in the article that it is based off a tweet or retweet.. or liked tweet whatever.. of Rodgers and his teammates..
The title proposed a question, and then it proceeded to tell you why it proposed the question..
Just because they don’t 100% know whether or not he asked doesn’t it mean the article shouldn’t be written..It is profootball RUMORS..Not profootballfacts…
Carry on
Don- the ? is so nobody has to take responsibility for not having any factual information. But knowing a ton of readers will slurp it up as 100% straight from Rodgers mouth, it gets written and sent.
You do realize what a rumor is right? If you do then you realize this is pro football RUMORS right?
If they only did confirmed and factual it would probably be called pro football NEWS
I think he’s pointing out that most READERS don’t treat it that way, especially outside fans who get this from “news” sites and run with it. I don’t think he’s complaining that it’s being reported on, just that people treat unconfirmed information as fact.
I’m Ron Burgundy?
Lol Rogers wants to go back to high school but high school sucks
I’m not sure about high school but Rodgers is convinced that going back to the future is the way to win a championship. His next requests from the Packers will be for Dr. Emmett Brown and a vintage DeLorean.
What Erin wants, Erin gets.
“And then I command that you resign Ahmed Green and Donald Driver. And I want Bart Starr as my backup. You heard me!”
I hear Robert Brooks & Antonio Freeman are available too
Look, if he comes back on a team-friendly I want to play with Rodgers deal then that’s fine. But there was no way they were ever paying him close to what he got when he walked.
I sorta feel like this isn’t a big deal. For all any of us know this could happen frequently when any player interacts with a member of management. He’s just voicing a desire to see them bring Matthews in, and on social media only. There’s no holdout or anything over it. I don’t feel as if just because someone is being paid they have to shut up and just do as they’re told.
They need to just move on from Rodgers, he is ruining their team and it’s only going to get worse.
lol. What a take. Especially in the comments on THIS article.
Jordy Nelson and Eddie Lacy hitting the gym waiting by the phone
Eddie Lacy in the gym, huh? I think I’d rather bring back Ryan Grant.
Only way Eddie Lacy enters the gym is the local h.s. has an all you can eat buffet fundraiser
Is that gym the Planet Fitness where they go when there is free pizza or bagels Tuesdays?
Time for the Packers to end this nonsense before Aaron asks if it’s possible to exhume Reggie White.
Considering their current depth at DE, that might be a helpful roster move.
Aaron Rodgers would make a terrible GM
Or a great one. He seems to have a better vision than the actual GM. Who drafted another QB in the first round when filling a more critical position could have put them into the Super Bowl last year?
Actually…no less of an authority than Aaron Rodgers himself said that Aaron Rodgers would be a great GM for the Milwaukee Bucks.
I think Jordy Nelson is available too. Why not get the band back together lol
This whole article is ridiculous. If I was a betting man, I’d put my money down on Rodgers, and his teammates trolling an all too predictable “press.” Then there are the haters who snap at any bait. Fish on!
What a whiner! Just because your good doesn’t mean you have to be a diva, look at Brian hoyer for example he always kept a level head and ego.
You are comparing him to Hoyer of all quarterbacks? Really? Hoyer? That’s all you could come up with
But… Brian Hoyer isn’t, like, good?…
Where do you live, under a rock? I played with Brian back in our college days and that young man could throw. Pure talent wise he’s leagues above Rodgers. Just had bad luck and poor situation, still managed to stay humble tho
Ah, got it!! Hoyer played with Luke Effin’ Nowak in college so he’s obviously elite.
Clearly I’ve got a pack of bozos on my hands so I’ll take it easy, but your ignorance is showing greatly. Anyone who watched hoyer would know he had all the potential of Rodgers. He however didn’t demand old players to come and play with him. Case closed
@Luke- I cannot believe I’d ever be arguing with someone on a message board over who is better, Hoyer or Rodgers. I mean look at the stats, the accolades and the career trajectories. I wish there was a way for us to poll NFL GMs and see if just one would take Hoyer over Rodgers.
But congrats on posting maybe the single most outlandish take in the history of comments. This one won’t be beat for awhile. Lol
I don’t care about any stats I’m going off pure eye test, and hoyer takes the cake, ok Rodgers could barely make throws that hoyer makes in his sleep. If hoyer was thrown better luck he’d be a hall of famer
Only the eye test of a troll, Hoyer fan boy extremist, or the biggest of all Rodgers hater could reach such a conclusion. Hoyer is currently sitting as a 3rd-4th string QB on a team that needs a starting QB desperately. But you want to argue that the eye test should tell us he’s got the skills to be better than one of the better QB’s off all time.
If I was a troll I couldn’t be typing I’d be living in a cage you bozoclown. And I’ve played with hoyer and watched a lot of Rodgers, and trust me hoyer has more pure talent, just ran into some rotten luck.
If Hoyer had more pure talent, why’d he go undrafted and Rodgers went in the 1st round? Are you saying you’re a better talent evaluator than all of those NFL GMs and scouts?
Pure talent wise Hoyer is leagues above Rodgers? I’ve seen some delusion on this site but that takes the cake!
I think Brian Hoyer is a solid back up but really? The only thing I can say he accomplished is he is probably the only QB that had a winning record when they left cleveland.
Other than that he is Charlie Whitehurst (MAYBE all the talent in the world but either lost, cant, or doesnt know how to actually use it on the field). Heck you had a backup QB from another team come in and go 5-0 in his starts with pretty much no knowledge of the players and the team and win out the rest of the season with the same team Brian Hoyer started the season as the top qb then got benched.
To say he is leagues better than the current and multiple MVP winner and has produced no better than a mark sanchez or a matt cassell really in his career really shows your knowledge of the game. If he didnt get the opportunities (which he did on multiple occasions) you might have an argument but he did and did nothing with it. He is the equivalnt of a AAAA player in mlb, too good for the minors but not good enough to really be the guy on a team and will probably be a coach after they retire.
For the record, I like Brian Hoyer and was hoping he would back up Wilson for the Jets or even go to another young QB team where he can share some knowledge and insight and step in and not lose you games but to be the guy is a whole other thing.
You’ve clearly never played with the man, he would of beat any qb in a competition but couldn’t preform on the big stage
JaMarcus Russell could also throw a football to the moon from his knees, too- he just couldn’t win an NFL game. I mean what are you debating here? Who would win a QB skills competition?
Hey, I’m with Aaron. I think that after we get Clay, we should get Jordy Nelson. Then go get Donald Driver, A. J. Hawk and Jermichael Finley. Then we can move on to the next set. Whatever AR wants!
You know, all of those positions ironically places that the Packers have ignored. Especially ILB.
Seems pretty obvious, question mark in headline is not necessary given Rodgers’ obvious sentiment to sign Matthews within the article
Time for Packers to sent Aaron packing. They need to think about future of the of packers. This guy is a whiny pre-Madonna.
it’s “prima donna”, lit. the person to whom the prime roles would be given. Prime donne often had grand off-stage personalities and were seen as demanding of their colleagues.
rodgers is a clown. i love it when star players want to have “more of a say” in personnel decisions. go watch tape of 500-600 draft eligible guys year after year then make your recommendations.
not all GMs are great look at the current GM of said packers .. have you seen what the gm did his first year? basically wasted his first 3 picks for 3rd stringers on a team that is in win now mode. Even this year those same 3 players are 2nd and 3rd stringers at best.
Love is the backup where 2 years atleast he will ride the bench and kill your win now years instead of someone that could play and actually carried you to the superbowl.
Dillon is a backup for Jones and is a lesser quality clone of jones where you really want a guy like williams that can be your “scatback” and split out. Dillon is a down hill runner and thats pretty much his game.
Deguara is 3rd in the TE line with Lewis and Tonyan above him. He may be a nice pick in yr 3 where he has more time as the 2nd stringer but you were already set here with a veteran and young talented backup with a position that is rarely used by the packers and their schemes.
As a sports fan I’ve seen this behavior before. As a NY Rangers fan going way back I remember when Mark Messier pulled the same crap and forced the team to get his buddies to come play for the rangers from the Oilers. We traded young players, draft picks and signed these players to large contracts (no salary cap back then). What happened? We were a better than average team for a couple years but the players were to old and fragile to get through the grind of the playoffs. It set back the franchise many years because of it.
It’s why you should never let a player make personnel decisions, that’s what teams have scouts, GM’s, Director of Player personnel, etc. Rogers only cares about this year as he will be gone next year and could care less what happens to the Packers after that. Hold your ground and make the decisions that are best for the team not to appease a star player. Ive seen it first hand, it doesn’t work.
Matthews was done 5 years ago. Maybe be a position coach.
Who cares he is not the GM. Get rid of them both.
The Packers sure know how to motivate their star player.
The GM would be gone or given control on most teams.
Not in GB though