During the first round of Aaron Rodgers trade rumors, the source rarely provided insight about his situation. With Rodgers now having a weekly radio spot, his status is never far off the radar. The 18-year Packers quarterback had more news to address Tuesday.
A weekend report from ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter indicated the Packers would prefer to move on from Rodgers. This would mean giving another team responsibility of the $58.3MM bonus, which can be paid at any point this offseason, but also taking on a substantial dead-money hit — should a trade occur before June 1 — and committing to seeing what Jordan Love has to offer.
[RELATED: Rodgers Trade A “Very Real Scenario”]
Rodgers is well aware of the conversations occurring among Packers brass, per Schefter, and the 39-year-old superstar certainly seemed to confirm as such. “It sounds like there’s already conversations going on that aren’t involving me, which are interesting,” Rodgers said during his latest Pat McAfee Show interview (via ESPN’s Rob Demovsky). This response also came to question that did not specifically address the Schefter report.
The Jets’ Nathaniel Hackett OC hire also did plenty to fuel speculation Rodgers could be headed out of Green Bay. Again offering praise for Hackett — the Packers’ OC from 2019-21 — Rodgers said (via ESPN.com’s Rich Cimini) the former Green Bay assistant was among his favorites. Robert Saleh downplayed the Rodgers-Hackett connection, as should be expected, but the Jets are evaluating Rodgers, Derek Carr and Jimmy Garoppolo.
Rodgers reiterated he has not made a decision about returning but pointed to one of the two decisions on his plate — seemingly calls on playing and staying with the Packers — being made in “a couple weeks.” Carr, Garoppolo and Rodgers could all be available at different points on the calendar — Carr in February, Garoppolo in March and Rodgers potentially in June, when a trade would be less financially punishing for the Packers — adding an interesting wrinkle to this year’s QB market.
Green Bay moving on this offseason would be eerily similar territory, especially with New York being in the equation again. The Packers have used Rodgers as their starter since trading Brett Favre to the Jets in August 2008. The Jets have not acquired a franchise-caliber veteran since that Favre deal, which was only for a conditional third-round pick. Rodgers is expected to command more in a deal. Favre turned 39 shortly after being dealt to the Jets; Rodgers turned 39 last month. Love is going into his fourth season, just as Rodgers was in 15 years ago.
The Packers’ direction will also influence their decision on keeping Rodgers, who mentioned five players — David Bakhtiari, Randall Cobb, Allen Lazard, Robert Tonyan and Marcedes Lewis — as those he wants as teammates. All but Bakhtiari are free agents. Cobb and Lewis’ statuses with the Packers almost certainly depend on Rodgers’, Demovsky adds. Both vets likely will not return to the team if Rodgers is not back. Bakhtiari is due a $9.5MM roster bonus on the third day of the 2023 league year and is set to carry a $28.9MM cap number. Bakhtiari should be expected to return on a restructured deal, per Demovsky. The former All-Pro left tackle said he is not planning to retire, and Brian Gutekunst said he expects the 10-year veteran to be back.
He didn’t address anything. He acknowledged conversations were going on. Is that news to anyone?
You’re spot on. It’s just a slow news day.
I’m willing to guarantee one thing – Rodgers will either be a quarterback in the NFL next season, or he won’t. Book it.
Hackett = live bait for ARod
Broncos fell for the same ploy, just missed it by a year.
Hackett should give half his paychecks to ARod.
That would be a nice sentiment. ARod is a little strapped for cash these days.
Aaron on the field is amazing but remember he only has one ring. Same as Favre. Barr Starr is still the Packers’ leader in that regard. Pretty amazing considering how the press and Internet magnifies everything. Not saying Starr was the best as the game has radically changed and of course Vince was in charge then. Just making an observation.
“This would mean giving another team responsibility of the $58.3MM bonus, which can be paid at any point this offseason”
I wonder if any acquiring team would take on the bonus in lieu of paying multiple draft picks for Rodgers. If the Packers pay the bonus, they could probably get a couple of high-round picks (maybe more, who knows). But if they want the other team to shell out the $58.3 million, the draft pick haul will be much smaller. I wouldn’t send more than a 2nd rounder for him if I also have to shell out almost $60 million up front.
Forgetting this last season because the trade was made before you don’t expect Rodgers to get more than Wilson do you.
The picks were good but the players we got played really good this year. Seemed like they finally used the TE correctly. You know like throwing the ball to him. They went out and traded a top C for Graham and Wilson rarely threw him the ball.
Graham and Brees were unstoppable inside the ten. But Graham and Wilson were a non factor too many times inside the ten.
I am still saying the best QB for the Jets is Geno. Think it would be a good homecoming for him and a nice place holder the QB they need to draft.
Can’t see Smith going anywhere. Seattle should pay him the most because he proved himself in 22 working in their system.
Come on Sam Robinson. Slow news day…. Come up with something original!!
Buyer beware.
So he thinks it’s interesting that the FO is having discussions and outlining the potential scenarios on how this plays out??
That’s what they’re supposed to do bud.
does he want them to not do anything until he makes up his mind on what he wants to do?
In Rodgers’ defense, the front office should not have signed him to that deal if they were going to try to trade after one bad year. They didn’t exactly set up the offense for success-the offense that THEY built-and now want to take on a huge burden because they panicked and handed Rodgers a huge extension. Instead of trading Rodgers, perhaps they should try to finally put effort into elite wide receiver talent or invest in their tight end group.
Watson and Doubs look promising (Watson after a slow start), but it’s all still potential at the moment. If the Packers weren’t going to seriously push for win now talent, they shouldn’t re-signed a nearly 40 year old quarterback and then immediately whisper about how hard it would be to trade him with his huge contract.
Ak185;
Rodgers took so much of the money and the cap space that they – and any teams that acquires him – will be limited in other moves they can make.
His salary demands / commitments are so out of whack that no team can put enough quality players around him to make up for his continued deterioration.
Samuel, I do agree with you. Rodgers certainly deserves blame for how he handled his offseason-taking off time when he knew he was going to playing with an inexperienced receiving corps, demanding a huge salary when he knew that his team needed receivers, and publically airing his concerns as many times as he did. I do not blame him in the slightest for how he felt, but I do think that his choices made his situation worse.
That said, the regime in Green Bay created this issue, and failed spectacularly to address it. At first they just refused to admit their needs, and attempted to go “business as usual” by building non-specifically “for the future” on a win now roster. Then, they finally realized the reality of their situation, panicked, and lost their only game changing receiver and we’re left with nothing. Rodgers may have been more inclined to take a lower rate had the organization gained his trust or operated competently. He still deserves judgement for his choices, but realistically management should have realized the impact of their own choices on their players. Adams was offered more money to stay by Green Bay. He chose to leave for other reasons.
They had an elite WR when they signed Rodgers. I’m still not sure why they traded Adam’s (I know he wanted to play with Carr)… that completely changed the equation
Also, from the sounds of it Rodgers didn’t make much time for his receivers until the middle of the season and pretty certain he skipped a bunch of training camp despite knowing he had rookies coming in that could use reps with him.
They did not have Adams at time of signing. They had him on a potential franchise tag and he said he would not be signing a long term deal anytime soon. Adams forced their hand. They could have kept Adams for the 1 year and suffered in a lot of other positions.
As a Jets fan I would very much would want to see Roger’s as a Jet. However, to risky to wait until he clears in June. I would rather take the safe bet on Carr.