The Packers’ relationship with their franchise quarterback is not in a great place right now. Aaron Rodgers is upset with the organization after being left out of discussions that resulted in major changes this offseason, multiple league sources tell Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports. Specifically, Rodgers wanted to be consulted with before the team released wide receiver Jordy Nelson and parted ways with quarterbacks coach Alex Van Pelt. 
“Both of those decisions [with Nelson and Van Pelt] were made without him,” one source close to Rodgers said. “In both situations, he had no influence with [the front office] before anything went down….I know he’s thinking about that stuff when it comes to the next contract because he should have earned a voice by now. In other places with [elite] quarterbacks, consideration is given to those guys. I think Aaron wants to be engaged in some decisions. But that’s just not the way it works [in Green Bay]. I think that’s obviously frustrating and it’s going to keep coming out.”
The relationship between Rodgers and the Packers “isn’t in total disrepair,” but the divide is real. One can’t help but wonder if Rodgers’ discontent could lead to real problems for the two parties in the coming years.
The good news for the Packers is that, contractually, they have significant leverage. Rodgers is slated to earn $20.5MM in 2018 and $21.1MM in 2019 – numbers that are well below market for the two-time MVP – and he can be controlled through 2021 via consecutive franchise tags.
Next stop the Jets…where he will be telling everyone how much better he was than Bret Favre.
He’s a California guy, so I can see him going west- not east. But the Jets are interested in any QB with a pulse, so anything is possible.
New York is the media capital of the country so he has to make a pit stop there before moving on to his acting career in Hollywood.
Aaron Rogers is a really good actor. Have you seen his commercials? He has incredible folksy charm and the camera loves him. I was surprised. Brady comes across like a spoiled, shallow, closed prig (not terrible for the role) but Rogers is the real deal in terms of screen talent.
Leaving the NFL while both of them are still walking without supports and haven’t lost too many brain cells to concussion would be a very smart move. Both of these gentlemen did well enough on the Wonderlic test to figure that out.
Brady would be smart to just not come back in 2018. He has an almost perfect legacy at this point, with the only hole due to Bellichek benching Malcolm Butler in the Super Bowl. The 2018 Patriots may not be the same kind of place New England has been for the last decade. The wheels appear to be coming off the car.
How does Butler being benched tarnish Brady’s legacy? They might not have won even with Butler starting. More excuses for the worst bunch of cheaters in sports !
Next stop 5 years from now maybe.
With all the changes taking place in Green Bay it appears a reboot is imminent. A parting of ways can be a win/win for both sides now but in 5 years it will likely be a lose/lose for both.
Will jets stop include texting cheerleader photos of his junk? Ya hey dere:)
Packers don’t care about Rodgers they will just get new quarterback in 2022. Look what they did with the best quarterback they ever had.
Aaron Rodgers and Brett Favre were both compensated for their time with millions of dollars. Rodgers is owed nothing and Rodgers owes them nothing.
Spoken like someone with a cash register for a soul. People get more out of work than just money, and employers can lose good employees by ignoring morale or actively making it worse.
What did they do to Bart Starr?
Shoot! Beat me to it.
Know you’re role you are the employee not the employer
And referring to something that Parcells once said and I’m paraphrasing, “If I’m the cook, I should help shop for the groceries.” So, if they want him to lead an offense to success, they should at least ask for his input on how he thinks that will be best accomplished.
On the subject of grocery shopping I think boxing trainer Clint Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby) got it right….”Bleach is bleach”.
True, but Parcells is an example of a head coach demanding not just input but actual control over personnel selection, including the draft, and I don’t think he did such a great job with it. I know Dennis Green didn’t, and that was in the same era of the Rock Star Head Coach who wanted his hand in everything. I prefer a more specialized organizational system, one with consultation across departments, of course, but one where the GM is the GM, the HC is the HC, and the Directors of Personnel are in charge of their own bailiwicks. George Young is my model of a modern general manager.
Your dumping on the guy who said “The Bears are who we thought they were”? That just ain’t right bro.
Except that this “employee” makes around 10% of your team’s total salary (that’s a wild guess on my part), and this “employee” is one of only 5 or 10 players who can do what he does. The Packers would be foolish to get on his bad side, and if at least being allowed to have input on important personnel decisions makes Rodgers happy, IMO you make him happy.
To hear you talk, one would assume that the other 54 guys on the roster contribute nothing to the team’s success. Take a look at what happens to teams (hello Giants) where one guy gets away with having his ego stroked every time he feels unappreciated.
One shouldn’t assume that none of the other players contribute to the team’s success because that’s not at all what I said or meant.
A good employer will seek the advice and opinions of its successful employees.
But only on matters which they have some expertise at. The owners of an airline don’t ask the guy who does the refueling for advice on how to fly the plane.
Dumb. Cutting Nelson and firing McCoy are right in ARod’s wheelhouse.
Yeah, but crossey, Rodgers wasn’t asking for input in the defensive coordinator decision or on what free agent defensive players to keep or sign, he was asking for it in two areas with which he is intimately familiar, his receivers and his position coach.
It’s one thing to offer input to a boss in a respectful manner and another to go around crying foul because decisions were made by your boss without your seal of approval.
Sorry, Ryan, but I’ve seen enough stupidity and venality and greed and callousness among employers over the years that I have no problem with employees, collectively or individually, demanding more of a say in their working conditions.
Sounds like the speech the Warden makes BEFORE the inmates take over the asylum.
Curious way for the new Packer regime to begin business-piss off your franchise QB.
Bc Rodgers really doesn’t need to be given a heads up. It’s a business. He’s the talent. He’s paid VERY WELL for his talent. He needs to use his talent with the other talent GB puts on the field with him.
He’s just coming off as a snotty spoiled brat right now.
Or maybe he’s coming off as an incredibly gifted athlete who probably knows as much about the abilities and flaws of his receiving corps as anybody. If you’re being well-compensated with the idea that you should do your best to lead a team to a championship, then in my opinion a percentage of that money IS being paid for the athlete’s knowledge and insight. If they give him nothing to work with, I at least hope that the organization and its fans won’t point the finger at Rodgers and say, “Well, he sure fell apart…”
Why should an owner even bother to hire a GM and front office people if he is going to allow them to avoid making decisions that are their responsibility and pass that on to a player?
No one here has suggested that Rodgers should be making decisions. What I said, and I think others have agreed with, is that it wouldn’t hurt to let Rodgers put his 2 cents in. If they want to ignore Aaron’s advice, fine; I’ve read nothing that says Rodgers is upset with the decisions they’ve reached, he’s upset with not knowing about them and not being allowed to speak his mind.
So your saying he’s upset at not being able to speak about decisions he didn’t know about? That makes no sense. The bottom line is he thinks he is owed some special entitlement and his nose is bent all out of joint because he isn’t getting his ego stroked the way he wants.
The best run orginzations have happy employees who all work together to make it run the best that it can. Rodgers is the QB
and the motor who makes the machine go. He should be in on how the offense is ran !
If GB has done business like this in the past (I’m not really sure) then he shouldn’t be making these leaks to the press about it. This is how they conduct business.
Yes, Rodgers is an employee, but he’s easily the highest paid and also hands-down the one who would be hardest to replace… so if at least being consulted about moves makes Aaron happy, IMO you make him happy. Note that the source didn’t say that Rodgers was unhappy with the decisions, but that he’s unhappy that his opinion wasn’t sought. Rodgers is one of an elite level of QB in the NFL, and because of that many do, and should, have a different set of rules. For example, it’s pretty well-known (or at least assumed) that Roethlisberger has the ear of the front office in Pittsburgh. Mind you, they don’t necessarily follow Ben’s advice, but they do listen. And at least part of the reason for that is that they know that Ben is, much like Rodgers, virtually irreplaceable and also sometimes needs to have his ego soothed.
It’s not just making Rodgers happy. I would think Rodgers knows a little something about football.
We’re talking about input into who Rogers throws too. He knows his chemistry with his receivers, their catch ability and what special tricks they can do together to beat defensive backs. It usually takes two or three years to build intuitive understanding between a quarterback and his clutch receivers (usually two or three on a team, not more). So asking the QB in this case would only be an intelligent decision. Nothing to do with star power.
I think you have hit on the key point in this discussion which is “ego”. There are QBs like Ben, Brady and Brees who will go to management and say “I can provide some input if you need that” and other QBs who feel they have some special entitlement owed them.
There have always been different rules for star players. Those rules may have shifted this way and that over the years, but I can remember reading about similar exceptions to the rules as far back as Weeb Eubank and Joe Namath.
No argument with your first statement but Namath never ran around NY crying that he was done wrong because he wasn’t consulted on front office decisions.
Russel Wilson for Aaron Rogers straight up.
Who? This is a good idea although who are Aaron Rogers and Russel Wilson ?
If I were the Packers, I’d say sure, give me a QB who’s very nearly as good as the one I’ve got, is five years younger, and has survived playing behind atrocious offensive lines where my guy just missed nine games with a broken collarbone. If I were the Seahawks, this would be the final evidence that the front office needed a good housecleaning and the head coach was ready for a forced retirement.
I agree with Rodgers on this one. I don’t think he should be included on all or even lost things, but when it comes to receivers and specific coaches I do think he should have some say/involvement. I agree that I think he’s earned that right and has extensive knowledge in those areas.
Regarding Jordy Nelson, I was probably as surprised as they were that he got released. Rodgers and Nelson had chemistry that was extremely productive— even last year. Personally I would have rather seen Cobb go— his position is a lot cheaper to fill.
Rodgers and Cobb have chemistry as well. And, they’re best friends. No doubt if Rodgers had to choose between the two. He’d pick Cobb.
Agree he has earned that right but sounds like the higher ups had their minds made up and they have egos also
I agree with him to an extent…Rodgers is the face of that franchise. But Nelson was a financial decision,and unless he was gonna voluntarily give them that 10extra million in cap space,there really wasn’t much of an option to go in another direction. They had 3 receivers with 10+mil cap hits,and there’s not that many teams willing to pay that much at that position. They still have 13m in space,but they did try to use it to improve at corner,but the Bears matched the offer for Fuller.And they have 12 picks in the draft,so they’ll have opportunity to add depth.
If they don’t figure it out he will be a Patriot at the end of his contract.
Or take over for rivers in a year or so on chargers and bring super bowl trophy to LA? Just sayn
Chargers are closer to being an 0-16 than they are a Super Bowl.
With that defense? I don’t think so.
Van pelt wanted to leave. 3 months later and 12 still doesn’t know this? Maybe not such close friends as he’s trying to make us believe.
Also, if he’s so in tune with what the front office should be doing, he’d have known before that Nelson was going to get let go, and offered to redo his own deal then to create the necessary room under the cap to work something out.
Concentrate on getting healthy for next season, not playing Mr hindsight on personnel matters.
If I’m the gm I let him finish his current contract then franchise tag him at that point he would be almost 38 and let him walk
Van Pelt wanted out of his contract. Jordy looked old and slow last season, Raiders will regret paying him. I hope Aaron doesn’t keep going down the road that Favre did thinking he was bigger than the team. He’s a phenomenal talent but this isn’t the NBA where players like LeBron can keep signing 1 year deals with a player option for a 2nd year, giving himself all the leverage. Rodgers has no leverage, contractually speaking.
It’s ridiculous not to consult with Aaron. Not because he feels entitled but why wouldn’t you on topics where he is an expert. Besides McCarthy, who knows the offense and what is required to succeed better than him? The GM and his team are employees too, not to mention new to their jobs. No matter what business you’re in, it’s never smart to ignore the opinions of your top talent. That’s how you go out of business (or in this case blow the window they have with Arod).
#FakeNews
Rodgers always having to tell people to RELAX. I’m sure he signs an extension before the season begins.