It appears an unprecedented agreement is on the horizon. Just a couple of hours ago we heard that Aaron Rodgers was telling those close to him that he planned to play for the Packers in 2021, and now we know why.
The two sides are “close to an agreement” that would ensure Rodgers plays this season for the team, but would “help set up” his “departure from Green Bay after this season,” sources told Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (Twitter link). The Packers have offered “concessions” to Rodgers to get him to agree to play, but the new agreement will not include any additional money, Schefter tweets.
In return, Rodgers will “abandon plans he had to skip training camp and instead return for it.” The 2023 year, the last one on Rodgers’ current contract, would void as a result of this agreement, Schefter tweets. The Packers would then “agree to review” Rodgers’ “situation at the end of this season” (Twitter link).
Schefter additionally reported that Rodgers’ contract will be adjusted to keep him with the same income but increase Green Bay’s cap space, and that “mechanisms will be put in place to address Rodgers’ issues with the team.” It sounds like this is setting up an incredible ‘Last Dance’-esque situation, where Rodgers is playing for the Packers but everybody acknowledges his days are numbered.
Under this agreement, Rodgers would become a free agent after the 2022 season with the year getting voided. However, Schefter writes in a full piece for ESPN.com that Green Bay’s agreement to “review” the situation next offseason “implies that the team will trade Rodgers if he still feels the way he has about the Packers’ culture and decision-making.” Schefter later confirmed in a tweet that the truce will in fact give Rodgers the “freedom to decide where he wants to play in 2022.”
As such, it sounds like Rodgers will be allowed to leave after this season if he still wants to. It’s bizarre and unusual all around, but perhaps also the only fitting conclusion to what has been a wild ride all offseason. We’ll keep you posted as soon as we hear more.
The Aaron Rodgers saga may be nearing a (temporary) conclusion, and he isn’t retiring. Green Bay’s star quarterback has “indicated to people close to him that he does plan to play” for the Packers this season, sources told Ian Rapoport of NFL Network (Twitter link).
Rapsheet adds that it’s “the expectation.” It’s not quite definitive, but it certainly sounds like Rodgers has made up his mind that he’ll be running it back with the Pack for at least one more year. With Green Bay’s steadfast refusal to trade him, Rodgers only had two real options. Show up soon, or retire. There were reports that he would seriously consider retirement, but they never rang true.
Rodgers is coming off one of the best seasons of his career, and since he’ll turn 38 in December he can’t afford to waste too many years as he chases an elusive second Super Bowl ring. Shortly before Rapoport’s report, Packers GM Brian Gutekunst spoke to the media and said the team was still “hopeful for a positive outcome” with respect to Rodgers, Tom Pelissero of NFL Network tweets.
Gutekunst likely knew what was about to hit the news wire. While Packers fans (and head coach Matt LaFleur) will now be able to breathe a bit easier, the drama is far from over.
Rodgers’ status will loom large all season, and things could go south in a hurry if the Packers don’t play as well as they did last year. Either way, this will once again become a big issue next offseason at the very least. This feels like a band-aid solution, and Rodgers very well may demand another trade next year when he’ll only have two seasons left on his contract.
For what it’s worth, Packers president Mark Murphy spoke right after this report broke, and said he still didn’t know whether Rodgers would be at training camp on Wednesday. But for now, don’t expect to see 2020 first-round pick Jordan Love take the field anytime soon. We’ll keep you posted as soon as we have any more clarity on Rodgers’ plans.
We heard earlier this week that the Packers offered Aaron Rodgers a two-year extension that would have made him the highest-paid player in NFL history. That report, from ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter, was light on details, and as our Zachary Links suggested at the time, it’s difficult to know exactly what kind of money Rodgers was really turning down.
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk offers a little more context. While Florio does not know the details of the Packers’ reported offer, he does shed some light on what Rodgers is looking for. According to Florio’s sources, Rodgers wants $90MM in guaranteed money over a two-year period. The $45MM average annual value would put him on an even footing with the Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes, but more importantly, Green Bay would have to structure the deal in such a way that it would have no choice but to keep Rodgers through at least 2022 and perhaps through 2023.
As it currently stands, Rodgers is signed through 2023, but the Packers could theoretically cut him next offseason and save $22.7MM against the cap. They’d be left with $17.2MM in dead money, but that wouldn’t cripple them cap-wise, especially since the cap is set to increase next year. Jordan Love, with multiple years to go on his original rookie deal, would be significantly cheaper.
Although it has been said at various points throughout this saga that Rodgers is not necessarily motivated by money, the money that he’s reportedly seeking would be one way to achieve his goal of leaving Green Bay when he’s ready to leave, and not when the Packers deem Love to be ready to take the reins.
Between Rodgers and Davante Adams, the Packers are dealing with a lot of disgruntled star power. That is not a good place for any team to be in on the cusp of training camp, but especially a team that has a roster capable of contending for a title.
A big week for Packers news, coming in advance of Monday’s annual franchise shareholders meeting, naturally centers on Aaron Rodgers. The Packers report to training camp Tuesday, and nothing about the reigning MVP’s offseason points to him being on the field.
Rodgers has continued to train as if he will play in 2021, however. Packers left tackle David Bakhtiari shared a photo of he and Rodgers working out this week at Proactive Sports Performance in California (h/t Fox 6’s Lily Zhao). A Proactive Sports Performance representative also said, via ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, that Rodgers is “working and he’s ready” for the season.
Rodgers’ desire not to play for the Packers again has become fairly clear. He missed OTAs for the first time in his career and skipped minicamp. The Packers, however, retain his rights and have budged from their stance against a trade. This staring contest is set to push into camp, and Las Vegas has made some interesting adjustments regarding the Packers and NFC North.
The Westgate SuperBook closed its NFC North betting, and two other Vegas sportsbooks revealed to SI.com’s Bill Huber the expectation is Rodgers will announce his retirement before the Packers report to camp. The 37-year-old quarterback was linked to retirement early in this impasse, and the move would remind of Carson Palmer‘s 2011 retirement — a move the then-31-year-old passer made to force the Bengals’ hand. That play ended up working, though Cincinnati kept Palmer in retirement until the trade deadline that October.
Any Rodgers trade package would surpass what the Bengals collected for Palmer — a 2012 first-round pick and a 2013 second-rounder — but the Packers have held firm for months here. So has Rodgers, who turned down a deal that would have (again) made him the NFL’s highest-paid player. Although it is not known how that proposed extension was to be structured, this standoff is not believed to be financially motivated.
The team is winding down its most turbulent offseason since at least 2008, with Davante Adams‘ ending extension talks this week adding to this drama. While Packers teammates believe Rodgers will be with them this season, per Pro Football Focus’ Doug Kyed, his holdout stands to intensify Tuesday.
The Packers offered Aaron Rodgers a two-year extension that would have tied him to Green Bay for five more seasons (Twitter link via ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter). The deal would have made him the highest-paid player in the league, Schefter hears, but Rodgers declined.
Of course, there are a million ways to measure contracts in the NFL — guarantees and cash flow are the things that really matter. That’s especially true when it comes to the Packers, who like to put the bulk of a player’s guarantees in the signing bonus.
For now, Rodgers is signed through 2023, but the Packers could theoretically cut him next offseason and save $22.7MM against the cap. They’d be left with $17.2MM in dead money, but that wouldn’t cripple them cap-wise, especially since the cap is set to increase next year. Jordan Love, with multiple years to go on his original rookie deal, would be significantly cheaper.
With training camp just one week away, it doesn’t sound like the Packers will have their MVP quarterback on the field. Rodgers, 37, continues to insist on a trade and a fresh start elsewhere. The Packers, meanwhile, have refused to budge.
Aaron Rodgers has said little throughout what has easily been the most turbulent offseason of his NFL career, but the reigning MVP provided an indication of his timetable Saturday.
During the American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament, the Packers quarterback said he plans to “get back to working out and figure things out in a couple weeks” (h/t USA Today’s Ben Kenney). This cryptic comment is certainly not out of the ordinary from Rodgers, who has played it close to the vest throughout this process — which turned into a holdout when he skipped Green Bay’s mandatory minicamp last month. The Packers, however, are set to open training camp in just more than two weeks (July 27).
Rodgers’ comment follows a report that indicated this stalemate was not on track to be resolved until at least training camp. While Rodgers’ loose timeline lines up with Packers camp, his holdout is not believed to be about money. He will face fines of $50,000 for each camp day missed. The 37-year-old superstar has long been entrenched in his desire to leave the Packers, which has stemmed from an issue with team management.
Packers GM Brian Gutekunst has been resolute against trading Rodgers, and ESPN.com’s Jeremy Fowler noted recently the trade market for the 16-year veteran is nonexistent (Twitter link). This does not mean no interest has spawned, as the Broncos have been linked to the future Hall of Famer since his desire to leave Green Bay emerged in late April, but that the Packers have not given any indication a trade is realistic.
In addition to skipping the Packers’ offseason program, Rodgers has not linked up with Green Bay pass catchers on his own. That gave presumptive successor Jordan Loveplenty of extra reps during OTAs and minicamp. The 2020 first-round pick, whose arrival began this turmoil between Rodgers and the Packers, took roughly 90% of the team’s offseason team reps.
It will be interesting if Rodgers reports to Packers camp, given the acrimony between he and Gutekunst and team president Mark Murphy. Gutekunst, Murphy and Matt LaFleur attempted to resolve this situation for months, prior to Rodgers’ exit hopes becoming public, but no solution came. The Packers have the leverage of holding Rodgers’ rights, while the three-time MVP can withhold his services and essentially drop the team off the Super Bowl contender radar. Either way, this saga will gain clarity later this month.
Another day, another update in the Aaron Rodgers/Packers saga. This afternoon, the future Hall of Famer participated in ‘The Match’ golf tournament alongside Tom Brady, Phil Mickelson, and Bryson DeChambeau. Rodgers was naturally asked about his standoff with the Packers, and the quarterback decided to play coy.
“I don’t know,” Rodgers said when asked about his future in Green Bay (via Bleacher Report on Twitter). “We’ll see. We’ll see, won’t we?”
The 37-year-old also failed to acknowledge the Packers’ Week 1 matchup against the Saints, instead saying that he was prying information from Brady about the defending champ’s future in the NFL.
Besides the non-quotes from the tournament, we also learned that Rodgers had yet to gather with his wideouts (per Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com). While the veteran avoided offseason workouts and minicamp, he still could have participated in unofficial sessions with the likes of Davante Adams, Allen Lazard, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Devin Funchess, and others. This news isn’t a huge surprise since Rodgers has continually committed to his stance that he wants to play elsewhere, but you’d imagine Rodgers would want to get some work in before the regular season starts.
Finally, while it always seemed farfetched, we learned today that Rodgers won’t be opting out of the 2021 campaign. NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reports (via Twitter) that no players are believed to have opted out of next season. This path never made a whole lot of sense for the quarterback; he would have sacrificed a hefty payday in 2021 and would have just been delaying the stare down for at least another year.
When the NFL and NFLPA agreed that players can opt out of the 2021 season, regardless of whether they have been deemed as a high risk for COVID-19 complications, it created a way for Aaron Rodgers to avoid having to play for the Packers again while still keeping his $11.5MM in signing bonus allocation for 2021 and the $6.8MM roster bonus that was earned in March (but that hasn’t been paid out yet). But Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, citing a source with knowledge of the situation, said Rodgers is unlikely to go that route.
That shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. If Rodgers were to opt out, he would have to make that decision by July 2 — just five days from now — and he would not be able to reverse course. He would be committed to sitting out the 2021 season, and the source says the three-time MVP is not ready to make that decision so soon.
That doesn’t mean that Rodgers will actually play this year. The possibility of a pseudo-retirement has been on the table since this saga began, and it remains an option. Rodgers might not be ready to take himself off the field by July 2, but if he does not get what he wants — either a trade or a new contract that commits the Packers to him until he is actually ready to call it a career — by the time training camp rolls around, he could simply announce his retirement.
He might say that 16 years in the NFL have taken a toll on his mind and body, and that he is ready to hang up the cleats. Such a move could eliminate any fines or forfeitures that the Packers would otherwise be entitled to, and Rodgers could simply unretire in 2022 and say that the year off left him feeling fresh and ready to resume his playing career.
So the COVID opt-out is apparently not a real option for Rodgers. Meaning that we will have to wait until the end of July, at the earliest, before we start to get some clarity.
As it stands, Aaron Rodgers has two choices — collect his full paycheck for 2021, or continue his holdout into the season and forfeit millions of dollars. However, there is an option C for the Packers’ quarterback. Per the terms of this year’s agreement between the NFL and the NFLPA, Rodgers could opt out, skip the season, and prevent the Packers from taking $18.3MM out of his pocket (via PFT).
Players can opt out for any reason, regardless of whether they’ve been deemed as a high risk for COVID-19 complications. The only hitch is that the decision has to be made by Friday, July 2. After that point, it’s irrevocable.
It’s be a bold and unprecedented move on Rodgers’ part. It would also prevent him from attempting an encore of his 2020 MVP season. The Packers continue to say that they will not trade Rodgers under any circumstances, but plenty of people seem to think that they’ll bend. In a recent poll, 25% of PFR readers said that Rodgers will wind up as the Broncos’ Week 1 starter.
“We obviously still feel the same way,” head coach MattLaFleursaid earlier this year. “We want him back in the worst way. I know he knows that. And we’ll continue to work at it each and every day.”
One of the key points in this year’s draft came at No. 9, when the Broncos — who did extensive work on quarterbacks coming in — passed on Justin Fields and Mac Jones to selectPatrick Surtain II. Denver passing on potential long-term starters transpired shortly after new GM George Paton acquired Teddy Bridgewater from the Panthers.
With the Broncos choosing Surtain, Bridgewater and Drew Lock reside as their quarterbacks. They split reps down the middle this offseason and will continue this competition during training camp, when chapter six in the franchise’s post-Super Bowl 50 quarterback saga commences in earnest.
The Broncos have started an NFL-most 10 players at quarterback — counting Phillip Lindsay‘s wildcat snap in the COVID-19-created Kendall Hinton game last season — since Peyton Manning‘s March 2016 retirement. Denver has tried free agency (Case Keenum, the second Brock Osweiler acquisition), the trade market (Joe Flacco, Bridgewater) and the draft (Lock, Paxton Lynch) to fill this spot. The Broncos’ most successful post-Manning season — 2016, when the team went 9-7 — came with 2015 seventh-rounder Trevor Siemian at the controls.
Now on his fifth team, Bridgewater is still just 28 and has a history with Paton. The Vikings drafted the Louisville alum in the 2014 first round, when Paton was working as GM Rick Spielman‘s top lieutenant. The former Jets (briefly), Saints and Panthers quarterback has developed a reputation as a risk-averse passer, and Carolina was eager to jettison him after authorizing a three-year, $63MM deal in 2020. The trade agreement knocked Bridgewater’s 2021 cap hit down to just $4.4MM and made him a 2022 free agent. But Bridgewater makes sense for a team with high-end defensive capabilities, which a healthy Broncos iteration possesses.
Bridgewater finished 17th in QBR last season; Lock ranked 29th. The 2019 second-round pick was often erratic during his second NFL season, tying for the NFL INT lead (15) despite missing three games. Lock, however, was thrust into an unusual spot in 2020 — learning a new offense in a virtual offseason — and lacked top receiver Courtland Suttonfor most of the season. But, with longtime GM John Elway ceding the reins to Paton, Lock’s grace period is over.
The elephant in this room: will the Broncos’ interest inAaron Rodgers be relevant soon? The Broncos have lapped the field in Rodgers rumors, with the Raiders — another team Rodgers is open to joining — comfortable withDerek Carr for the time being. Depending on which skill-position players would be left in Denver after a trade, Rodgers would be equipped with a host of young weapons and a defense positioned to be one of the league’s best.
Even as some around the league wonder if the Packers are bracing for the reigning MVP’s exit, they are holding firm and possess leverage. Despite a return that could feature two or three first-round picks and one or more established young starters, Green Bay is understandably clinging to hopes this situation can be salvaged. The Bengals traded disgruntled QB Carson Palmer in October 2011, after the incumbent had staged a retirement in an effort to leave Cincinnati, and Palmer made nine starts for the Raiders that year. The Broncos likely would be open to a Rodgers in-season arrival, but ideally for them, the Packers begin trade discussions before the season.
Denver passing on Fields also leaves the door open, albeit narrowly, for Deshaun Watson. Twelve years younger than Rodgers, at 25, Watson is believed to be interested in being traded to the Broncos. The team had Watson on its radar as well. Kareem Jackson, conflict of interest notwithstanding, said his former Texans teammate has Denver atop his destination list. The Broncos are believed to prefer Rodgers to Watson, with the latter’s off-field issues undoubtedly factoring into this equation. Watson faces an uncertain future, with the Commissioner’s Exempt List and/or a suspension potentially looming. But if clarity emerges here before the trade deadline, the Broncos — assuming they do not acquire Rodgers — may be back in play for the three-time Pro Bowler.
Will the Broncos end up swinging a trade this year, or will 2022 be the window for such a transaction? Can Bridgewater or Lock seize the job and halt Rodgers and Watson rumors for good? Vote in PFR’s latest poll and weigh in with your thoughts on this situation in the comments section.
