GREEN BAY, Wis. – What are the Green Bay Packers doing now?
They designed Jordan Love in 2020, but not to be their quarterback in 2021 and maybe not even in 2022.
Thursday’s news that Aaron Rodgers told some members of the Packers organization that he doesn’t want or doesn’t want to return to Green Bay, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, changes everything.
What if Rodgers gets through and doesn’t show up for the mandatory June mini camp, or if training camp starts in late July or just in time for the season opener?
What started and reiterated last year as Rodgers, 37, that not only did he want to play in his forties, but wanted to do it in Green Bay, turned into a 180.
What You Need To Know About The Green Bay Packers:
• Free agent signing by the packers »
• Tracker: Latest signings and news »
• Assessment of large trains »| Top 100 FAs »
• Coverage by independent agencies »| More NFL »
When he said last May that “my sincere wish to start and end with the same organization, as has been the case with many other players over the years, may not be a reality at this point,” he seemed to be responsible to take over packers who are committed to him again.
A year later it sounds like he doesn’t even want that anymore. According to Schefter, he has even rejected contract extensions or renegotiations.
If so, then all of the Packers’ efforts to keep their team from last year largely intact – they’ve returned 20 of 22 starters in attack and defense – are doing another run at a Super Bowl with the group that did the NFC has achieved the championship game two years in a row could be in vain.
If Green Bay traded or released Rodgers today it would save $ 5,646,000 in salary caps. If this happened after June 1, it would save $ 22,850,000 in cap space. Rodgers is under contract until 2023 – just like Love – but no longer has guaranteed money for his deal.
Love had no chance to show a lot as a rookie in the last off-season. There were no out-of-season personal training sessions, and the training camp was a shortened version of the real thing (and didn’t include any pre-season games). He didn’t even get QB2 reps; These went to Tim Boyle, who had served as Rodgers’ backup last season.
0:53
Dan Orlovsky says teams in the top 10 of Draft looking for a quarterback need to inquire about the potential trade with a disgruntled Aaron Rodgers.
What Love did with limited reps as No. 3 quarterback wasn’t all that great. It’s no wonder that General Manager Brian Gutekunst expressed the importance of this off-season for love. But important so that it can be the backup, not the starter.
Green Bay invested three seasons in Boyle but then did not offer him as a restricted free agent that season. Boyle then signed a one-year freehand contract with the Detroit Lions.
Gutekunst and the Packers have turned down all trade offers for Rodgers. Gutekunst denied shortly after the season that the Los Angeles Rams had made a run at Rodgers, as the Los Angeles Times reported at the time. Gutekunst said that this was “not a truth”. A source told ESPN Thursday that reports of the San Francisco 49ers offering number 3 plus quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and other draft picks for Rodgers were also not true. However, Schefter reported that the 49ers inquired without a specific retail offer.
Either way, it seems like the Packers will have another awkward quarterback transition on their hands – and maybe sooner than they thought. Thirteen years ago, the Brett Favre Packers moved to Rodgers. In this case, Favre hastily withdrew and then changed his mind. The Packers had to exchange him for the Jets in August 2008 because they had already committed to Rodgers.
After an early 6-10 season with Rodgers as a starter, the Packers returned to the Super Bowl competition and soon won one. But that was when Rodgers was the backup for three years. What the Packers would look like without Rodgers in 2021 couldn’t even be that good.
