The dust has settled on the Packers’ 2021-22 season and all eyes are now on Brett Favre Aaron Rodgers. After winning his second straight MVP award Rodgers said he would be making a decision soon. And over the weekend reports were the Packers are willing to pay up to keep him around next year and beyond. All signs point to another year on the bench for Jordan Love, but this is Aaron Rodgers we’re talking about. Who knows what goes on in that brain?
The three options are to renegotiate his contract and return to the Packers, request a trade to a new team, or retire. The transformation of Rodgers’ relationship with the Packers’ front office since his return in July is remarkable. General manager Brian Gutekunst has worked a minor miracle in mending that relationship and because of that I think Rodgers is likely to return. However, after seeing Tom Brady and Matthew Stafford win Super Bowls in their first year with a new team, Rodgers might want to give that a shot. If he asks for a trade the odds are pointing to Denver as his likely landing spot.
Raiders make sense to me
There have been some other teams bandied about but none of them really make sense, especially the NFC ones. It would probably cost an extra first round pick if he were traded to an NFC team. Nobody is really talking about the Raiders. If they wanted to do what the Rams did a Derek Carr for Aaron Rodgers trade would make a lot of sense. Carr said he would take less money to help the Raiders sign Davante Adams. This way he would get to play him without taking a pay cut. Rodgers in Sin City is a match made in heaven.
If the Packers and Rodgers still had a strained relationship I could have seen Rodgers simply retiring and screwing the Packers out of the bounty they could get for him. But now I don’t see that happening. I think he wants to play and even if it is not in Green Bay he will work with the Packers to facilitate the move. He won’t be burning bridges on cable news like his predecessor did. He will do everything he can to make sure the fans understand his side while praising the Packers for everything.
In the end I think the team gives Rodgers the assurance he can play for the Packers as long as he wants. If that means starting over in their search for his replacement then so be it. My preference would be to give Rodgers one more year to win it all. If it doesn’t happen then, you have to move on. A new contract may make that impossible, though. I guess we’ll find out sooner rather than later.