NEWSLETTER
Sometimes, I feel as if I don’t need a calendar to know where we are in a given year. Instead, just give me a tweet with the latest Aaron Rodgers update and it’ll tell me everything I need to know.
I mean, who needs a calendar to tell me it is late February when we have ESPN’s Jeff Darlington giving this update on the Green Bay Packers QB:
Nothing says we’re three weeks from the start of the new league year like sourced reporting of a belief that the Packers expect Aaron Rodgers to remain in Green Bay.
“A conversation I had with a very important Green Bay Packers source, who quite honestly believes that Aaron Rodgers will be back with the Packers and that all of this is being overhyped. He looks at the contract that Aaron Rodgers signed last year, the commitment he gave to the team, and believes that at the end fo the day that Aaron Rodgers will be back with the Packers.”
The Packers made Aaron Rodgers the highest-paid player in NFL history (at the time. And they did so by giving him a crazy contract. Rodgers responded by being all over the map this year. He participated in the annual public shunning of his receivers, celebrated a touchdown by miming ayahuasca drink, and went full Looney Tunes mode midseason. What a year for a guy who was gunning for a third straight MVP. As a team, the Packers finished with a sub-.500 record. That’s probably not what the Packers had in mind. Hence, I understand why a Rodgers trade “is a very real scenario” this offseason. I also get why the Packers reportedly would prefer to “move on” from their long-time star quarterback. And yet, here we are with an expectation that Rodgers will return to Green Bay in 2023. Good luck figuring this guy out.
Frame it how you want. Maybe the Packers don’t believe in Jordan Love. After all, if they did, they’d probably have kicked encouraged Aaron Rodgers to the curb by now. Perhaps there isn’t a trade market for Rodgers (the Jets?). That contract looks like it would need men with the strength of two wookies to move. Or maybe Rodgers, who holds the cards here, is being a pest and sticking it to the Packers. Whatever the case is, we’re set to enter March wondering about Rodgers’ status. And, yes, I’m as annoyed as you are.
In the end, part of me wants to see Rodgers hang around a bit longer. Even after watching him beat the Bears twice in 2022, it looks like Rodgers is entering his decline era. Meanwhile, the Bears – if they make the right moves – will be on the upswing going into 2023. And it would absolutely make me smile the brightest smile if Justin Fields can get his first win against the Packers at Rodgers’ expense. We’re months away from having real football to root for, but this is one thing I want so badly at this point. It would be cathartic and fulfilling. Maybe it can become reality if Rodgers sticks it out, as one reporter seems to be relaying.
