Back under center and airing it out
Rodgers ‘not closing the door on anything’
GREEN BAY - Aaron Rodgers roamed the Green Bay Packers practice field Wednesday morning in that familiar No. 12 jersey like a prodigal quarterback who'd finally returned home.
Between reps, Rodgers basked in the adulation of a fanbase that missed him. “Aaron Rodgers, welcome back!” one fan shouted from the Ray Nitschke Field stands. Many others cheered their approval almost any time Rodgers completed a pass, never more so than after an uncovered post to Davante Adams during route-running drills.
During a break in individual drills, Rodgers jokingly tugged on quarterbacks coach Luke Getsy's shorts. He caught up with members of the Packers' support staff near the sidelines. He air drummed the final beats to a Foo Fighters song.
The three-time MVP looked like a kid playing the game he loved. The game he wondered this offseason if he'd ever play again. There were moments during his months-long standoff with the Packers, Rodgers said, when he seriously contemplated retirement.
“I definitely took my mind to that scenario,” Rodgers said, “and sat with those feelings and what it would feel like.”
It's a scenario Rodgers never anticipated encountering so soon in his legendary career. He is the antithesis of Brett Favre, the quarterback who always saw his seasons extending past 40 years old, and said so publicly. But the spiral of this offseason rift that pushed the Packers and their Hall of Fame quarterback to the brink played tricks on Rodgers' mind. He eventually found himself withdrawing from the game, doubting if he wanted to continue playing.
The spiral, Rodgers said, started with a conversation with team executives in February. Rodgers,
already in the uncomfortable position of feeling like a lame-duck quarterback after an MVP season, wanted to be “more involved in conversations directly affecting my job.” It's the chance he never got before the Packers drafted Jordan Love to be, in Rodgers' words, “my replacement” a year earlier.
“We did call (Rodgers) on draft night,” general manager Brian Gutekunst reiterated Wednesday. “It just wasn't before.”
Rodgers believed all the years of service, the three MVPs, the Super Bowl ring earned him the right to have a conversation on personnel matters, even if he couldn't sway Gutekunst's decisions. He wanted to be a recruiter in free agency, much like he saw Tom Brady do for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last offseason, orchestrating a series of moves that led to Brady removing a long-coveted second Super Bowl ring from Rodgers' finger.
But the Packers were a very different team in February than they are now. Flash forward, and the Packers are on the verge of trading for veteran receiver Randall Cobb, who is on the last legs of his career, primarily because he's Rodgers' friend. In February, the proud organization, winners of 13 world championships, wasn't prepared for such kowtowing.
So the Packers balked.
“I felt like if you can't commit to me past 2021,” Rodgers said, “and I'm not a part of the recruiting process for free agency, if I'm not a part of the future, instead of letting me be a lame-duck quarterback, if you want to make a change and move forward, then go ahead and do it.”
This was the great awakening many outside the Packers organization long expected. For the first time, the team stared into a future without its Hall of Fame quarterback. “We were quite frankly very unsure,” coach Matt LaFleur said Wednesday.
Their mettle was questioned, their resolve tested, and eventually the Packers bent.
They first offered to restructure Rodgers' contract, ensuring more security over the final three years of his deal. For Rodgers, that compromise came too late. Rodgers said it was “into May” when the team relented on a restructure, only after dragging its heels to keep its options open with Love, who represents the future.
When Rodgers rebuffed the restructure, the Packers upped their ante with a two-year extension that would have made him the highest-paid player in NFL history.
“What basically happened,” Rodgers said, “was then they said, ‘Uh, we'll give you some money. Now, let me see if we can throw some money at you.'”
But there was something more important at stake. Rodgers used the term “involvement” Wednesday, but the disagreement boiled down to control, or power. Rodgers believed he'd risen in stature enough to be heard. He wanted a seat at the table.
So Rodgers declined the extension, too.
“I said from the start,” Rodgers said, “it wasn't about the money. … To me, it was bigger than this.”
Rodgers didn't relent on his unwillingness to return until after he was assured there would be changes. It's why he demanded the Packers trade for Cobb, among a dozen players Rodgers said Wednesday the organization had disrespected in their departures over the years.
It's hard to say Rodgers won this stalemate. From the beginning, the Packers were adamant they would not trade their franchise quarterback this season. That they were able to entice Rodgers back for 2021 — at least — is a significant concession.
But Rodgers has gotten more than nothing out of his standoff — and certainly more than almost any other player in the NFL would. The Packers voided the final year of his contract in 2023, adding no possibility for franchise tags. Their backs are against the wall now. There will be a conversation about the future next spring, Rodgers said. While Rodgers said he has not been given the assurance that he can pick a team to play for in 2022, the Packers can't afford the risk of letting him play out his contract.
Next spring, they'll either need to extend him or trade him.
“I'm definitely not closing the door on anything,” Rodgers said. “I'm always optimistic, and the ability to change. I would never want anybody to give up on me, and I feel like I've made a lot of changes over the years to try and improve myself both as a person, as a teammate and as a player.”
It's far from a ringing endorsement. When asked Wednesday about his relationship with Gutekunst, Rodgers merely described it as "professional." This might be a forced marriage, but nobody questions if Rodgers is “all in” on 2021.
He's here, and so long as the Packers have their Hall of Famer at quarterback, they know the Super Bowl is attainable.
Rodgers knows it, too. It's why he returned. As he roamed around the practice field Wednesday, dropping pinpoint passes and cutting up with teammates, the MVP was exactly where he wanted to be.
“There's still a big competitive hole in my body that I needed to fill,” Rodgers said. “And as I got back into my workouts, I just realized that I know I could still play, and I want to still play.”