Rodgers absent as Packers open team minicamp

Aaron Rodgers was a noshow and Tom Brady was full-go.

The quarterbacks who faced off in the NFC championship game five months ago dominated headlines as several NFL teams opened mandatory minicamps on Tuesday.

Rodgers expectedly skipped Green Bay’s first session after missing the team’s voluntary organized team activities. It remains uncertain whether he’ll return to the Packers.

“I think any time you’re talking about any player on your football team, you’d love everybody to be here,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. “And so, it’s certainly, it is what it is, man. And we’ll focus and we’ll control and work on the guys that are here and try to help them become the best to their ability and coach the heck out of them.”

LaFleur declined to say whether Rodgers’ absence was excused. The team has the option to fine Rodgers just over $93,000 if he misses all three minicamp practices this week.

“I’m not going to get into my conversations with Aaron and the communication,” LaFleur said. “I’m naturally optimistic, but you know, again, we’ll take it day by day and just do whatever we can to help remedy the situation.”

LaFleur and general manager Brian Gutekunst have both said they want Rodgers back. Gutekunst has said he won’t trade Rodgers, who has three years left on his contract.

Rodgers was noncommittal about his future in an ESPN interview last month but expressed his displeasure with the front office and made it clear his issue with the team wasn’t about quarterback Jordan Love being drafted in the first round last year.

“It’s about character, it’s about culture, it’s about doing things the right way,” he said.

Rodgers won’t need much practice time with the Packers whenever he returns, if he comes back at all.

“I think Aaron’s got a ton of experience and he’s not a guy that I worry about particularly that much,” LaFleur said. “He’s a pro’s pro. I know he knows how to take care of his body and get himself ready to play. So that is not much of a concern for us at all.”

While Rodgers remained absent in Green Bay, Brady was back on the field in Tampa Bay leading the defending Super Bowl champions on his surgically repaired knee.

“Trying to stop him from playing is pretty tough,” Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians said.

Brady, who turns 44 in August, called the knee surgery “pretty serious” in a radio interview last month. He wore a brace on his left knee and was held out during blitz situations in practice but Arians said the fivetime Super Bowl MVP “kept begging to go back in.”

“He looked fine,” Arians said.

The Falcons, Cowboys, Lions, Giants, Rams and Washington are also holding their mandatory minicamps this week. The Eagles and Colts reworked their schedules and are off until training camp after finishing OTAs.

For Atlanta, it was the first time the Falcons hit the field since seven-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Julio Jones was traded to Tennessee.

“I don’t worry about players I never coached,” firstyear Falcons coach Arthur Smith said after practice.

In Dallas, quarterback Dak Prescott hasn’t been limited in his return from a major ankle injury. Coach Mike McCarthy expects Prescott to be fully ready at training camp.