Rodgers thinks he’ll return to Packers, but no guarantees
All-Pro quarterback Aaron Rodgers says “I don’t think there’s any reason why I wouldn’t be back” with the Green Bay Packers next season.
But he added that his future isn’t necessarily in his control.
Rodgers was clarifying remarks he made Sunday after the Packers’ 31-26 NFC Championship game loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Rodgers said after the game “there’s a lot of guys’ futures that are uncertain, myself included.”
“Obviously after the season I had, potentially winning MVP and we obviously made another good run, I don’t think there’s any reason why I wouldn’t be back,” Rodgers said Tuesday during his weekly spot on SiriusXM Radio’s “The Pat McAfee Show.” “But there’s not many absolutes, as you guys know, in this business. So to make an absolute statement about something that is not an absolute, I didn’t do it.”
While discussing his postgame comments, Rodgers said Tuesday that it “just kind of hit me in the moment” as he was thinking about some teammates whose futures were uncertain. The Packers’ list of potential free agents includes All-Pro center Corey Linsley and Pro Bowl running back Aaron Jones among others.
Rodgers was asked Tuesday if the comment about his uncertain future was an attempt to capitalize on his leverage after a season in which he earned All-Pro honors. Rodgers threw 48 touchdown passes and five interceptions during the regular season.
“I haven’t even had the conversations yet,” Rodgers said. “This is Day 2. Yesterday was exit meetings. I had my meetings with my quarterback coach and offensive coordinator, and you say goodbye to your teammates and you start to clear your locker out. But I’m around this week. It’s not like jetting out of town and, ‘Sayonara, Green Bay.’
“There’s conversations to be had. But it’s the same conversations we have every single year. There’s no big, ‘I’m going to come to the table with I need this, this and this.’ We have honest conversations about where we’re at every single year, whether that’s with (general manager) Brian (Gutekunst), (coach) Matt (LaFleur), (CEO) Mark (Murphy). I’ve had these conversations for years. That’s part of being a leader on the squad and having a pulse on the team and the direction we’re going.”
Green Bay Packers CEO Mark Murphy did his best to clear the air surrounding speculation of Rodgers’ future with the team.
“We’re not idiots,” Murphy told The 5th Quarter Show on WNFL in Green Bay. “Aaron Rodgers will be back. He’s our leader.”
Rodgers has spent his entire NFL career in Green Bay and has three years remaining on the four-year, $118 million extension he signed in August 2018. GM: ‘JARED GOFF IS A RAM AT THIS MOMENT’ >> Los Angeles Rams general manager Les Snead sidestepped questions about the future of quarterback Jared Goff with the team.
“Jared Goff is a Ram at this moment,” Snead told reporters during the team’s season-ending press conference, adding that it’s too early to disclose the ways in which the team intends to “tweak their model.”
When asked a second time if Goff will remain the quarterback of the Rams, Snead again was noncommittal.
“He’s a Ram right now, what’s today? Jan. 26,” Snead said. “He’s No. 2 in wins since he and Sean (McVay) have partnered together,” Snead went on. “That’s been a heckuva partnership. What I do think is the real thing that should come out of this is, hey, we want to be a better offense. And that includes Jared.”
Goff completed 67 percent of his passes for 3,952 yards with 20 touchdowns and 13 interceptions while also losing four fumbles.
WASHINGTON’S KING IS 1ST BLACK FEMALE ASSISTANT POSITION COACH >>
Washington promoted Jennifer King to assistant running backs coach Tuesday, making her the first Black female assistant position coach in the NFL.
She is the second woman in league history to be an assistant position coach after Tampa Bay’s assistant defensive line coach Lori Locust. King spent the 2020 season as a fullyear coaching intern under Ron Rivera and worked with running backs coach Randy Jordan.
King previously interned for Rivera with the Carolina Panthers and has also been an assistant at Dartmouth College and for the Arizona Hotshots of the Alliance of American Football.
NO CONFIRMED POSITIVE TESTS AMONG PLAYERS >>
The NFL says there were no new confirmed positive tests among players and just two new confirmed positives among other personnel in the latest round of testing for COVID-19.
In all, 2,126 tests were administered to 313 players and 3,152 tests were administered to 531 personnel during the weeklong period that ended Saturday.