Who Will Aaron Rodgers Play For In 2023 (Or Will He Play)?

[texaspackerbacker]

I don't hate Rodgers. I hate his contract, and how they've cooked the cap to make it worse.
This team was 4-8 at one point, before beating CHI, LAR, MIA and a possibly concussed Tua, and an aging MIN team some called frauds. They were not good for most of the year with Rodgers. I'm not sure he'd be able to win 10 games for GB next year... is the roster better?

If you believe his performance on McAfee, he was 90% sure he was retiring... so GB would be rebuilding/retooling/whatever pretty soon either way. Coming back to GB for ONE MORE YEAR with that contract and the future cap hits would make that process much harder and take at least a year longer. That they could trade him means they can start sooner, figure out if Jordan Love is part of that process, and get some future cap space/draft picks in trade. If he was 90% sure he was done this year, what percent will he be next year?

The goal for Gute, MLF and the rest of the team is to win the Super Bowl. Love might not be able to do that, but Rodgers wasn't going to this year.

Rodgers is one of the all-time Packer greats, and he's made more than a few 'wow' throws I'll never forget. He helped GB win a SB and a lot of other games along the way, and I certainly appreciate that (and all the years of Bear domination) but it's time to turn the page.

If you believe what he said, he wanted to finish his career as a Packer - until the team made it seem like they wanted to move on from him. The contract that both he and the team signed says the same thing, which is why I call it a GLORIOUS contract. I, for one, do not believe him when he said he was 90% retiring before the darkness thing/walking away from $59 million as well as retiring on a low note in his career. Next year? How much would he be walking away from then? Anybody know?

As for how many wins next year compared to last year, I disagree with your conclusion there. Last year was badly tainted with his own injury as well as the receivers' injuries as well as the other rookie problems. I see no reason why next year wouldn't be a lot more similar to the two previous years with Rodgers. Without him? Sure, some people think Love could possibly play as good as Rodgers last year. I have said, that's probably the high end for Love, and only then if he soaked up Rodgers' attitude not to throw interceptions. Nobody in their right mind, however, seriously thinks Love could play like Rodgers did the two previous years or most of his career, not next season and almost certainly not going forward. THAT is why I'm so pessimistic about it - the result when the Packers didn't have Rodgers playing Rodgers style football - bad bad bad.

But I'm glad to see ya'all analyzing and commenting on life WITH Rodgers instead of all this crap about without him.

[Upnorth]

According to https://overthecap.com/If the Rams were to trade Stafford prior to June 1, he would count 74 million against their cap. 54 million more than if they keep him. They currently have 8.5 million in cap space. Tex needs to stop listening to those media pukes.

I am worried we have to put up with this until post June1. We get8.5 mill cap savings by trading him then.

[call_me_ishmael]

It's not savings, right? They just divide it over two years. Take your medicine this year!

[Joemailman]

It's not savings, right? They just divide it over two years. Take your medicine this year!

I agree. If they bite the bullet this year, they might actually have some cap room to work with next year.

[sharpe1027]

If Rodgers wanted to finish his career in Green bay nobody could have stopped him. He didn't and he doesn't.

[red]

I agree. If they bite the bullet this year, they might actually have some cap room to work with next year.

That’s why kicking all this other cap money down the road kinda sucks

[run pMc]

If you believe what he said, he wanted to finish his career as a Packer - until the team made it seem like they wanted to move on from him. The contract that both he and the team signed says the same thing, which is why I call it a GLORIOUS contract. I, for one, do not believe him when he said he was 90% retiring before the darkness thing/walking away from $59 million as well as retiring on a low note in his career. Next year? How much would he be walking away from then? Anybody know?

So you believe Rodgers when he says he wants to retire a Packer, but not when he says he was 90% leaning to retire? That's some pretty selective belief to fit what you want to believe.

if we grant that he was truthful in one place and lied in another, what proof do we have? Moreover, what proof do we have that the thumb was the cause of all of his problems? He wasn't exactly lights out before the injury.
If the thumb was broken and he couldn't throw well with it, why didn't he take a week or two off to heal? Is it possible Jordan Love looked good enough in practice, and Rodgers feared he would perform in games and have a QB controversy -- and be the proof the front office needed to see it was time?

The thumb injury doesn't account for the poor reads and progressions -- he'd been doing that for years and didn't have Adams to bail him out anymore. (One has to wonder if he should have given half his last MVP trophy to Adams.)
We can assume some of the rookies will be better, but some will struggle. They are just as likely to have a sophomore slump as a Year 2 jump. I don't see Rodgers having an MVP season with their receiving corps as it stands.

Moreover, their cap situation -- which includes money from Rodgers prior contracts that have been kicked forward into this year -- prevents them from going out for receiving help. It's going to be dumpster diving for vets and drafting rookies. The "glorious" contract he signed was good for him and his agent, but bad for the team's cap. If he plays for GB this season and then retires, his cap hit is bonkers. If he plays two more seasons for GB, it will be crippling to the point where they will be forced to cut almost every veteran player. No Preston, No Kenny, No Aaron Jones, you're probably trading Jaire for pennies on the dollar, etc. Meanwhile, Jordan Love will be long gone and they will be without any QB after that. You would literally be starting from a position worse than the Bears.

There are tons of stories about Rodgers contract and the cap out there, and why it's bad for GB. He's a 39 year old QB coming off a down year with young WRs. QBs approaching mid 30's experience a big drop off, that he's made it to 39 is incredible in itself. NYJ has a better roster than GB at this point, let him go.

[sharpe1027]

Uh, you're saying the ya'all crowd/Rodgers haters do that? Yeah right hahahaha.
.

Fuck you. I don't hate Rodgers and I form my own opinions.

[texaspackerbacker]

So you believe Rodgers when he says he wants to retire a Packer, but not when he says he was 90% leaning to retire? some pretty selective belief to fit what you want to believe.

So YOU believe Rodgers when he says he was 90% leaning to retire? But not when he says he wants to retire a Packer? THAT's some pretty selective belief to fit what you want to believe too hahahahaha. Back at you.

What he said was the 90% retirement thing was immediately before he went into the dark. That sounds pretty self-serving and designed to back up what he said later about going to the Jets.

What he said about finishing his career as a Packer was in the more distant past - before the horrendously stupid drafting of Love (my words, not his, but maybe his thinking) or at the time the Glorious Contract was signed. Is that so hard for ya'all to believe?

Some in here (not necessarily you, runpMc) talk so definite/act like you really know what was in Rodgers' heart and mind. I don't, the media shitheads don't, and the ignoramus(es) pretending they do don't.

You're dead wrong about player retention and the cap. Preston should be gone within a couple years. Kenny shouldn't and won't be. Aaron Jones is a maybe depending on how he looks in a couple years, but they certainly could keep him if he is still worth it. Ditto that with Jaire - make that a strong probably with him. I've said repeatedly, they could retain Love along with keeping Rodgers. What that would depend on is Love being willing to be a backup for several more years. I'd put that at less than 50/50, but who knows.

All that about Rodgers fading at 39 hahahaha. He was injured, and he had inexperienced receivers who also were injured. Most QBs drop off in their mid thirties? Maybe, but Brady made it to 45, and I thoroughly expect Rodgers can and will if he wants to also.

[run pMc]

I think Rodgers did want to retire a Packer, but that's beyond his control.

If GB keeps him Rodgers cap hit in future years will prevent them from keeping other players on lucrative second or third contracts. If you cap is 230M and your QB's cap hit is 99M, that doesn't leave a lot left for the other players on the roster.

Aside from Brady, who else has been good past age 40? Rodgers plays a different style than Brady, he's been hit/sacked and injured more than Brady, and Rodgers has already showed signs of physical decline. Moreover, if he's waffled about retiring or coming back to play for GB in previous off seasons (not just this one) why would anyone think that would go away and play 6 more seasons? You say he could play for several more seasons, but there's little to indicate HE wants to. Clearly YOU want him to.

He's been a great player, and I think he could have a Scorched Earth Rodgers season if traded to NYJ but I don't think he has more than that season left in the tank mentally if not physically. He's not leading the Packers much farther than Love will this season, might as well start with new QB now without the cap hit. As for Love, he's a first round pick, the expectations are to start or compete for a starting job at a minimum. He'd request a trade. He's not going to spend whole life working on being a QB and not be able to play.

[Fritz]

run,m I would put a qualifier in your line that "Rodgers did want to retire a Packer." My guess is that he wanted to retire a Packer, but only if Green Bay continued to defer to some of his roster preferences - Lazard, Cobb, Lewis. When the Packers let Rodgers know that they weren't interested in re-upping Cobb or Lewis, and they didn't want to pay Lazard what he could get on the open market, Rodgers interpreted that to mean the Packers were letting him know "in so many words," as he put it, that they were moving on. I don't think there's a scenario in which the Packers let Rodgers know they weren't going to re-sign "his" guys, and Rodgers said "But I still want to come back and play for Green Bay any way." I think it was kind of a package deal - you either want me and my buds, or you don't want any of us. And I think that when the Packers let it be known they weren't re-upping Cobb, Lewis, and Lazard, they knew Rodgers would want out, and at that point that was fine by them.

[texaspackerbacker]

I think Rodgers did want to retire a Packer, but that's beyond his control.

If GB keeps him Rodgers cap hit in future years will prevent them from keeping other players on lucrative second or third contracts. If you cap is 230M and your QB's cap hit is 99M, that doesn't leave a lot left for the other players on the roster.

Aside from Brady, who else has been good past age 40? Rodgers plays a different style than Brady, he's been hit/sacked and injured more than Brady, and Rodgers has already showed signs of physical decline. Moreover, if he's waffled about retiring or coming back to play for GB in previous off seasons (not just this one) why would anyone think that would go away and play 6 more seasons? You say he could play for several more seasons, but there's little to indicate HE wants to. Clearly YOU want him to.

He's been a great player, and I think he could have a Scorched Earth Rodgers season if traded to NYJ but I don't think he has more than that season left in the tank mentally if not physically. He's not leading the Packers much farther than Love will this season, might as well start with new QB now without the cap hit. As for Love, he's a first round pick, the expectations are to start or compete for a starting job at a minimum. He'd request a trade. He's not going to spend whole life working on being a QB and not be able to play.

I see more reasonableness in your posts than most in here (the reason I don't generally lump you in with the haters, dumbasses and shitheads), but you sure seem to have a blind spot about the salary cap. No way in hell Rodgers cap hit if he continued to play for the Packers would ever hit $99 million or anything close. They could and would keep on kicking the can with restructures, dead years, whatever and the cap, of course would keep on rising all the years he would play. Then there would be dead money when he finally did retire, but that would be spread out too.

You and maybe others keep saying Brady was different. No. The only stylistic difference was Brady wasn't as athletic as Rodgers, and that wouldn't affect longevity. Arguably, Rodgers - similar to Brady, is different from all those QBs you might be thinking of who faded in their mid thirties. How? Because both Brady and Rodgers had a much higher level to decline from. Sure, both faded a little bit with age, but even with the decline, they were far above pretty much anybody else you might think of.

A couple years ago/at the time the Glorious contract was signed, nobody - well maybe I should say almost nobody - was dumb enough to be talking about what if they cut him or trade him, etc. It was just a relief that the GOAT was signed securely for at least a few more years. What has changed since then? One bad season, and even that was only bad by Rodgers' own super high standard, and that was clearly caused by injuries to him and his receivers. If the thumb and the injuries to Watson and Doubs hadn't happened, he would have likely been near MVP again, and the Packers likely would have been up in the teens of regular season wins and who knows, maybe those craving playoff wins and the Super Bowl woulda got their wish too. But it didn't go that way, so all of a sudden, a bunch of panicky fools in here, less so among Packer fans in general, I think, are all hung up on the stupidity of getting rid of Rodgers and "moving on" - which means misery and losing seasons. WHY is that idiotic mindset so prevalent in here? It is extremely likely IMO - no reason not to expect - that Rodgers will bounce back to pre-2022 levels - and HOPEFULLY although maybe not likely, it will be with the Packers.

You don't think he has whatever left in the tank mentally? Where does that come from? hahahaha. WHY would he not have just as much left in the tank mentally as Brady did at the same age and well beyond?

[run pMc]

you can kick salary down the road by converting it to a bonus and thus prorating that amount across the remaining length of the contract, it's much harder if not impossible to do anything with a bonus (which the 59M is, thus causing his cap hit to balloon). They already technically have a couple of fake years on the end of his contract already, they might be able to do something with that but that's unclear to me. Void years hit when the contract ends and the player isn't resigned, which is how Adrian Amos will still count against this year's cap if he doesn't play for GB.

Brady and Rodgers are different. In fact, I'd go so far to say nobody is like Brady. It might be more helpful to compare Rodgers with Favre... same team, overlapping time in M3's offense, etc. Favre got hurt and washed up by 41.

I don't think he has a lot left in the tank mentally because he was on retirement watch after the 2021 season. https://www.nfl.com/news/packers-qb-...-rule-that-out
He didn't and we ended up on retirement watch again this season, and he tells McAfee he was leaning 90% towards it. Does that sound like a guy who is committed to play for two or five more years?
He cares about his legacy and saw the Favre retirement drama, I suspect if he's talking about retirement he's pretty close to the end.

Now I could see him get traded, go bonkers and be in the running for MVP (because he's the king of petty grudges), and retire at the end of the year saying it was on a high note and his terms. Maybe a change of scenrey will energize him.
I just don't think he's got enough to want to grind for multiple seasons, and I also think the one-season-rental aspect is part of what's holding up a trade.

The old Ron Wolf saying about better to get rid of a player a year early than a year late holds true, even for Rodgers. He's a HOFer but I think it's time.

[RashanGary]

run,m I would put a qualifier in your line that "Rodgers did want to retire a Packer." My guess is that he wanted to retire a Packer, but only if Green Bay continued to defer to some of his roster preferences - Lazard, Cobb, Lewis. When the Packers let Rodgers know that they weren't interested in re-upping Cobb or Lewis, and they didn't want to pay Lazard what he could get on the open market, Rodgers interpreted that to mean the Packers were letting him know "in so many words," as he put it, that they were moving on. I don't think there's a scenario in which the Packers let Rodgers know they weren't going to re-sign "his" guys, and Rodgers said "But I still want to come back and play for Green Bay any way." I think it was kind of a package deal - you either want me and my buds, or you don't want any of us. And I think that when the Packers let it be known they weren't re-upping Cobb, Lewis, and Lazard, they knew Rodgers would want out, and at that point that was fine by them.

This is what I think. He said “they told me in so many words they don’t want me back” and added, “I know they’ve told other guys directly” and those are paraphrases.

What does “in so many words” mean?

He’s a petty little bitch. He can’t put himself in anyone else’s shoes and try to understand what their intentions are. It’s like a 7 year old when you accidentally step on their heel and they’re so mad cuz you did it on purpose. He literally has no ability to understand someone else’s perspective.

He’s a spoiled, pampered, athlete. He worked his ass off for a lot of it, but he has no ability to empathize and relate to others, hence he has zero long term relationships.

[bobblehead]

If Rodgers wanted to finish his career in Green bay nobody could have stopped him. He didn't and he doesn't.

I would say this an oversimplification of the scenario.