As Free Agency Approaches, Packers Still Waiting on Rodgers
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GREEN BAY, Wis. – With the countdown to the start of free agency tick-tick-ticking away, quarterback Aaron Rodgers seemingly is running out the clock on the Green Bay Packers.
On March 8, Rodgers announced via The Pat McAfee Show that he intended to return to the Packers for an 18th NFL season. A few hours later, Rodgers went on Twitter and said he hadn’t signed a contract but was “very excited” to be back in Green Bay.
Four days later – and with the unofficial start to free agency just two days away – Rodgers still has not signed a contract extension.
The extension is at the heart of the Packers’ offseason plans. Rodgers’ cap number for 2022, his final year under contract, is $46.66 million. An extension could easily cut that number by $10 million, if not more – a critical element in the team solving its $45.8 million hole in the salary cap by the 3 p.m. Wednesday deadline. Without knowing with absolute certainty exactly how much money an extension would save, Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst can’t make any big moves.
So, while Rodgers told the Packers he’d be back, the critical next step is on a four-day holding pattern.
“I feel like I’m at the place relationally with the Packers – in a really good place especially with Brian and the way our friendship and trust has grown – where it would be a simple conversation and whatever comes out of the conversation is moving forward,” Rodgers said on The Pat McAfee Show a few days after the season-ending loss to San Francisco.
“There’s not going to be a weird standoff, war of silence of anything. Brian and I have had good conversations throughout the year and, when it comes time to make a decision, we’ll have a conversation and that’ll be that. It won’t be a long, drawn-out process. I think that’s what’s best for me, for him, for the organization and for all the other decisions that need to be made.”
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported the Packers and Rodgers had agreed to a four-year, $200 million contract. Rodgers, via McAfee, said that was not correct.
Whatever the number, something is holding up Rodgers putting pen to paper – and holding up the Packers’ plans. Maybe it’s money. Maybe it’s structure. Maybe it’s Rodgers trying to maximize how much money he gets to keep should he retire after the 2022 or 2023 season. Maybe it’s Rodgers flexing his leverage muscle and playing hardball just because he can.
“There’s a lot of decisions that have to be made before that,” Gutekunst said of having certainty on Rodgers’ future before the start of the league-year on Wednesday. “That would be that would be helpful. I would think we know something before that.”
The free-agent negotiating window opens on Monday, and players are able to sign with the start of the league-year at 3 p.m. Wednesday. Even with Davante Adams getting the franchise tag, the Packers have a couple stars set to hit the market with All-Pro linebacker De’Vondre Campbell and big-play cornerback Rasul Douglas. Receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling and tight end Robert Tonyan are two other players who could command significant contracts.
Maybe the Packers wouldn’t have had a chance to retain those players had Rodgers signed a contract on Wednesday or Thursday. But that it’s the weekend and Rodgers remains unsigned isn’t helping matters.
“Obviously, we’d like to know as soon as we can,” Gutekunst said at the Scouting Combine. “I think it helps for planning and moving forward.”
