Brandt on Rodgers: ‘Change Can Be Good for All’
GREEN BAY, Wis. – There are many layers to this year’s drama revolving around Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
Can Rodgers to put the Packers back in Super Bowl contention? Is it time to turn the page to Jordan Love? What kind of team can general manager Brian Gutekunst build around Rodgers? Does Rodgers even want to play?
The finances are a big part of the conversation, too, and that’s something tackled by Andrew Brandt, the Sports Illustrated columnist and former Packers vice president who was in charge of the team’s salary cap for a decade.
In 2023, Rodgers is due a minimal base salary of $1.165 million but has a staggering $58.3 million option bonus that raises the payout to about $59.5 million.
The money, though, shouldn’t make a trade an impossibility.
“The structure of the contract—an option clause that can be exercised all the way up until the start of the season—makes it very amenable to a trade,” Brandt wrote for SI.com on Wednesday.
“Moreover, this is the only contract I have seen where the longer the player plays, the higher the dead-money cap charge is! In all other contracts, the longer the player plays, the more the dead money goes down. Simply, the contract was written to anticipate a trade or retirement, especially next year but this year, as well.”
If Rodgers retires or is traded, the Packers would be left with a dead-money charge of about $40.3 million on their 2023 cap. That’s an unbelievable amount of money for a player slinging touchdowns elsewhere but not unprecedented. As Brandt noted, the Eagles absorbed $34 million of dead money when they traded Carson Wentz to the Colts. That’s nothing. The Falcons took on $40.5 million of dead money when they traded Matt Ryan to the Colts last offseason.
The finances are difficult but there’s little doubt the Packers have planned for all outcomes.
“Would Green Bay incur a Ryan-like number for Rodgers?” Brandt wondered. “Normally I would say no, but consider this: Were the Packers and Rodgers to separate next year rather than this year, that dead-money charge would rise to nearly $60 million!”
For his part, during his weekly conversation on The Pat McAfee Show, Rodgers – should he choose to play again – seemed to be preemptively trying to spin the split in positive terms for both sides. This won’t be the ugly divorce that almost happened in 2021.
“I’ve been there 18 years. I have lifelong friends in that organization. I have lifelong memories,” Rodgers said. “I made some of my closest friends in my life because I was drafted by the Green Bay Packers and they paid me multiple contracts. Had amazing success, I met some really special, special people. So, why would I have animosity toward that? And, on the flip side, hopefully there won’t be any animosity if that was the decision at some point.”
For more on Rodgers – including Brandt’s prediction on how this will end – as well as the difficult negotiations between Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens, click here.
Related: Jets Should Trade for Rodgers
SI.com’s Conor Orr says the New York Jets should make the deal for Rodgers.
With a healthy season, invigorated by a new place, Rodgers could break the Jets out of a Colts-ian future (frustratingly talented and well-coached, but without the requisite oomph at the quarterback position to make it over the postseason speed bump). This is a team that has not been noticeably elevated by play at the position since 2008, when it made the similarly bold choice to trade for Brett Favre. This is a team still set up to run a version of the same offense that produced back-to-back MVP seasons for Rodgers in his late 30s. Simply finding different ways to feed Garrett Wilson on time and on target would put the Jets on pace to be a top-10 offense.
Click here for the full story.
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100 Days of Mocks
Starting Jan. 17, when there were 100 days until the start of the NFL Draft, we started our mock-worthy goal of 100 mock drafts in 100 days. Here’s the 100-day-countdown series.
100 days: First-round quarterback?
99 days: Trading for outside linebacker
97 days: This pick would break a long drought
96 days: NFL.com’s Daniel Jeremiah goes back to Georgia
95 days: Two firsts if Rodgers is traded
94 days: College Football News mocks Mayer
93 days: Safety first for Bucky Brooks in NFL.com mock
Grading the Packers
Aaron Rodgers and the quarterbacks
Aaron Jones and the running backs
Christian Watson and the receivers
Robert Tonyan and the tight ends
David Bakhtiari, Zach Tom and the offensive line
