MVP Rodgers ‘Very Excited’ to Return to Packers

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers will be back for his 15th season as the starting quarterback. Details are still being worked out.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Aaron Rodgers is returning to the Green Bay Packers, the four-time NFL MVP announced through Pat McAfee on Tuesday morning.

The deal, according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport, is for four years and $200 million, making him the highest-paid player in NFL history. Three-fourths of that money is guaranteed, a staggering deal for the 38-year-old.

McAfee, who counts Rodgers among his regular guests on The Pat McAfee Show, said that contract report was not accurate.

Nothing is official and Rodgers has not signed, a source said. Details must be worked out but the framework was close enough for Rodgers to tell McAfee that he was coming back after weeks of contemplation.

On Tuesday afternoon, Rodgers said he was "very excited" to return for his 18th season.

Regardless of the financials, the decision paves the way for Rodgers to start and finish his career with the Packers.

Rodgers’ decision to return was the one the team hoped he would make after a second consecutive MVP season led to a second consecutive season with the No. 1 seed. While it didn’t translate into playoff success – the Packers have been shut out of the Super Bowl since 2010 – his presence and performance at least give the Packers a chance to contend, something that might not have been true with Jordan Love.

“Greatness is the expectation. It’s not a destination,” Rodgers said at NFL Honors after winning his fourth MVP. “I’m thankful for the 17 years I’ve gotten to play in Green Bay. I’m thankful for the squad that Brian (Gutekunst) and Russ (Ball) and Matt (LaFleur) put together the last few years. I think there’s a lot to build on there, whether I’m there or not. I think they’ve got a really good nucleus in place. Should I come back, there’s some things that need to get done, probably, to get the team where it needs to go.”

Rodgers also considered joining Nathaniel Hackett and the Denver Broncos, according to a source.

With the biggest piece of the offseason largely squared away, Gutekunst can get on with the rest of business to keep together a team that over the last three seasons won 39 games in the regular season but only two in the playoffs. The next “domino,” to borrow the word used by Gutekunst, will be to use the franchise tag on Davante Adams by 3 p.m. (Central). That probably would have happened, anyway, but keeping Rodgers means the Packers will use the tag as a way toward hammering out an extension with the All-Pro receiver.

“I think obviously everything around here kind of centers on the quarterback,” Gutekunst said last week. “It’s a big piece and a domino that has to fall before we go down the other avenues. So, it’s important as we go through this and the puzzle pieces we have to try to make fit. That’s the first one to go.”

Had Love, the first-round pick in 2020, shown anything during a midseason start at Kansas City and a second-half performance at Detroit, perhaps the Packers might have turned the page at quarterback. Instead, Love’s struggles in those games, combined with Rodgers’ vastly improved relationship with Gutekunst, have set the stage for Rodgers potentially starting and ending his career with the team that drafted him in 2005.

This seemed an unlikely turn of events a year ago, when Rodgers was so disillusioned with the franchise that he contemplated forcing his way out of Green Bay or retiring.

“I was obviously frustrated about some things in the offseason,” Rodgers said at NFL Honors. “We had a ton of conversations and I just felt like there was so much growth, and I’m so thankful for that. I’m thankful for the relationships – with Brian as much as anybody – because there was obviously some things that were voiced in the offseason, privately between him and myself, and I’m just thankful for the response. There was a lot of things that were done to make me feel really special and important to the present, the past and the future of the franchise. It didn’t go unnoticed.”

Playing for another team – even Denver, where Hackett had become coach – seemingly wasn’t a consideration. That changed last week, when Rapoport reported Rodgers was “truly torn” on where he wanted to play in 2022.

Ultimately, though, Rodgers is back about a week before the league-year begins on March 16. That gives Gutekunst about a week to get to the $208.2 million salary cap and plot a course to constructing a team capable of finally getting over the playoff hump.

This past season, Rodgers’ return to Green Bay wasn’t sealed until just before the start of training camp. After the playoff loss to San Francisco, he met with Gutekunst and other key members of the organization to get a feel for the team’s plans at quarterback and how it will fill out the rest of the roster.

Comfortable with their answers and his place as a member of the organization, Rodgers in 2022 will try for the 12th time to win a second Super Bowl ring. With Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady’s retirement and the lack of draft capital for the Los Angeles Rams, the path in the NFC isn’t insurmountable. Even with Green Bay’s cap problems and the ability to replenish the roster by trading Rodgers, moving on from the future Hall of Famer was not a consideration, Gutekunst said.

“I think we’ve got as good a shot as anybody to win a Super Bowl next year,” Gutekunst said. “He’s the MVP of the league. That’s our goal. I think we have an opportunity to do it right now. That’s why.”

With Rodgers, the Packers became the first team in NFL history with three consecutive seasons of 13 wins. While it wasn’t enough to get them back to the Super Bowl, Rodgers’ presence at least puts the Packers in position to contend. That is why coach Matt LaFleur and team President Mark Murphy said they wanted Rodgers back for 2022.

“We’re hopeful he’ll be back next year, obviously,” LaFleur said after the season. “This guy has done so much for such a long period of time for this organization, for this city, for this team. And so, I want to be respectful of his process. Whatever he needs to go through to make the best decision for himself, and certainly we would love for him to be a Packer and be a Packer to the day he decides to retire.”

With the record-setting Rodgers back for what will be a 15th season as the starting quarterback, Gutekunst can turn his attention to putting together a team capable of finally getting back to the Super Bowl. Having restructured the contracts of left tackle David Bakhtiari, defensive tackle Kenny Clark and running back Aaron Jones, tagging Adams will be next on the docket.

Having said he wasn’t interested in a rebuild, Adams’ return probably was a necessity for Rodgers.

With Adams leading the way, Rodgers was magnificent in 2021 with 37 touchdowns vs. four interceptions – including 37 touchdowns and two interceptions after Week 1. He led the NFL in passer rating, touchdown percentage and interception percentage.

Whatever way it ended with Rodgers, his contract would be a major part of the team’s path to digging its way out of a salary-cap hole that had extended beyond $50 million before those aforementioned restructures got the Packers to about $26 million over the cap.

The offseason opened with Rodgers having an untenable cap charge of $46 million for the 2022 season, the final year of the contract that was restructured upon his return before training camp last summer. With the forthcoming extension, the Packers could give Rodgers a minimum salary and hefty signing bonus and create somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 million of cap space. They could create even more space by relying on start-of-year roster bonuses in 2023 and 2024.

With a fourth MVP, Rodgers broke a tie with Brady, Brett Favre, Jim Brown and Johnny Unitas as three-time winners. With that, history is within his reach. Peyton Manning is the only five-time MVP and Favre is the only player to win three consecutive MVPs.

The fourth MVP came 10 years after he won his first.

While Rodgers isn’t the same player athletically, he’s a better player mentally. Plus, a total buy-in to LaFleur’s offense has him playing faster than ever. Rather than being the league’s most dangerous extender of plays, Rodgers has morphed into one of the league’s most dangerous in-the-pocket passers. It’s that transition that provides comfort that Rodgers will be worth whatever contract extension is coming his way and will keep the team among the NFL’s short list of championship contenders in 2022 and beyond.

“The good thing is I still feel like my body is in a good place,” Rodgers said at NFL Honors. “This offense with Matty, I think, has definitely allowed me to take less shots probably in the last three years, which as an older quarterback is a dream.”

One: Aaron Rodgers Becomes Only Four-Time MVP

With last year’s MVP, Rodgers joined four legends as three-time MVPs: running back Jim Brown (1957, 1958, 1965), quarterback Johnny Unitas (1959, 1964, 1967), quarterback Brett Favre (1995 through 1997) and quarterback Tom Brady (2007, 2010, 2017).

With his fourth MVP, Rodgers has broken from that pack and is alone in second place. Peyton Manning won a record five MVPs – four with Indianapolis (2003, 2004, 2008 and 2009) and one with Denver (2013).

For Manning and Brady, their first MVP and last MVP were separated by 10 years. Rodgers’ fourth MVP comes 10 years after his first.

Two: Rodgers’ Red-Hot Finish

Rodgers put his stamp on the MVP race with a sensational finishing stretch to the season. Despite laboring through a broken toe that curtailed his practice time, Rodgers ended the season with seven consecutive games of two-plus touchdown passes and zero interceptions. That’s the second-longest streak in NFL history. In 2010, Tom Brady did it in nine consecutive games. Rodgers threw 20 touchdown passes during his streak, which he’ll carry into next season. Brady threw 24 touchdown passes.

Three: Rodgers Showed He’s Valuable, Part 1

Being MVP doesn’t simply mean having the best stats. It’s that middle letter – the “V” for Valuable. The Packers were the second-most-impacted team by injuries this season, according to ManGamesLost.com. In terms of the value of the player and the amount of games missed, David Bakhtiari was the most important injury of the NFL season, Za’Darius Smith was second and Jaire Alexander was ninth. Rodgers’ play obviously was an important part of the team’s 13-win season.

Four: Rodgers Showed He’s Valuable, Part 2

In games started and finished by Rodgers, the Packers went 13-2. The Packers went 0-2 with Jordan Love starting against Kansas City and playing the second half at Detroit.

Five: MVP? Yes. Super Bowl? No.

Incredibly, being the Most Valuable Player of the NFL season doesn’t mean being the Most Valuable Player of the NFL postseason. No MVP has won the award in the same year he won the Super Bowl since Kurt Warner with the St. Louis Rams in 1999.

Six: Rodgers Leads Three Key Categories

Last season, Rodgers joined Steve Young as the only quarterbacks since 1940 to win the Percentage Triple Crown of completion percentage, touchdown percentage and interception percentage on the way to leading the league in passer rating. This season, Rodgers finished third in completion percentage but was first again in touchdown percentage, interception percentage and passer rating.

That feat has been accomplished only five times since 1960: Rodgers in 2020 and 2021, Tom Brady in 2010, Young in 1992 and Ken Anderson in 1981.

Seven: Efficiency, Not Volume, Gives Rodgers MVP Edge Over Brady

The MVP debate between Rodgers and Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady is fascinating. Brady put up some absurd numbers in leading the NFL with 5,316 passing yards and 43 touchdowns. The Buccaneers also went 13-4.

Brady crushed Rodgers (and everyone else) by the numbers because he threw 47 passes more than any other quarterback and 188 more passes Rodgers. Give Rodgers the same number of attempts as Brady, and Rodgers would have thrown for 5,572 yards and 50 touchdowns and beaten Brady’s completions record with 494.

Eight: Don’t Pick on Rodgers

There have been 13 seasons in which a quarterback threw at least 400 passes and finished the season with an interception percentage of less than 1.0. Rodgers has five of those seasons, including 2021, when he led the NFL with an interception rate of 0.75 percent. Tom Brady (twice) is the only other quarterback with multiple seasons.

Rodgers has finished with an interception rate of less than 1.0 percent four consecutive seasons. No other quarterback has even done it in back-to-back seasons.

Nine: In Good Hands with Rodgers

Perhaps Rodgers needs to switch insurance companies and pitch for the one that talks about being in good hands. Not only did he lead the NFL with only four interceptions, but he didn’t lose a fumble, either. That gave Rodgers a league-low four turnovers. Seattle’s Russell Wilson, who missed three games due to injury, was a distant second with seven.

Turnovers have to be a part of any conversation about the Packers’ quarterbacking future. In 561 passing plays (531 attempts, 30 sacks), Rodgers had just those four turnovers. In 65 passing plays, Jordan Love also had four turnovers (three interceptions, one fumble).

Ten: Touchdown-to-Interception Ratio Champion

With 37 touchdowns vs. four interceptions, Rodgers threw 9.25 touchdown passes for every interception, more than double Kirk Cousins’ runner-up 4.71 (33 touchdowns, seven interceptions). That’s the seventh-best mark in NFL history. In NFL history, there have been 12 seasons in which a quarterback had a touchdown-to-interception ratio of at least 6.50. Rodgers has half of those seasons, including four in a row.

If there’s one stat you take from this, here it is: There have been six seasons in NFL history of 6.50 touchdowns per interception and 4,000-plus passing yards. Rodgers has all six.

Quote to Note

“There’s obviously a faction, based on the response when I tested positive, that want to demonize me for my decision to be unvaccinated. That’s the environment that we’re living in. There is not room for dissenting opinions or individual freedoms or people to have a different view. … I think the MVP should be about the most valuable player on the team. A lot of times it goes to the best player on the best team, and we’re the best team. So, if voters want to use the offseason or don’t like my stance being unvaccinated, that’s their prerogative. I don’t think it’s right, but that’s their prerogative.”