Jones Thinks Rodgers Will Return

Green Bay Packers running back Aaron Jones discusses the futures of Aaron Rodgers and Jordan Love.

Author:
Bill Huber
Publish date:
Feb 9, 2023 9:27 PM EST

In this story:

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Green Bay Packers running back Aaron Jones isn’t afraid that he’s played his final snap with quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

“For some reason, no. I feel like he’ll be back,” Jones said on The Jim Rome Show on radio row at the Super Bowl on Thursday. “I don’t know. He had fun this year. As the season started getting later, we started clicking and jelling. You could tell we were taking that step and I think he sees that. I think we have all the pieces that we need, and he sees that, as well.”

Rodgers remains in the dark on his football future. If he decides he wants to play in 2023, the next step will be sitting down with general manager Brian Gutekunst and the rest of team management and deciding whether their future is together or apart.

From Rodgers’ perspective, a big part of his preference will be the team’s ability to bounce back from an 8-9 season and return to its usual status as Super Bowl contenders.

If Jones – the team’s nominee for the Walter Payton Man of the Year – is right about having “all the pieces” they need, then perhaps Rodgers will be the starting quarterback for a 16th season.

If not, Jones said backup Jordan Love is ready to grab the reins.

“Jordan Love is definitely ready,” Jones said. “I feel like, from the time he’s come in until now, he’s just continued to work, work, work. You could see the confidence starting to come out even more and more. He got some time to play in games this past season and you can tell he made that jump and he’s confident out there and he’s capable and he can do it at a high level. I feel like he’ll definitely be that guy when A-Rod’s gone.”

Rodgers will be gone … sometime. He’s said throughout his career that he’d like to play his entire career with the Packers. At the end of this season, though, he opened the door to the possibility that he might have to play elsewhere.

As odd as it seems, especially in light of last year’s contract extension, the decision won’t be entirely in Rodgers’ hands. After a poor season and with Love waiting in the wings, the team might be ready for a change.

“It’s just a feeling,” Rodgers said after the season-ending loss to Detroit. “I think to assume it’s a foregone conclusion would be probably slightly egotistical, so I’m going to be a realist here and understand that there’s a lot of different parts to this. Like I’ve said, I was aware of the possibility of them going young if we had gotten to a point where we were out of it. I’m aware of that possibility, as well. Wouldn’t be the best reality but I know it’s a possibility.”

Rodgers, of course, wouldn’t be the first iconic quarterback to finish his career elsewhere. As Rome pointed out, Tom Brady left New England and won a Super Bowl with Tampa Bay. Joe Montana left San Francisco, which was ready to flip the script to a younger quarterback named Steve Young, and finished with Kansas City.

“That would be the weirdest thing to me,” Jones said of seeing Rodgers in another uniform. “It’d be wild. It wouldn’t look right to me. I’ve seen him for I don’t know how many years in a Green Bay jersey. To see him in another jersey, it wouldn’t feel right.”

Here’s the full interview.