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Rodgers: ‘I Don’t Know What the Future Holds’

On Sunday, Packers coach Matt LaFleur said Aaron Rodgers would be the quarterback for a "long time." What does that mean? Rodgers weighed in on Monday.
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GREEN BAY, Wis. –Aaron Rodgers knows he’s on the clock.

The Green Bay Packers’ surprising decision to select quarterback Jordan Love in April’s NFL Draft made it clear that Rodgers, like Brett Favre, might not play his entire career with the franchise he led to new heights. The Packers didn’t select Love in the first round – and move up to get him, at that – to have him collect four or five years’ worth of paychecks from the sideline. The expectation is he’ll be Rodgers’ successor with the hope of keeping the Packers among the top contenders for years to come.

While the timing of the transition isn’t clear, what’s abundantly clear is the Packers’ fate in 2020 will be tied to the two-time MVP and not the hot-shot rookie.

“Aaron’s our quarterback,” coach Matt LaFleur said on Sunday. “And I see him here for a really long time. and however long that is, I don’t think anybody knows. Nothing’s guaranteed in this league. But I feel so lucky to be able to work with him on a daily basis. I don’t see that changing for a really long time.”

What exactly does a “long time” mean? That’s the many-millions-of-dollars question. As NFL coach Jerry Glanville famously put it, NFL stands for “Not For Long.”

“I don’t know what the future holds,” Rodgers said on Monday. “I know I can control this year and my play and my approach and my attitude. And I’m enjoying being back with the guys. it’s fun to see them. Different, obviously, circumstances. There’s a lot of things that are strange compared to the last 15 years I’ve been here, But I’m really enjoying being back here with the guys and being back in meetings and workouts and just seeing the energy and the smiles and the laughs. That really makes it fun.”

While the economics suggest the franchise-shaking move could happen in 2022, Rodgers’ play and Love’s development will be factors. While Rodgers embraced the change to LaFleur and a new offense, it hardly showed up in his performance. In 2018, while playing through a knee injury and the carnage of McCarthy’s last season, Rodgers finished 13th in passer rating (97.6), 26th in completion percentage (62.3) and 17th in yards per attempt (7.44). In 2019, Rodgers finished 12th in passer rating (95,4), 21st in completion percentage (62.0) and 17th in yards per attempt (7.03). However, there have been only two seasons of a quarterback throwing for 4,000-plus yards with 25-plus touchdowns and four-or-fewer interceptions in a season: Rodgers in 2018 and Rodgers in 2019.

With Rodgers' season good enough to help the Packers get to the NFC Championship Game, the selection of Love caught Rodgers by surprise. With time, he seemingly has found piece with his new football reality. Rodgers, who will turn 37 this season, has said countless times he wants to play into his 40s. It seems implausible to believe the Packers will keep Love on the bench for that long, though.

"I think if I retire on the team’s timeline, then all is well," Rodgers said. "If they’re looking to move on before I’m done playing, there becomes an impasse at that point. I can control my play and my performance and my approach and my leadership, but at some point, there’s other factors involved"

With such long-term uncertainty, Rodgers said he won’t treat this season any differently than the past 12 seasons as the team’s starter. As it’s been since winning the Super Bowl in 2010, Rodgers will enter this season with a championship at the forefront of his thoughts.

“I think in general, as you get older, you do enjoy the little moments just a tad bit more and a lot of the relationships that are still here,” Rodgers said. “It’s with the training room guys, the equipment staff, Adam (Korzun, the team’s director of nutrition) and his staff, people who’ve been here a long time and probably will be here long after my time is gone here. But that’s where a lot of the memories, you start talking about things from the 2000s to 2010 era – those five years, six years when I was here – there’s not that many people still around who can relate to some of those stories. And that’s the way the business goes. It’s a short-term deal and guys like myself who are lucky enough to play a long time with the same team, it’s those relationships that you savor and you appreciate; I’ve found a lot of joy in those friendships over the years. I savor every moment, every season. I don’t take any of it for granted.”