Why Was Team’s Plan to Keep Rodgers Leaked?

The Green Bay Packers are willing to make Aaron Rodgers the highest-paid player in the NFL and go all-in personnel-wise. What was the point in making those details public?

GREEN BAY, Wis. – On the morning of Super Bowl Sunday, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and ESPN.com’s Adam Schefter – the two national reporters who are fed almost all the major NFL news – reported the Green Bay Packers’ desire to move heaven and earth to keep quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

The general theme wasn’t news at all. Coach Matt LaFleur said after the season that the team wants Rodgers back “until he decides to retire.” In his monthly column at Packers.com, President Mark Murphy said the team’s leadership is in “agreement that we want Aaron to come back.”

What was news was the specifics. Rapoport reported the Packers are prepared to offer Rodgers an extension worth at least $45 million per season. That would make him the highest-paid player in the NFL. Schefter reported the Packers are “prepared to go all in” to build a team around Rodgers, using an approach like last year in which it borrows against future caps to build as strong a team as possible.

What also was newsworthy was the timing. It couldn’t have been coincidental that those nuggets of news arrived within such a short period on Sunday. Rather, with the sporting world focused on the biggest day of the sporting calendar, it’s almost as if someone wanted that news made public.

Only two groups would have had knowledge of that information. One is Rodgers and his agent, David Dunn. The other is the team.

Let’s assume the team leaked that information. What would be the point? LaFleur’s spoken words and Murphy’s printed words made clear the Packers’ desire to bring Rodgers back for 2022 and beyond.

The leaking of the details could be part of a public relations campaign.

If it’s money that Rodgers wants, and the desire to be No. 1 in annual pay after winning back-to-back MVPs, well, the Packers have an offer ready that would do just that.

If it’s a championship-caliber team that Rodgers wants, well, the Packers have stated their willingness to aggressively build around Rodgers today and deal with the wrath of the salary cap down the road.

There are three potential endings to this year’s drama: Rodgers returns, retires or demands a trade.

If Rodgers decides to retire, it wouldn’t be because the Packers didn’t make it financially worth his while to come back for at least another season. If Rodgers asks for a trade to a team that he deems to have a better chance to win a Super Bowl, it wouldn’t be because the team wasn’t willing to do what it takes to win a championship.

The strange thing is the relationship between Rodgers and the Packers apparently has grown so much over the past seven months. Rodgers said as much after winning his fourth MVP at NFL Honors on Thursday night.

“I was obviously frustrated about some things in the offseason,” Rodgers said. “(General manager Brian Gutekunst and I) 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, you know?

“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. And I’ve got to say that Russ (Ball) and Brian especially had a big hand in that. And it didn’t go unnoticed.”

Rodgers, Gutekunst and the rest of the team’s key leaders met for a few days after the season. If there’s a real belief the four-time MVP has thrown his last pass with the Packers, perhaps this is the team’s way of getting ahead of the curve in the he-said, team-said war of words that would be on the horizon.