If Aaron Rodgers could have it his way, he would not be a member of the Packers when the 2021 NFL season rolls around.
Well, that’s the hunch Peter King currently has, at least.
Rodgers took the football world by storm last week when rumors of the quarterback’s frustration in Green Bay broke out. One report even indicated the 2020 league MVP was expecting to be moved by the Packers prior to the draft.
As it stands, Green Bay has no intention of trading Rodgers. Packers brass and head coach Matt LaFleur have emphatically shot down ideas of that nature since the start of the draft. But King, as he explained in his latest Football Morning in America column, believes Rodgers might be done in Green Bay, even if a trade doesn’t materialize.
“I would expect Rodgers to not participate in any offseason work with the Packers, and to hope the Packers would change their minds about trading him,” King wrote for NBC Sports. “Denver would still be an option, I think, and maybe Las Vegas. (Rodgers-Mahomes twice a year for the next four years, maybe?) Or, maybe with four to six weeks to simmer, and an olive branch from Green Bay brass (Rodgers loves Packer franchise history), he’ll go back. But right now I doubt it. My gut feeling — and that’s all it is — is he’d prefer to not play football this year than to play for the Packers.”
Sitting out the season could be a risky play for Rodgers, who turns 38 in early December. But truly elite players typically come out on top in stand-offs with their teams, so seeing Rodgers on the field come September, albeit potentially not with the Packers, seems likely.
But until there’s actual traction in either direction, expect this storyline to continue to spiral.
