Rodgers reportedly disgruntled, does not want to return to the Packers

[Pokerbrat2000]

He has put himself above the organization. Then again, he's better at his job than anyone in the organization and his job is the most important one so I have no problem with it. Then again, I tend to be pro-labor, not pro-management.

Explains your position and I won't try to convince you that one player should not put himself above the team.

Again, when contracts start meaning nothing, they might as well just stop creating them and play sand lot pick your team football every year.

Rodgers is one of the smartest, most calculating guys I have seen play the game. If he in fact has made up his mind not to ever play in Green Bay again, I wouldn't put it past him to do everything in his power to create a situation where the Packers get very little in exchange for him. Which will be the case the longer he holds out.

This is playing out more and more like the Favre Situation.

 

[Ceodore]

Explains your position and I won't try to convince you that one player should not put himself above the team.

Again, when contracts start meaning nothing, they might as well just stop creating them and play sand lot pick your team football every year.

Rodgers is one of the smartest, most calculating guys I have seen play the game. If he in fact has made up his mind not to ever play in Green Bay again, I wouldn't put it past him to do everything in his power to create a situation where the Packers get very little in exchange for him. Which will be the case the longer he holds out.

This is playing out more and more like the Favre Situation.

I mostly agree with you, but in the NFL contracts mean nothing on BOTH sides when a contracted player can be cut and any time and most contracts are light on the guaranteed money.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

I mostly agree with you, but in the NFL contracts mean nothing on BOTH sides when a contracted player can be cut and any time and most contracts are light on the guaranteed money.

While I agree with you that contracts in the NFL are starting to look like they mean nothing, that doesn't make it "ok" and that was my point. As far as guaranteed money, Rodgers was guaranteed almost $100 M, so his contract was in no way light on up front money.

I may come off as "Pro Management", but I am actually "Pro Contract". If you aren't happy with the terms to start, don't sign the damn contract, its as simple as that.

All those saying "well a team can cut a player at any time", so contracts are way too much in favor of the teams. If a player does something directly or indirectly to reduce his value to the team, the team has the option to pay off their contractual obligation and part ways, such a move still costs the team quite a bit in lost resources. If a player decides to walk away from Football, his choice, he can at anytime. If people want to watch a league where players dictate who they play for and how much they get paid to do it every year, we can probably kiss NFL Football goodbye in Green Bay.

 

[pacmaniac]

to piggy back off this a little, I think what makes it slightly more egregious is that we were one game away from the Super Bowl, a difference maker in the first round could easily be the cherry on top that propels a team over the hump. Not only that, but they didn’t let the board fall to them and take a QB, they traded up to nab him.

So many people wanted a WR last year, but that wouldn't have helped us get to the SB if Rodgers doesn't throw to him. He had tunnel vision for Adams. Could have thrown to a wide open Lazard for a TD, but he didn't.

 

[AmishMafia]

I mostly agree with you, but in the NFL contracts mean nothing on BOTH sides when a contracted player can be cut and any time and most contracts are light on the guaranteed money.

It is every players right to negotiate a completely guaranteed contract. As this greatly increases the risk for the team, a team will pay much less. It's a somewhat free market in that regard.

 

[Jerellh528]

Wolf spent a first round pick to go get Favre. Thompson spent one to get Rodgers. Gute spent one to get Love. It's called planning for the future, and it's what smart front offices do. You'd prefer they desperately throw money and multiple draft picks at it year after year like the bears? Because that's the alternative. If Rodgers wants to moan about it, that's on him. Gute et. al. are just doing their jobs.

to be fair, love could turn out as bad as the bears qbs have, or be a Brian brohm . love the player is still very much a crap shoot and statistically speaking will probably not be the future of the packers and likely won’t be a good starter in this league. Just because we have love doesn’t mean our future at the position is solved.. with Rodgers having signed that extension not too long ago, I think the smarter move woulda been hold off on QB at least one more year and tried to pick a player who coulda helped us get to the super bowl considering we were only one game away. If love doesn’t work out, we’re still in the same boat as the bears, now having to spend more resources trying to find a QB, only also we ran a legendary current mvp out of town in the process.

 

[Darth Garfunkel]

I love having AR as the QB and I hope he finds middle ground with management and sticks around. But in terms of my own dealings with people, if you find one person has friction with multiple relationships it's time to start looking at the common denominator - that person. How many people does he have a beef with now?

Pro sports is full of comically large egos, iIf the relationship is unsalvageable then get as many picks as you can and move on.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

I think the smarter move woulda been hold off on QB at least one more year and tried to pick a player who coulda helped us get to the super bowl considering we were only one game away. If love doesn’t work out, we’re still in the same boat as the bears, now having to spend more resources trying to find a QB, only also we ran a legendary current mvp out of town in the process.

I was thinking about this very notion last night, "Wait until another year instead of taking Love in 2020." Ok, so lets roll time back, Love isn't selected and the Packer go into last night wanting to find Aaron's eventual replacement. Who do you take at #29? Do you try to trade all the way up to #15 for Mac Jones? Honestly, I think Love is a better prospect than Jones. Even if you disagree, is trading up to 15 worth it? Did that just cost the Packers another trip to a SB? At what point do you jump in and grab that next QB? Rodgers isn't getting any younger.

People keep *****ing about Love and how drafting him somehow screwed Rodgers and the team, I don't see it that way. It was what I would consider a small timely investment in the #1 most important position in Football, that could potentially have a huge upside. We picked another CB last night. Stokes looks like a good player, but so did Dix and Randall, how much impact did they provide? Jaire is one of Gutes best pics, was he enough to make this team a Super Bowl Team? Would someone selected other than Love in 2020 have allowed us to win 2 more games last year? We will never know, but as a Packer fan, I am content at knowing, until proven otherwise, we at least have a young QB that the Packer organization felt pretty confident could be the heir to Rodgers when the time is right.

Also, Love aside, I have to guess that Rodgers would still be asking for a new contract right now. Even though he has 3 years left on his current one and supposedly is upset that the Packers aren't doing enough to help the team. So paying him more money helps the team in what way?

 

[gopkrs]

We had one of the top offenses in the league. What WR was worth taking at #29 instead? We can still get a WR tomorrow. Offense isn't our problem.

Though I still would like an OT

 

[PikeBadger]

“The simple truth of this is the Packers should have seen this impasse coming after the 2020 season, when Rodgers exceeded the organizations expectations and drove a stake through the plan to begin a transition to Jordan Love in 2021 or 2022. Whatever the master plan was to engineer a smooth transition, it was clear that Rodgers wasn’t going to deteriorate to the point of making the change simple. That put the Packers into a position to make a choice: Either re-commit to Rodgers and scrap the Love transition plan in the next few years, or open their ears and listen to what Rodgers is saying about where he wants to go.

The Packers fumbled both choices. And that’s how we arrived at Thursday, with Green Bay stealing the first day of the draft for all the wrong reasons. It all set up a swirl of narratives that will seek to place blame on one side or the other, rather than sharing in the unified destruction of the relationship between a Hall of Fame quarterback and his team of 16 years.”
https://sports.yahoo.com/packers-ha...-aaron-rodgers-draft-day-chaos-010300782.html

Truth.

Look, the article even notes that Rodgers isn’t blameless in all this. Of course not. But our upper management looks like a clown show over this fiasco. They’ve handled everything the wrong way with Rodgers of late and they continue to do so, and posture as if they’re proud of it. It’s mindless.

The national print & broadcast media predictably are lining up in favor of Rodgers. No real facts available so every one’s built-in bias is on display, including your’s. I want to hear from Rodger’s directly and I also want to know if he is participating in virtual meetings with teammates and coaches.

 

[Mondio]

only also we ran a legendary current mvp out of town in the process.

I more or less agree with most of what you said, except this part. I don't see this as running him out of town at all. I get that sometimes people aren't completely happy with things for all sorts of reasons. I can even understand him being mad about a draft pick, but when stepping back there is much more in his favor than not.

He knew when he signed and he knows it now, once the money makes sense, if that level of play doesn't match you can be gone in the blink of an eye in this league. But they committed good money and time to a guy coming off a pretty significant injury in the latter part of his career. So they didn't pick a WR. he has one of the leagues best to throw to. Oh and they've largely kept a good oline relative to the rest of the league. oh, and they re-signed his favorite TE and Gave Jones a pretty sizable chunk to keep the band together.

If this is really such a hang up for Rodgers he needs to get past it, or we need to move on, but I do not see it as the Pack running him out of town, rather he wants to pack his bags and leave if the reports are true.

 

[Jerellh528]

I was thinking about this very notion last night, "Wait until another year instead of taking Love in 2020." Ok, so lets roll time back, Love isn't selected and the Packer go into last night wanting to find Aaron's eventual replacement. Who do you take at #29? Do you try to trade all the way up to #15 for Mac Jones? Honestly, I think Love is a better prospect than Jones. Even if you disagree, is trading up to 15 worth it? Did that just cost the Packers another trip to a SB? At what point do you jump in and grab that next QB? Rodgers isn't getting any younger.

People keep *****ing about Love and how drafting him somehow screwed Rodgers and the team, I don't see it that way. It was what I would consider a small timely investment in the #1 most important position in Football, that could potentially have a huge upside. We picked another CB last night. Stokes looks like a good player, but so did Dix and Randall, how much impact did they provide? Jaire is one of Gutes best pics, was he enough to make this team a Super Bowl Team? Would someone selected other than Love in 2020 have allowed us to win 2 more games last year? We will never know, but as a Packer fan, I am content at knowing, until proven otherwise, we at least have a young QB that the Packer organization felt pretty confident could be the heir to Rodgers when the time is right.

Also, Love aside, I have to guess that Rodgers would still be asking for a new contract right now. Even though he has 3 years left on his current one and supposedly is upset that the Packers aren't doing enough to help the team. So paying him more money helps the team in what way?

DAVIS MILLS! Lol nah but I get the sentiment. I just feel like the whole situation, the way Rodgers contract was set up with an easy out after this year, the love selection and trading up for him, it just feels like the FO has been posturing to get rid of Rodgers for a few years now. Almost like they put a deadline on themselves to have this be his last season...I do however think that the right player selected in the first round could’ve helped propel us to a super bowl, we were literally a few plays away.

 

[sschind]

Yeah, Rodgers OWES the Packers for all those years he was the best QB in the NFL. Some of you fans that demand total subservience from the employees sound like huge fans of monarchies cause your opinions have no bearing on any reality that involves superstars having emotions.

Who says anyone owes anyone anything? Rodgers doesn't owe the Packers anything. The Packers paid him a huge sum of money to play football at a high level and he did that for many many years. Obligation fulfilled. The Packers don't owe Rodgers anything. Rodgers played football at a high level for many many years and for that service he was paid a huge sum of money. Obligation fulfilled.

The question is now what to do moving forward? There is no way they come out of this looking good unless they completely cave to his demands because the national media will always side with the elite player. The feeling among many, and the loudest, is that in some way elite players earned the right to dictate team decisions. I don't agree.

I mostly agree with you, but in the NFL contracts mean nothing on BOTH sides when a contracted player can be cut and any time and most contracts are light on the guaranteed money.

I've felt for years that they should not be called contracts. We have always known that a 5 year 80 million dollar contract that gives a player a 25 million dollar signing bonus with salaries in the first 3 years of 2, 4, and 6 million respectively and 20 and 23 million in the last two years is really just a 3 year 37 million dollar contract. in most cases it will not play out the final 2 years. The pro player argument says the player is expected to honor what he signed but the team can cut a player any time so how is that fair. The counter to that is its in the contract that the team can do that can do that so it doesn't violate the contract.

Players want more guarantees teams want more protection from underperforming players and I'm not sure what the answer is. One solution is for players to demand removal of that right to cut but if they do they certainly can expect those last few years, if they are even offered will be substantially lower salary, perhaps even lower than the earlier years as team start to expect diminished returns. If players want guaranteed contract they can be sure those contract will contain less money. I like the salary cap but at the risk of turning this into a cap debate maybe it should be change to what we pay you when we pay you is what counts and do away with the prorated signing bonus cap manipulation crap.

So we're just going to ignore the billion dollar team that literally pays Rodgers all that money and just pretend Rodgers is the spoiled rich guy? Sorry, I don't believe in telling people they should be happy with their money, that's their choice.

He has put himself above the organization. Then again, he's better at his job than anyone in the organization and his job is the most important one so I have no problem with it. Then again, I tend to be pro-labor, not pro-management.

Is he really better at his job than anyone in the organization? Assuming that you rate the success of the team on how far they go toward the ultimate goal of winning the Super Bowl, the Packers have been in the NFCC game two years in a row. In those two years Aaron Rodgers has been their QB, Matt LeFleur has been their head coach and Brian Gutekunst has been their GM. It seems to me like all three may have performed pretty much at the same level.

I more or less agree with most of what you said, except this part. I don't see this as running him out of town at all. I get that sometimes people aren't completely happy with things for all sorts of reasons. I can even understand him being mad about a draft pick, but when stepping back there is much more in his favor than not.

If this is really such a hang up for Rodgers he needs to get past it, or we need to move on, but I do not see it as the Pack running him out of town, rather he wants to pack his bags and leave if the reports are true.

Especially when some of reports are indicating that the team wants to do the opposite of run him out of town and extend his contract.

 

[pacmaniac]

I love having AR as the QB and I hope he finds middle ground with management and sticks around. But in terms of my own dealings with people, if you find one person has friction with multiple relationships it's time to start looking at the common denominator - that person. How many people does he have a beef with now?

Agree, wouldn't be surprised if he divorces Shailene in a couple years.

 

[RepStar15]

I am jumping on to this late (apparently 15 page late), but I wanted to see how things unfolded before I formulated an opinion and now I finally have one.

Football is a business, for both sides. An employer needs to make the finances work and an employee needs to be paid the money they are worth.

That being said, the Packers organization has done the following in the past 2 years to help Aaron Rodgers:
- Fired their HC and hired a coach that was a system Rodgers liked and worked well with.
- Resigned an All-Pro left tackle
- Drafted a future All-Pro LG
- Re-signed a top 5 RB
- Re-signed a top 5 TE
- Has the #1 WR in the NFL
- Replaced their previous RB2, with a more exciting version
- Made Rodgers the highest paid QB in NFL history
- Spent 3rd round draft picks on TEs

Aaron Rodgers has done the following:
- Brought team to NFCCG multiple years

What the Packers team has accomplished:
- They were the best offense in football last year

What Aaron Rodgers reportedly wants:
- More money + a long term commitment
- More weapons

My thoughts:
- In the midst of a pandemic, in a year the salary cap was crunched, Aaron Rodgers is only showing he only cares about himself. During the pandemic, I elected to take a pay cut to help my team. I worked more hours and got paid 25% less for 6 months of 2020 to avoid having to cut members of my team. As a manager/leader that is what I CHOSE to do. Nothing is ever enough for Aaron Rodgers. Is he potentially the greatest QB the Packers organization will ever have? Yes. Do I love him for his on the field abilities? Yes. But I am so sick of him only caring about himself.

My solution:
- Move on from this prima donna and do it in the most FU way possible. Refuse to trade him. Force him to sit out and gain team enemies as he makes 30 mil to sit out over being butt hurt like an actual child. Trade him to the team that finishes last next year, with no supporting cast where he can get his money and be miserable. Get a boatload for him. Call this a rebuilding year as Love gets ready and hope he is the next Mahomes.

If everything we are reading is true, which I do not fully believe everything, I am OVER Aaron Rodgers being a Green Bay Packer and his teammates should be as well. We are all going to have strong opinions here and no one is right or wrong. This is just how I personally feel. I have been looking forward to draft day for 3 months. He is so selfish, he took that away from his fans and teammates for his own gains. If I was a current teammate of Aaron Rodgers, I do not care how much the team "effed" him over, I feel personally "effed" over by him.

 

[longtimefan]

DAVIS MILLS! Lol nah but I get the sentiment. I just feel like the whole situation, the way Rodgers contract was set up with an easy out after this year, the love selection and trading up for him, it just feels like the FO has been posturing to get rid of Rodgers for a few years now. Almost like they put a deadline on themselves to have this be his last season...I do however think that the right player selected in the first round could’ve helped propel us to a super bowl, we were literally a few plays away.

Lmao postering to get rid of him

Listen to that sentence out loud

 

[AmishMafia]

I am jumping on to this late (apparently 15 page late), but I wanted to see how things unfolded before I formulated an opinion and now I finally have one.

Football is a business, for both sides. An employer needs to make the finances work and an employee needs to be paid the money they are worth.

That being said, the Packers organization has done the following in the past 2 years to help Aaron Rodgers:
- Fired their HC and hired a coach that was a system Rodgers liked and worked well with.
- Resigned an All-Pro left tackle
- Drafted a future All-Pro LG
- Re-signed a top 5 RB
- Re-signed a top 5 TE
- Has the #1 WR in the NFL
- Replaced their previous RB2, with a more exciting version
- Made Rodgers the highest paid QB in NFL history
- Spent 3rd round draft picks on TEs

Aaron Rodgers has done the following:
- Brought team to NFCCG multiple years

What the Packers team has accomplished:
- They were the best offense in football last year

What Aaron Rodgers reportedly wants:
- More money + a long term commitment
- More weapons

My thoughts:
- In the midst of a pandemic, in a year the salary cap was crunched, Aaron Rodgers is only showing he only cares about himself. During the pandemic, I elected to take a pay cut to help my team. I worked more hours and got paid 25% less for 6 months of 2020 to avoid having to cut members of my team. As a manager/leader that is what I CHOSE to do. Nothing is ever enough for Aaron Rodgers. Is he potentially the greatest QB the Packers organization will ever have? Yes. Do I love him for his on the field abilities? Yes. But I am so sick of him only caring about himself.

My solution:
- Move on from this prima donna and do it in the most FU way possible. Refuse to trade him. Force him to sit out and gain team enemies as he makes 30 mil to sit out over being butt hurt like an actual child. Trade him to the team that finishes last next year, with no supporting cast where he can get his money and be miserable. Get a boatload for him. Call this a rebuilding year as Love gets ready and hope he is the next Mahomes.

If everything we are reading is true, which I do not fully believe everything, I am OVER Aaron Rodgers being a Green Bay Packer and his teammates should be as well. We are all going to have strong opinions here and no one is right or wrong. This is just how I personally feel. I have been looking forward to draft day for 3 months. He is so selfish, he took that away from his fans and teammates for his own gains. If I was a current teammate of Aaron Rodgers, I do not care how much the team "effed" him over, I feel personally "effed" over by him.

Well reasoned response.

We also know now that the Packers tried to sign more Free Agents but AR refused to restructure.

We know he has been talking about this with the Packers for a few months, but chose the day before the draft to go public.

 

[AmishMafia]

DAVIS MILLS! Lol nah but I get the sentiment. I just feel like the whole situation, the way Rodgers contract was set up with an easy out after this year, the love selection and trading up for him, it just feels like the FO has been posturing to get rid of Rodgers for a few years now. Almost like they put a deadline on themselves to have this be his last season...I do however think that the right player selected in the first round could’ve helped propel us to a super bowl, we were literally a few plays away.

Did we get the missing piece to propel us to the SB? We had the best offense in the NFL and it should be again as well. I want another WR on this team but I don't think it's the missing piece. What we need is a better defense and Stokes should help with that.

 

[jhawk008]

Well reasoned response.

We also know now that the Packers tried to sign more Free Agents but AR refused to restructure.

We know he has been talking about this with the Packers for a few months, but chose the day before the draft to go public.

I don't fully believe about the "refused to restructure".. that 1000% sounds like talk from the Packer brass to try and stop the onslaught of RIGHTFUL negativity headed their way

 

[bigbubbatd]

I don't fully believe about the "refused to restructure".. that 1000% sounds like talk from the Packer brass to try and stop the onslaught of RIGHTFUL negativity headed their way

Nice. So reports say it but since it doesnt fit your narrative you dont believe it.

 

[David Ciembronowicz]

Really, can you point me to the Gute criticism in this thread? It's there, but you gotta weed through a LOT of "send Rodgers packing" bs.

Admittedly Rodgers is somewhat of a prima donna, but so are Brady, Mahomes, Watson and Dax along with Rothlesberger and maybe one or two others. That does not make him the bad guy here (though he does need to take some blame for being obstinat), rather, it does put a spotlight on the Packers leadership. Their choice for the current GM was a big, bad mistake. Choosing Love last year considering what the Pack needed was not only a bad decision it was a sign of "disrespect" to Rodgers (and for others on this team), they went way up the board for a guy who was not rated that highly nor would he be ready for years, if at all. Their allowing Linsley to walk this year was unfortunately a necessity but he was also the anchor of the line and someone trusted by Rodgers. They have WR's on this team that should not be there, who now in year 3 or 4 cannot be counted on to catch the ball or put themselves in position to get the ball thrown to them. They signed King to $6M when he should have been let go and bring in a FAWR. You can point fingers at Rodgers for going "overboard" if the info being passed on by "anonymous sources" is correct, however, fans should be pointing fingers at leadership who have failed in their drafting the past 2-3 years and failed in getting the right resources who actually can make a difference. If you believe the Packers can win without Rodgers think again, there are but a handful (or less) of QB's in this league today who can make the plays he does, carry a team when needed as he does and wants to win as badly as he does. This situation is primarily on management and their GM who has proven so far to be a complete bust at his job, that is what happens when you bring in a "$ and cents" guy to run a franchise when what you need is someone who knows football. Gute is not Wolf or the guys he was given the job over, nor will he ever be, the Packers are on the brink of starting a re-build based on their current situation and fans need to view it without rose colored glasses.

 

[tripleguy]

2 of the best QBs in the league in the last 30 years and 2 SB?? Granted, Favre and Rodgers had some questionable plays in all those playoff games but what stands out is GB leadership not wanting to go after free agents and some pretty bad draft classes. I don't blame Rodgers for wanting to pack it in. He has a small window. Go to a team that knows what they're doing.

 

[PackerDNA]

Don't know how true it is but a buddy of mine just called to say that the broncos and Packers are quietly working on a deal for Rogers behind the scenes. NFL Network maybe?

 

[longtimefan]

Don't know how true it is but a buddy of mine just called to say that the broncos and Packers are quietly working on a deal for Rogers behind the scenes. NFL Network maybe?

That was said yesterday as well...

 

[Pugger]

Though I still would like an OT

I'd like both an OT and a WR this weekend.