Content available exclusively for subscribers
He’s covered them for a long-time.
Talking about Packers columnist Pete Dougherty of the Green Bay Post-Gazette.
So what does he think is going to happen with Aaron Rodgers? Will he stay in Green Bay or get traded?
“I have heard that they are okay with either way it goes,” Dougherty said.
In other words, if Rodgers makes demands on them they don’t want to meet, and they get a great offer from another team, they’ve been willing to move on.
But if they can get on the same page, he could stay.
What do I mean by demands? Obviously, we aren’t talking about meeting contract demands, they did that with him last year, and he’s scheduled to make $59 million this year.
The demands are related to player personnel decisions. Like in the past, Rodgers is pushing the Packers to keep certain veterans.
“This game is about relationships,” Rodgers told Pat McAfee. “It’s about the guys you rely on, even if they don’t show up huge in the stat book.
“A guy like Marcedes Lewis, he’s an important cog in the wheel of the locker room and the momentum of the team. That’s a guy I want to finish my career with, you know? If I’m playing, I want that guy next to me. I want the Randall Cobbs of the world if he wants to keep playing, in my locker room. Guys you can win with. Allen Lazard, Bobby Tonyan, Dave Bakhtiari.”
Last year, the Packers had no intention of bringing back the veteran receiver Cobb but did to appease Rodgers.
At what point, do the powers-that-be in Green Bay reach the point where they say, “We will pick the players, you just play.”
The tight end Lewis turns 39 in May. Does it really make sense to re-sign him? Cobb turns 33 this summer and has been injury-prone.
Will Packers management appease Rodgers and sign all the guys he wants, or finally say – “enough is enough.”
“He doesn’t want to be part of a rebuild,” Dougherty said. “He wants it to be a reload.”
Dougherty also wonders if the Packers will look at the last two seasons, which weren’t great ones for Green Bay, and say it’s time to move on.
“They’ve been kind of spinning their wheels with the way things have gone with Rodgers at quarterback the last couple of years,” Dougherty said.
So has Rodgers lost a little as a QB in the last couple of years?
“I think the big question is how good is he still,” Dougherty asked. “He’s still a very good quarterback and his arm – he can still wing it and he has all that experience. He’s a very talented guy, but can’t carry him like he used to. He can’t make those plays outside the pocket down-in and down-out – his mobility is waning. He still has his moments and can still make great plays – he just can’t carry them like he used to.”
Dougherty thinks the connection of Rodgers to the Jets makes sense.
“I think it’s legit,” Dougherty said. “I think all the lines connect with (Nate) Hackett with the Jets. “When Hackett was with Denver last year, he really, really wanted Rodgers and they made the Packers a very attractive offer, but the Packers had Super Bowl visions in their minds, so they stayed with Rodgers.”
So we will see what happens, perhaps in the next few weeks, but one thing is for sure.
“I think we think we can safely assume is he’s not retiring,” Dougherty said. “There is no way he’s walking away from $59 million. Can’t imagine that happening.”
February 6, 2023
Premium will return by 9:30 pm on Tuesday, but sometimes it’s earlier.