Aaron Rodgers contract leaves two options after 2021 season
The Aaron Rodgers saga, for the time being, is over in Green Bay. His renewed contract leaves just a couple of options after 2021, however.
For the time being, Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers have worked things out. Concessions were made on both sides to get the league MVP to training camp on time, some very significant ones on the side of the Packers’ front office.
Not only did general manager Brian Gutekunst give up a sixth-round pick to bring Randall Cobb back to the Packers, but he also conceded some significant freedom to Rodgers beyond the 2021 season about where he might play in the future.
The details of Aaron Rodgers’ revised contract with the Green Bay Packers have been released, and they are fascinating, to say the least.
Aaron Rodgers’ reworked deal now is signed, per sources. Here are the “on paper” concessions in the new contract:
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 29, 2021
🏈2023 year is voided.
🏈Forfeiture provisions were removed from the contract, preventing the Packers from pursuing prorated portions of Rodgers’ signing bonus.
Lastly, if Rodgers retires prior to the 2022 season, only the $11.5 million in remaining proration from his original $57.5M signing bonus in 2018 is subject to forfeiture (and GB would have to choose to collect it). Easier financially for Rodgers to walk away than it was in 2021.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) July 30, 2021
After the 2021 season, the Packers will be in an interesting position. There will really be two decisions for them at that point, at least if things stay the way they are right now.
Option 1: Refuse to trade Rodgers again
The way things are currently set up, Aaron Rodgers would have full control over where he plays…in 2023. That would be his age 40 season. As Tom Brady has shown us, it’s not impossible to think that Rodgers could still play at an MVP level for another three or four years at that point.
Rodgers remains under contract in 2022 and the Packers will obviously have no obligation to trade him, regardless of his demands. As we found out in the 2021 offseason, the threat of retirement and skipping OTAs didn’t exactly cause the front office to budge.
Rodgers could actually retire after this season in Green Bay, and it would be more financially palatable for him to do so compared to 2021. With that being said, the Packers would still own his roster rights. Still, that might be Rodgers’ best leverage if he truly wants out of Green Bay after this season.
A refusal to trade Rodgers would mean a third season of learning for Jordan Love, and it would almost certainly mean — even if Rodgers played in 2022 for Green Bay — a departure from the team in 2023.
We’ll see how well Rodgers plays in 2021, how well the Packers do as a team, and how things go between Rodgers and the organization after the season is concluded. Maybe the two sides will actually mend fences, though watching Aaron Rodgers’ press conference, it doesn’t seem like that is really in the cards.
Not trading Rodgers means the Packers are banking on 2022 being a Super Bowl season despite the potential distraction of Rodgers’ imminent departure after the year is over. Perhaps that’s a risk they are more than willing to take.
Option 2: Get maximum value for Rodgers in the 2022 offseason
The Green Bay Packers watched the Detroit Lions perhaps set a precedent for how a massive deal like this should be done in the 2021 offseason with Matthew Stafford.
Although trades cannot be finalized until March, the Lions agreed to a trade with the Los Angeles Rams long before then and got a pretty great haul, even if the haul was bigger because the Lions were willing to absorb Jared Goff in the process.
If Aaron Rodgers is traded, it will undoubtedly be a historic move for the Packers in terms of what they would acquire. If the Packers do not trade Rodgers in 2022, they risk the same fate as the New England Patriots after the 2019 season when they let Tom Brady walk in free agency for absolutely nothing.
As we saw with that 2019 Patriots team, things were not exactly rosy and it’s fair to say that Tom Brady’s future was a huge distraction for the entire team that caused a breakdown in the playoffs.
If the Packers approach 2021 as their final season with Rodgers, they could make a truly franchise-altering trade after the season to get as many assets as possible and help Jordan Love in that way.
Whatever Gutekunst decides, these are the primary avenues to take. Rodgers won’t be a free agent in 2022, but he will have say in where he plays if it’s not in Green Bay and the Packers might be more willing to deal him after this season barring a Super Bowl win considering all that transpired in the 2021 offseason.