Bears fans should know better than to celebrate too soon.
Ever the classic monster-movie villain, Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers simply won’t go away — even when you think you’ve seen the last of him. That’s true whether Rodgers is on the brink of retirement, like many thought he was two years ago, or down 20-0, as he was when he went on to beat the rival Bears 24-23 in 2018.
Tuesday, though, produced perhaps the most tangible sign that Rodgers could leave the NFC North and transfer his claim to the Bears franchise back to its rightful owner.
ESPN reported that the Jets sent a cadre of the most important people in their organization — owner Woody Johnson, general manager Joe Douglas, coach Robert Saleh and offensive coordinator (and Rodgers’ friend and co-worker) Nathaniel Hackett — to California to meet with the quarterback.
Per league rules, that meeting could only take place with the Packers’ blessing. The Jets are unlikely to huddle with Rodgers unless they understand what the Packers would accept in a trade for him.
Now it’s up to Rodgers to decide what he wants: to return to the Packers on a contract that he signed last March, to force his way out of Green Bay in a trade, or to retire. The Packers want an answer before free agency starts next week.
Rodgers has publicly entertained retirement. When he left Soldier Field victorious in December — the Packers rallied from a nine-point deficit — Rodgers gave a military-style salute to Bears fans. He improved to 25-5 against the team that he once, correctly, claimed that he owned.
His departure from the NFC North — or the NFL altogether — would be a boon to the Bears’ rebuild. For the first time since 1991 — the year before Brett Favre’s first Packers start — the Bears wouldn’t have to overcome a Hall of Famer playing under center for their rivals.
That the Packers are waiting for Rodgers to determine his loyalty less than a year after giving him a three-year, $150.8 million contract shows just how bizarre the Rodgers experience has become for everyone involved but him.
Tuesday could mark the beginning of the end, or just another false start in a strange three years full of them. An abridged timeline of Rodgers’ perceived slights date to the team drafting Nevada quarterback Jordan Love in 2020, Rodgers calling his future a “beautiful mystery” at the end of that season and, on draft night in 2021, word leaking that he wanted to be traded. Rodgers skipped mandatory minicamp that June but arrived to training camp on time. After winning the MVP for the second year in a row, Rodgers decided to re-up with the Packers in March 2022, signing a monster contract.
In the last two years alone, Rodgers has auditioned to host Jeopardy!, claimed he was “immunized” against COVID-19 as a way to sidestep questions about his vaccination status and extolled the virtues of the psychedelic drug ayahuasca. Late last month, Rodgers took a four-night “darkness retreat” to ponder his future in a pitch-black room in Southern Oregon.
The whole thing has been so exhausting.
The Packers are wondering whether it’s been worth it, particularly after Rodgers finished 15th in the NFL in passer rating and 11th in passing yards in a season that ended with a win-and-you’re-in defeat at the hands of the once-pitiful Lions.
With a deadline to pick up Love’s 2024 option looming May 1, the Packers seem ready to see what he could do. GM Brian Gutekunst said as much at the NFL Combine last week: “I’ve expressed to a lot of people that [Love] needs to play.”
Drama notwithstanding, Rodgers has been the biggest outside impediment to the Bears’ success for a generation. If he ends up in a different shade of green — or retiring altogether — Bears fans should throw a parade. The city already has the right-colored dye for the river.
