Aaron Rodgers found clarity Tuesday — and reportedly a large mound of new money. The four-time MVP quarterback has decided to continue playing with the Green Bay Packers.
Terms of Rodgers’ agreement to stay in Green Bay remain unclear. An NFL Network report Tuesday morning indicated he signed an eye-popping four-year contract extension worth up to $200 million with $153 million guaranteed. But Rodgers later tweeted that while he had decided to remain a Packer, the numbers attached to reports about his contract were erroneous.
In time, exact figures and contract terms will surface. In the meantime, the most important part of the story is set: Rodgers will be back with the Packers for the 2022 season.
React accordingly.
Rodgers will turn 39 in December, but he has won the last two MVP awards and found a fulfilling groove working with Packers coach Matt LaFleur. He is also set up to continue his dominance in the NFC North with the other three teams in the midst of significant transitions.
So what does all this mean? How will Rodgers’ contract affect the Packers’ ability to assemble a Super Bowl-contending roster? What are the ramifications on the salary cap? What’s next for star receiver Davante Adams?
And most important in these parts, what does this mean for the Chicago Bears and their bounce-back efforts under new general manager Ryan Poles and coach Matt Eberflus?
Tribune Bears writers Dan Wiederer and Colleen Kane banter back and forth in this installment of “Real Talk.”
Dan Wiederer: Two weeks ago, Rodgers was turning heads on Instagram with a 10-photo post and 266-word caption that confused many.
“To my teammates, past and current,” he wrote in part, “you are the icing on the beautiful cake we call our job: football. the friendships that we have will transcend our collective time in this game and I am so thankful for the role that each of you have played in making my life that much better. I love you guys, and cherish the memories we’ve made.”
Was Rodgers sending a cryptic message that he was about to turn the page and start a new chapter in his football journey? Was he simply casting a baited hook for outside attention? Was this sincere reflection from one of the NFL’s greatest players? Or just some strange melodrama preceding a landmark decision?
As it turns out, according to Rodgers’ explanation on “The Pat McAfee Show” a day later, he was simply emerging from a 12-day panchakarma cleanse and feeling recentered spiritually.
Said Rodgers: “Unless you’ve gone through certain experiences and had frustration and been near the bottom and then get near the top and understand the beauty in life, then you might say things about that. ‘That’s a cryptic message.’ There’s nothing cryptic about gratitude. … That was just where I was at. I was going through some old pictures from the last year and felt an intense amount of gratitude for the life that I have, for the lessons that I’ve learned and the growth that has happened over the last year and the people who have been a part of that journey.”
Two weeks later, there are no Insta-missives, no photos and no podcast appearances to read between the lines. Rodgers is staying put. Confirmed. Back to Green Bay and eager to make a run at Super Bowl LVII after his last three seasons ended with heartbreaking playoff losses.
The Packers were facing a $46.1 million salary-cap hit on Rodgers’ contract for 2022. Whatever new terms were agreed to Tuesday, there’s a strong likelihood that cap hit will be reduced significantly. But the Packers are still in an uncomfortable squeeze against the cap as the new league year closes in.
Thus Tuesday’s landmark move to extend Rodgers will force general manager Brian Gutekunst to make significant cuts elsewhere, especially with the team intent on also keeping Adams. Now what?
Colleen Kane: Now the Packers can move forward without the offseason drama that surrounded Rodgers’ status for months last year. We in the media can move on without monitoring Rodgers’ every appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show,” which drew more than 136,000 viewers the morning after his aforementioned Instagram post. And I can never Google “panchakarma cleanse” again, though the details are seared in my mind anyway.
Gutekunst and LaFleur did what was needed to persuade Rodgers to stay in Green Bay after he expressed discontent with his situation there last spring.
Rodgers has said more than once that his relationship and communication with Gutekunst have improved over the past year. The Packers hired Rodgers’ former quarterbacks coach, Tom Clements, as a measure to please the QB. And they also placed the franchise tag on Adams, who has amassed 8,121 receiving yards while playing with Rodgers since 2014.
The result is that, even with work to do on the roster in the weeks ahead, the Packers move toward the 2022 season with comfort that they will be favored to win the NFC North for the fourth year in a row. Would anything, short of an abrupt change of heart from Rodgers, change that as free agency begins? Probably not, though Rodgers is returning to chase a Super Bowl, not just a division title over a bunch of teams in flux.
Wiederer: Comfort in being the NFC North favorite will go only so far with Rodgers, who admittedly enjoys his dominance over the Bears but needs another Super Bowl trophy to add sheen to his legacy. For the Packers to play into February next winter, they will have to handle their business throughout the entire NFC. But they might have an opening to do just that.
Tom Brady’s retirement — for now — should lessen the degree of difficulty in competing for conference supremacy. Russell Wilson’s departure from the NFC in Tuesday’s blockbuster trade between the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos isn’t a bad thing either.
Make a list of the elite quarterbacks in the NFC. Rodgers is at the top. Matthew Stafford belongs in the conversation. But beyond that? An argument could perhaps be made for Dak Prescott and maybe Kyler Murray and Matt Ryan. But this is not the AFC, where the fraternity of star quarterbacks — Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, Justin Herbert, Lamar Jackson, Wilson — is impressive.
Amid that landscape, it’s on Rodgers to carry the Packers farther than he has in the past decade. And he might have to do so with a weaker roster around him as the organization figures out its salary-cap issues. When Tuesday began, the Packers were close to $25 million over the cap with hopes of making Adams the game’s highest-paid receiver as they negotiate a new deal.
Outside linebacker Za’Darius Smith should keep his phone nearby in the next week. Defensive lineman Kenny Clark might be facing a contract restructuring. The Packers face tough business decisions with players such as receiver Randall Cobb.
Gutekunst’s creativity will be tested. But the Packers, especially with Rodgers’ return, are in a favorable position. They are equipped to win another division title and make a run at the big prize. About two dozen GMs around the league would pay to have Gutekunst’s headaches.
Kane: For sure they would. And that’s a good transition to the team Rodgers will continue to try to “own” two times a year.
At the risk of making Bears fans click away in disgust, here are the stats again. Rodgers is 23-5 against the Bears in his career, including six consecutive wins. The Packers have won 11 of the last 12 against the Bears, one of which Rodgers didn’t play.
And now he’s on board for at least one more year to try to make the recent rivalry even more lopsided. So in the short term, Rodgers’ return to Green Bay is of course bad news for the Bears and Eberflus as he installs a new defense in Chicago.
But the truth is the Bears’ 2022 outlook was uncertain anyway as Poles retools a roster with more than two dozen players set to become free agents next week.
Building the roster into what Poles envisions will take time. Same goes for installing the culture Eberflus believes in. And there will be more growth ahead for quarterback Justin Fields as he settles in under new offensive coordinator Luke Getsy.
So the Bears have more pressing worries trying to revive a franchise that has been stuck in the mud for most of the last decade. If they can do so, then they’ll worry about beating Rodgers — if he’s still around.
Wiederer: I’ll make the argument that Rodgers staying in Green Bay is the best thing for the Bears. And I’ll make that case with gusto.
Hear me out. Poles has been talking a lot over the past month-plus about the need for the organization to raise its standards. And nothing is more important to establishing elevated standards than setting a high bar to clear. Rodgers does that.
You just rattled off the sobering statistics in the rivalry with Rodgers, which give the Bears a double dose of reality whenever the teams meet. More often than not, Bears-Packers games become a semiannual illumination of just how far from championship contention the Bears are.
If Rodgers had left Green Bay? If the NFC North was suddenly wide open? The Bears could easily have fooled themselves into thinking they are closer to becoming a title challenger than they really are.
Think about it. In 2020, the NFL expanded its playoff field, allowing two more teams into the postseason party. The Bears, despite a maddening season and a mediocre 8-8 record that included two losses to Rodgers and the Packers, sneaked in the back door of the NFC playoffs with the No. 7 seed.
The most important leaders of the franchise — the chairman, the president, the GM and the coach — had the impression they had accomplished something meaningful. They hadn’t. That playoff berth was fool’s gold, an undeserved reward that left the organization in denial about some of its greatest flaws. The Bears can’t settle for that kind of existence.
With Rodgers still in the driver’s seat in Green Bay, the Packers will continue to challenge the Bears at a high level. And it’s the kind of challenge Poles seems to covet. Don’t forget, he’s coming from a franchise in Kansas City that has played on conference championship Sunday in four consecutive seasons while reaching the Super Bowl twice and winning it once.
Poles knows what a championship football team looks like. Great football teams want a high bar to clear. In that way, Rodgers’ presence remains beneficial.
Kane: I see your point — to a point.
Success against a Rodgers-led Packers team would be more meaningful and satisfying than beating the Jordan Love-led Packers. It would provide the Bears a more accurate measuring stick of where they stand.
But I also think the Bears and their fans would enjoy a win over the Packers no matter how it came. And Bears fans might find it hard to appreciate the high bar Rodgers sets if they have to watch him accomplish his goal of winning another Super Bowl with the Packers.
One thing we definitely agree on: Rodgers’ return makes life more difficult for the Bears. And much more interesting too.
