Aaron Rodgers reportedly ignored follow-up conversations with the Green Bay Packers after the 2022 season, leaving everyone in the dark about his NFL future.
After weeks of speculation, it now finally looks as though the Packers are ready to part ways with Rodgers, with the quarterback intent on joining the New York Jets. A deal is still yet to be formally completed, but it looks to be all but done as Rodgers is set to switch teams for the very first time.
Although Rodgers dropped considerable hints over his NFL future, he kept his cards close to his chest throughout, and even went on a four-day darkness retreat to fully assess his situation. Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst has nothing but respect for Rodgers, but revealed to The Athletic that he was disappointed how the quarterback handled things this offseason.
It was on the most-watched Pat McAfee Show of all-time that Rodgers announced that the Jets was his preferred destination, after weeks of silence. But even away from the media it seems that getting hold of Rodgers was a difficult task.
Rodgers and Gutekunst held initial conversations about the 2023 season, with further talks scheduled as the Packers thought that they had transparency with their long-term quarterback. But it didn't work out that way, something that Gutekunst was clearly unhappy about as he spoke to reporters at the NFL’s annual meeting in Arizona.
"After the season, we had a good conversation and we were going to have some follow-up conversations," Gutekunst told a small group of reporters. "And our inability to reach him or for him to respond in any way, I think at that point, I had to do my job and reach out, understanding that a trade could be possible and see(ing) who was interested.
"I was really looking forward to the conversations with Aaron to see how he fit into that. Those never transpired. So there came a time where we had to make some decisions, so we went through his representatives to try to talk to him (about) where were we going with our team and at that point, they informed us that he would like to be traded to the Jets.
"At the same time, Aaron’s been a great player for us. He means a lot to the organisation. There’s a lot of gratitude there, but those conversations would’ve been nice.
"I think it was really more mutual than anything else. Our letting his representatives know where we were at as a football team and that we’d like to have conversations and then kind of letting us know that wasn’t going to work and he’d like to be traded."
