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There’s no telling whether Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers will be with the team come Week 1. Dating back to the start of the 2021 NFL Draft late in April, reports surfaced that the reigning MVP wants to be traded after spending his first 16 seasons in Green Bay.
Since then, rumors and innuendo have been the name of the game. Rodgers, 37, has both threatened to sit out the entire 2021 season and retire altogether to host “Jeopardy.”
Meanwhile, Green Bay continues to push back against the idea that it’s open to moving the future first ballot Hall of Famer.
Now according to this note from Tyler Dunne, formerly of Bleacher Report and Buffalo News, Rodgers has been talking to opposing players about joining him on another team.
It’s an interesting thing to look at. Typically, tampering would be the name of the game here. But who is exactly tampering? There’s no mention of specific teams in Dunne’s column. Rather, it’s all about Aaron Rodgers talking to colleagues. It’s hard to get tampering from those conversations.
Recent updates on Aaron Rodgers rumors
- This comes after Rodgers did not report to the start of the Packers’ voluntary off-season program on Monday. It’s hard to read too much into this outside of the fact that he has been a mainstay at early-offseason programs in the past.
- For their part, the Packers have rejected calls from other teams about a potential Aaron Rodgers trade. They are still refusing to move him. Remember, it was on the eve of the 2021 NFL Draft back in April that the reigning NFL MVP thought he was headed to the San Francisco 49ers.
- If the Packers were to actually engage other teams about a potential Rodgers trade, recent reports suggest that they’d want another quarterback in return. This fits nicely in with other suggestions that Green Bay’s brass is not sold on 2020 first-round pick Jordan Love as a short-term option to replace Rodgers under center.
- Among those bandied about in trade talks, the Las Vegas Raiders might make the most sense. They are on Rodgers’ list of attractive destinations and boast a three-time Pro Bowl signal caller in Derek Carr to offer up to Green Bay. Also in on Rodgers, the Denver Broncos have a lesser signal caller in Drew Lock to use as bait.
- As for Aaron Rodgers and his stance on a future in Green Bay, things remain unchanged. He reportedly talked to teammates as early as last season about wanting to move on from the Packers. It even has star receiver Davante Adams questioning his own future in Wisconsin.
One thing is clear as it relates to this report: Aaron Rodgers wants some control over player personnel decisions. He’s not getting that under embattled Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst. Whether other teams would give him some say remains to be seen.
What we do know is that the nine-time Pro Bowl quarterback is coming off one of his best seasons. Rodgers completed a league-best 70.7% of his passes for 4,299 yards with 48 touchdowns against five interceptions for the Packers a season ago.
If Aaron Rodgers is legitimately placed on the trade block, there’s a number of teams who might be willing to negotiate some sort of player personnel control. That could very well be what the star quarterback is banking on moving forward.
For now, we’re in wait-and-see mode.