The Green Bay Packers and future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers are at a crossroads and an offseason trade that could see Rodgers play elsewhere next season remains an option, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
A trade of Rodgers, who has spent his entire career in Green Bay, would be driven by financial reasons, the current state of the Packers organization, and the feelings of both the team and their longtime quarterback.
The Packers currently are projected to be more than $16 million over next season’s salary cap and have a list of impending free agents, many of whom are close friends of Rodgers, and the Packers could also part with running back Aaron Jones, who is slated to have a cap number of $20 million.
Should the Packers designate Jones as a post-June 1st cut, it could save them $16 million.
Rodgers is due $59.5 million in guaranteed money this year and another $49.25 million in 2024, and the guaranteed money owed to Rodgers in 2023, $58.3 million of it is structured as an option bonus, with the window to exercise that option is from the first day of the new league year (March 15) until one day before Green Bay’s regular-season opener in September.
This creates a window for the team to explore trading Rodgers, as once the option is Rodgers’ cap number for 2023 would be $31,623,570.
Rodgers, 39, has a lot of options – he can ride out the current situation with the Packers, help work out a trade to a new team, or retire – but Rodgers has stated that he would be willing to return in 2023 for the right situation.
Rodgers being available adds him to a list of big name signal callers that will be available, in some form or fashion, this offseason – Tom Brady, Lamar Jackson, Derek Carr, and Jimmy Garoppolo.
