Nothing determines the outcome of a division more than a team having an elite quarterback. The Green Bay Packers have enjoyed this advantage for the past 30 years. First with Brett Favre and then Aaron Rodgers. Everybody was assuming it’d be more of the same in 2021. Rodgers is the reigning league MVP. He’d just led the Packers to a second-consecutive 13-3 season and came a questionable field goal call away from the Super Bowl.
Under normal circumstances, one would think a QB is eager to return for next season. Obviously, people are quickly finding out there is nothing normal about this situation. Just hours before the start of the NFL draft, Rodgers shocked the NFL world when it was leaked that he wasn’t planning to rejoin the Packers for next season. Not without significant changes to the organization. Specifically the status of GM Brian Gutekunst with whom he has a strong beef.
This has put the Packers in a difficult position.
They want Rodgers back. However, they can’t fire a GM who got the team to back-to-back NFC championship games. What kind of precedent would that set? Thus they’re forced to call the quarterback’s bluff, betting that the 38-year old isn’t prepared to sit out the entire season. Thus far it hasn’t gone as hoped. Rodgers skipped OTAs and mandatory minicamps for the first time in his career.
As things come further into focus, it’s becoming apparent that the man is serious. Either he goes or Gutekunst goes. With the latter unlikely to happen, it feels like just a matter of when not if the QB finds a new home. Prominent insider Benjamin Allbright of KOA NewsRadio revealed that everything he’s heard from his sources is that Rodgers will not return to Green Bay. In fact, he already has a new home in mind. He explained this on Cleveland Browns Daily with Nathan Zegura.
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Aaron Rodgers refuses to be Favre’d by Green Bay
He had a front-row seat for what happened back in 2008. The Packers had just gone to the NFC championship with Brett Favre but came up just shy of the Super Bowl in overtime. After contemplating retirement that offseason, the 39-year old had hoped to return for another year. However, Green Bay was anxious to give Rodgers his opportunity by that point. So they exiled Favre to the New York Jets via trade.
Aaron Rodgers knew immediately that the same fate awaited him when the Packers drafted Jordan Love last year. Rather than play out the string waiting for the inevitable, he decided to seize the initiative. If Green Bay is so convinced Love is their future, then let his era begin now. The future Hall of Famer would rather go someplace he’s wanted and the organization is 100% behind him. Similar to what the Tampa Bay Buccaneers did with Tom Brady.
Denver certainly looks like an attractive destination.
That would suit Chicago Bears fans just fine. It gets Rodgers out of the division and the entire NFC for that matter. He can go be the Chiefs’, Raiders’, and Chargers’ problem. With him out of the picture, Green Bay’s hold on the North would significantly slacken. Enough to where they have a much higher probability of making the playoffs.