Green Bay Packers: The Future of Aaron Rodgers

How soon will the Green Bay Packers ink Aaron Rodgers to a new contract this offseason?

This is the age of the quarterback mega-deal, and presumably in the the next few months (or sooner), the Green Bay Packers will make Aaron Rodgers the wealthiest man in the NFL. It’s a sensible move. Rodgers is 34, still plenty mobile and still plenty accurate. He is patiently waiting to sign on the dotted line until free agents like Kirk Cousins, Case Keenum and Sam Bradford get their deals.

The contracts of those players, Cousins in particular according to most experts, will dictate the market and cast more riches upon Rodgers. And he deserves that pay day, and the Packers, who have no one waiting in the wings to replace Rodgers, are in a position where they need to pay him.

There’s no lock-tight number, but Rodgers could make around $30 million a year when he re-signs. And the Packers have been willing to spend big on their quarterback, filling his coffers with almost $87 million since 2013. He is arguably the best or second best signal-caller in the NFL, so it makes sense that he get paid, right?

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Well, here is one theory that says the Packers should have waited to start contract talks. Rodgers is in his mid-30s. He says he wants to play until he is 40. That’s old, by the way. He has been durable, only inured twice, breaking both collarbones — once against the Bears in 2013, then this last season against the Vikings. He did make it back in 2017 when the Packers still had a shot at the playoffs.

But despite being a great quarterback, he is 34 and he is coming off an injury. And he still has two years left on his contract. So why are the Packers so eager to get a deal in place? Why did they make it publicly known they were so eager to, as Teddy KGB says, “pay that man his money.”

The smart money says sign him, and quick. Look at Rodgers’ history. He is a Super Bowl champion with a laser right arm, who has been durable and tough enough to recover quickly from a pretty severe injury and make it back on the field this season. But his health should nag at Packers brass.

He is older than he was after that first collarbone injury, and that could impact his ability to play at a high level much differently than it did four years ago. Why not drag the contract talks out a little more or make them more preliminary? It should have been kept  out of the media. But now, there is no going back.

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The Packers are fairly certain Rodgers will continue his dominance. But they could have had the entirety of another 16 regular-season games before making a decision, which is likely what Green Bay would have done if Rodgers played any other position.

But this is the NFL, and Rodgers is a quarterback. And a damn reliable one, so far.