Green Bay Packers: June 8 an important date in Aaron Rodgers saga

The ongoing Aaron Rodgers drama will start to heat up this week as the Green Bay Packers report to mandatory minicamp on June 8.

As the Green Bay Packers continue to circumnavigate the murky waters surrounding Aaron Rodgers‘ future, the events that unfold this week will begin to paint a better picture of Rodgers’ true feelings toward the team.

The Packers are set to begin mandatory minicamp — the keyword here is mandatory — on Tuesday, June 8. All members of the team are required to attend. Obviously, Rodgers’ attendance, or lack thereof, will be the biggest headline.

“It’s important that we have all our guys, and certainly we’d love [Rodgers] to be here and hopefully we’ll see him Tuesday,” LaFleur said last week.

Rodgers did not attend voluntary OTAs last month and was seen vacationing in Hawaii with his fiancée. Because of his absence at voluntary OTAs, Rodgers will forfeit a $500,000 workout bonus in his contract.

At this point, it appears Aaron Rodgers will not attend Packers minicamp

If Rodgers skips mandatory minicamp, which runs three days from June 8-10, he could be fined roughly $100,000 by the Packers, according to the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement.

Of course, a fine like that is a drop in the bucket for a player like Rodgers, who holds one of the NFL’s highest average annual salaries at $33.5 million. Plus, it’s not about the fines for the disgruntled quarterback. It’s about proving a point to Green Bay that he’s unhappy.

Trade rumors surrounding Rodgers have swirled since ESPN insider Adam Schefter dropped a bombshell report on the first night of the 2021 NFL Draft back on April 29. That said, a trade was never going to feasible before June 1 considering the Packers would have had to absorb a giant dead cap hit.

Now that we’re passed that date, however, the waiting game begins. And how things are handled regarding mandatory minicamp and other similar dates moving forward will be quite telling for the direction the situation is heading.