Aaron Rodgers decision should be made by Tuesday deadline

Although Aaron Rodgers can do whatever he wants, he’s apparently expected to inform the Green Bay Packers of his 2022 decision by Tuesday.

Although Aaron Rodgers has said in the past that he didn’t want to take too long with his decision for the 2022 season, it’s now been a month since the Super Bowl. Rodgers’ season has been over for even longer than that.

It’s time.

The saga between Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers has been souring for quite some time now, but the tipping point for Rodgers was the fact that the team decided to trade up in the 2020 NFL Draft for quarterback Jordan Love without informing Rodgers of their intentions.

Just before the 2021 NFL Draft, Rodgers blew the entire can of worms open by making it known that he didn’t want to be in Green Bay anymore and that he could retire or demand a trade. Ultimately, the Packers called Rodgers’ bluff and he came back at training camp, but with a revised contract that essentially gave the MVP an “out” after the 2021 season.

Fast forward to present day, where Rodgers has seemingly made amends with the front office in Green Bay. He has stated publicly that he and general manager Brian Gutekunst are on good terms, which is different, obviously, compared to a year ago.

Rodgers has always been on good terms with the coaches and teammates in Green Bay under Matt LaFleur, but obviously, things in the front office hadn’t been ideal. Apparently, they’ve cleared the air there.

Still, Rodgers turned down a big contract extension from the Packers last year and wanted to keep his options open beyond 2021. As of right now, the franchise tag is looming for Rodgers’ teammate, Davante Adams, who is unquestionably the best free agent on the market in 2022.

The Packers are more than $26 million over the 2022 salary cap. It’s going to take a creative extension for Rodgers as well as Adams to keep those two in Green Bay next season, not to mention, the Packers have a handful of notable defensive players in need of new contracts.

Sacrifices would undoubtedly have to be made, but the Packers could obviously find a way to keep both Rodgers and Adams for 2022 if both want to be back. How they do that? That doesn’t really matter.

All that matters right now is what Aaron Rodgers wants.

And right now, nobody knows.

A weekend full of Aaron Rodgers rumors

If you were watching the 2022 NFL Scouting Combine, you may have seen on Friday night Ian Rapoport of NFL Network jutting into the broadcast for a report on Rodgers that was far different than we’ve been hearing over the last couple of weeks.

Rapoport’s report about Rodgers going “back and forth” on what he wants sparked a number of other reports from other major NFL reporters.

Adam Schefter of ESPN sounded off on what he’s heard.

Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk said the Packers have offers on the table already from multiple teams for Rodgers.

Denver Broncos beat reporter Mike Klis also had plenty to say on Rodgers over the weekend.

This video from Rap Sheet on Saturday evening was really the potential needle-mover, though…

If Rodgers was planning on going back to the Green Bay Packers, why is that deal not already done?

Is he waiting for Davante Adams to re-sign? Why should Adams sign if Rodgers hasn’t committed?

If Rodgers said he didn’t want to drag this whole thing out, what’s the hold-up?

There’s one week until the “legal negotiation” period of free agency opens up. That means that teams need to start moving on if Rodgers is out of the picture. Of course, no deal can be finalized until March 16, but that doesn’t mean a trade couldn’t go down before then.

Last offseason, Matthew Stafford was traded to the Rams before January was even over.

At this point, although things have been patched up between Rodgers and the Packers, it’s hard not to look at all of the rumors floating around over the weekend and think he’s not serious about leaving Green Bay for the Denver Broncos or someone else.

With the franchise tag deadline looming, how will Rodgers’ decision impact other moves around the league? It feels like it’s been an extremely quiet offseason so far, and that’s due in part because of the delay in Rodgers’ decision.

He will be the first domino to fall in the 2022 offseason, and everything else will come after.

If a contract extension were on the table with Green Bay, why wouldn’t he have signed it already?

If he didn’t want to string other teams along and was sure he was going back to the Packers, why not just put it out there to Schefter, Rapoport, Pat McAfee, or really anybody?

The reality is, nobody knows what Rodgers is going to do at this point. Maybe some of his teammates in Green Bay think they know. Maybe executives around the league just can’t see him leaving a solid situation with the Packers for a more competitively charged situation in the AFC.

Maybe an Aaron Rodgers trade is just too big to actually go down.

Or maybe, just maybe, Rodgers will start the 2022 NFL offseason off with a sonic boom and demand a trade.