Green Bay Packers: Time may be running short for Aaron Rodgers

The Green Bay Packers find themselves at an interesting crossroads this season. Green Bay, once a yearly favorite to win not just the NFC, but a legitimate Super Bowl contender is on the clock, with quarterback Aaron Rodgers at the center of the storm.

Rodgers began his college football career at Butte College in 2002 before transferring to the University of California, Berkeley to play for the California Golden Bears. He set several career passing records, including the lowest single-season and career interception rates. He was selected in the first round of the 2005 NFL Draft by the Packers.

After backing up Brett Favre for the first three years of his NFL career, Rodgers became the Packers starting quarterback in 2008. In the 2010 season, he led them to a victory in Super Bowl XLV over the Pittsburgh Steelers, earning the Super Bowl MVP. But for the Green Bay Packers and Rodgers, success ever since has been fleeting.

Rodgers has led the NFL six times in touchdown-to-interception ratio (2011, 2012, 2014, 2018, 2020, 2021); and six times in lowest passing interception percentage (2009, 2014, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021).

Four of those times he led in passer rating (2011, 2012, 2020, 2021); and four times in touchdown passing percentage (2011, 2012, 2020, 2021); He had led three times in total touchdowns (2011, 2016, 2020); twice in touchdown passes (2016, 2020) and once in yards per attempt (2011) and completion percentage (2020).

On March 8, Rodgers confirmed that he would return and play for the Packers for the 2022 season after speculations that Rodgers would retire or demand a trade to another team. There were reports that Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers had agreed to terms on a 4-year, $200 million contract extension that would have made him the highest-paid player in NFL history, but Rodgers denied those reports on Twitter,

The Packers quarterback would insist on stating that the numbers on the proposed contract were inaccurate and that he had yet to sign such a contract. He did confirm, however, that he would return to play his 18th NFL season with the Packers. Quickly, the talk on national sports radio was about whether Rodgers was more about Rodgers and less about the Packers.

It’s likely fair criticism.

The question now for the Green Bay Packers is where do they go from here? The Detroit Lions are rumored to be an interesting team this season, and the Minnesota Vikings are always in the mix for the postseason. But the Packers? They’ve become a question with few easy answers.

At the beginning of training camp, the big story was about how Aaron Rodgers looks like the actor Nicholas Cage. While talk around the NFL is about whether his contract was more about the possibility of it being a one-year deal, you hear more that is less about the team.

Hardly the makings of another MVP or Super Bowl run. For fans of the ‘frozen tundra’, the good times may be nearing an end.