I really doubt that Rogers will play another game in a Packer uniform. I think he will pull a Tom Brady and try his hand with some other new team.
A trade would be ideal for the Packers, but I think his contract might make that pretty difficult. A trading partner would need to be willing to take him on at $59M for 2023 and $49M for 2024, plus give up picks. Does his play still merit that? It did in 2021, but not in 2022. And maybe the Packers agree to cover some of that money to get a trade done, but still.
And of course if he retires it’s $40M in dead money for the Packers next year. That makes it tough to re-sign existing guys and bring in new ones – all while not getting the QB they’re paying for on the field. They pushed in to keep him this year, but it’s the kind of deal that can definitely hobble the team for multiple years.Not sure what to make of the Packers from here. Can they go back to being the team to beat in the NFC North again with their current roster? Probably not. Something drastic is going to have to change this off season for them to significantly improve from 8 wins.
I suppose they did do something drastic by starting 3-6 followed by 5-3.
But they played a harder schedule during the first half of the year, so, yes, they were exactly what their record says they were…mediocre.
The defense is young, and mostly good when healthy.
Running game is great, wide receivers look decent, they’ll need a slot guy.
Offensive line needs help on the right side. Assuming they re-sign Bahktiari.
The quarterback position will make or break them.Add me to the list of Watch out for the Lion’s next season. I think they have a good young team to build off. A few key players and they could be right there at the top of the Division.
It’s interesting to see how in back-to-back games that the Packers running game was so effective against the Vikings, and so ineffective against the Lions. Right from the start the Packers were trying to use Watson’s speed to get outside to the corner against the Lions rather than running off tackle. And when they did run inside, it got crushed. They put enough pressure on that the Packers were forced to change right tackles mid-game to get someone quicker in that spot. For the Lions, that’s an awful good place to build around to go with a decent offense. It’s still wild to me that they traded Hockenson to MN mid-season; at the time things looked pretty dark, but in hindsight that guy alone may have put them over the top to make the playoffs.
His contract is a hurdle, but not some impenetrable force. The Packers will want off of it (if he wants to move on), so there’s a likelihood that they take on some of it to essentially “Buy” the draft picks associated with the trade. This is what leads to the possibility of a mutually agreed upon trade being an option.
The number being over 50 million is a pile of cash, but that is also not all against the cap as many fail to understand. I think the cap hit is around $31 million (still a lot, but not exactly 50+ million). There are teams out there who would gladly trade picks for him and an agreed portion of his contract to take a swing at winning it all. For every team chasing a championship building through the draft and development process (Bengals as an example), there are teams willing to swing for everything and worry about the future – in the future (Rams, Bucs).
The common denominators to all of it is Rodgers has to first know what he wants to do (which he likely doesn’t right now), and then notify people what he wants to do in a clear way (which he did NOT do last year). I’d bet he doesn’t say much of anything before the free agency period in March. By then if he doesn’t have his mind made up, I’d hate to be in the Packers front office as it will be a circus of speculation with no path forward. For some reason I think Rodgers will make a more clear decision and articulate it from the get-go this offseason as he will care about his image post-football or post-Green Bay.
