I’m not sure what the bigger news of the past week has been.
Is it the fact that Green Bay Packers owner Mark Murphy punted on numerous questions about Aaron Rodgers and his contract in a press conference earlier this week?
Or is it the much more fun tidbit of information that Rodgers will be celebrity hosting the hit game show “Jeopardy” in the next two coming weeks starting on Monday?
Either way, Rodgers has been in the headlines for both reasons all week. My concern, of course, is more about the former than the latter. I’m a massive fan of the recent MVP winner and would love to see him in Green Bay for as long as he wants if he keeps up his stellar play.
However, the Packers do have a backup plan in backup quarterback Jordan Love. And it seems that Rodgers and the Packers have yet to come to terms to a re-structure or extension to his contract.
Who knows, maybe the two sides have already agreed upon something? We know that Rodgers is incredible at keeping tidbits of information that he doesn’t want public in-house. Take the hidden engagement of him and his fiancée, Shailene Woodley, during the fall as one example.
A contract extension or re-structure of one of the best players in the National Football League would be a tough one to keep under wraps, so I doubt it.
I think what’s really happening here is the Packers organization wants to handle Rodgers, and the three years left on his deal, in a year-by-year format.
Who knows? Rodgers’ play could drop off next year, while Jordan Love has a solid training camp and plays decent minutes in backup spots. That could result in Green Bay wanting to split with Rodgers and his massive contract – which would free up cap space.
Or, the complete opposite happens. Rodgers plays out of his mind again and Green Bay commits to a long-term contract extension.
This year-by-year approach, coupled with the fact that Rodgers may have a bit of understandable animosity towards ownership who drafted his potential replacement, are the probable two reasons that nothing has been done yet.
Think about it. Would you want to re-structure your contract to earn less money short-term for the same people that thought you might need replaced soon? I don’t blame Aaron for maybe sitting this one out.
Does anybody really know anything though? No, but I’m just happy to share my two cents.
Oh – and watch the MVP lead the show, literally, in a different capacity these next two weeks.
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Gunnar Davis is a lifelong Packers fan and a recent graduate of Simpson College, where he was a 3-year letterwinner on the offensive line and graduated with a degree in multimedia communications. You can follow him on Twitter at @Gunnar57Davis.
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