NFL Legend Predicts ‘Nasty’ Ending for Aaron Rodgers, Packers

Charles Woodson doesn’t have a good feeling about where things are heading for Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers.

Woodson, a Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive back who had a career resurgence in Green Bay from 2006 to 2012, was asked about Rodgers’ future with the Packers during his guest appearance Tuesday on CBS Sports Radio and couldn’t help but wonder if the two sides are bound for a “nasty” divorce in the coming years.

Here’s what Woodson said Tuesday on The Zach Gelb Show:

“It’s one of those situations where there’s all this talk swirling around him and Green Bay, and it could be one of those situations where it gets nasty. I certainly hope that doesn’t happen, but where there’s smoke, there’s fire. This could be a situation where — before you know it — someone makes some kind of play or offer and Green Bay can’t refuse. They’ll say ‘Hey, we’ll go our separate ways and he wants to be somewhere else and we’ll move on with the future of this team.'”

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Woodson Thinks Rodgers Ends Career Elsewhere

Woodson isn’t trying to be controversial with his comments about Rodgers. He simply believes what many believe — that the Packers’ decision to trade up for first-round quarterback Jordan Love in 2020 strongly suggests their interest in wanting to move on from their current franchise quarterback over the next few years.

Rodgers has always been adamant about wanting to finish his NFL career with the Packers and certainly made a good case for fulfilling that dream last season, throwing a league-leading 48 touchdown passes to win his third career MVP award. But even the veteran quarterback has repeatedly acknowledged his future with the team is no longer in his control and that he could end up having to finish his career somewhere else.

“If he plays well enough, he could end his career somewhere else,” Woodson said. “That’s not an anomaly. In this league, you try to play as many games as you can and win as many games as you can. At some point, a team is going to start looking towards the future. And I know the Packers are going to say, ‘We’re going to take the best player available and this wasn’t about looking to the future.’ Well, it is.

“I think he ends up ending his career in another place.”

Contract Watch Continues for Rodgers

The Packers are now two weeks away from the 2021 NFL draft and have still not touched Rodgers’ contract despite speculation early in the offseason. They could have either restructured or extending his current deal to create salary-cap savings for 2021 but instead managed to get under the cap without his help and now — short of a big free-agency move — have little financial motivation to act with Rodgers.

That doesn’t mean the Packers can’t still give Rodgers some assurances.

The window has closed on the Packers being able to convert Rodgers’ $6.8 million roster bonus, but making adjustments to his $14.7 million base salary remains an option if they want to create more cap space. The bigger leap would be extending him and adding at least one year onto his contract, giving them more room to spread out the cap burden. Both scenarios, however, kick the can down the road and will make it more difficult for the Packers to transition from him to Love in the next few seasons.

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