From Green Bay Packers President and CEO Mark Murphy to a worrying fan base: Don’t worry, Aaron Rodgers isn’t going anywhere.
After Rodgers offered some vague comments about his future following Sunday’s season-ending loss, the rumor mill began churning out speculation on whether the presumed 2020 NFL MVP would still be with the Packers next season — even though his contract situation alone makes a separation highly unlikely.
Murphy, however, didn’t wait long before setting the record straight on the Packers’ intentions with Rodgers for the 2021 season.
“There’s no way in heck Aaron is not gonna be on the Packers,” Murphy said Monday during an appearance on WNFL in Green Bay. “He’s going to be the MVP of the league, might have had his best year ever. He’s our unquestioned leader, and we’re not idiots.”
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LaFleur Already Expressed Similar Thoughts
When a reporter asked Packers head coach Matt LaFleur about Rodgers’ future with the team after Sunday’s loss in the NFC title, the surprised look on his face should have said it all. If not, his answer made things about as crystal clear as Murphy’s comments.
“I sure as hell hope not,” LaFleur said in Sunday’s postgame after Rodgers had talked with reporters. “I mean, guy’s the MVP of this league. He is the heart and soul of our football team, so hell yeah, he’d better be back here. He’s our leader, and just so appreciative of him buying into what we’re trying to get done around here. His voice carries a lot of weight in that locker room, and I feel for him to be in this situation and for us not to get it done, that hurts.”
Rodgers Clarifies Postgame Words
Rodgers avoided giving cookie-cutter answers to the questions he took on Sunday night, acknowledging along the way that nothing is guaranteed for him or any of the other players on the Packers’ roster as they begin the 2021 offseason. Such is the reality of life as an NFL player, as he reminded again Tuesday during his weekly appearance on The Pat McAfee Show.
Rodgers hasn’t forgotten the Packers traded up to draft first-round quarterback Jordan Love last spring. It was a move that introduced an unforeseen variable into his career plans of retiring as a Packer, effectively taking away his ability to control that dream. It was also one that Rodgers recognized immediately and has repeated in the nine months since, not always in the same words but with an identical sentiment.
Here’s what Rodgers told McAfee and former Packers teammate AJ Hawk on Tuesday about seeing his postgame thoughts turned into wild speculation:
“I don’t feel like I said anything that hadn’t said before. I said it the first time I talked to the media. It was more of a realization I think that ultimately my future is not necessarily in my control. And I think what just kind of hit me in the moment, I was thinking about Aaron Jones and Corey Linsley, other guys we have under contract, Big Dog, guys who I don’t know what their futures are going to be, myself included.
“I don’t think that there is any reason why I wouldn’t be back, but there’s not many absolutes … in this business, so to make an absolute statement about something that is not an absolute, I didn’t do it and I guess that’s why it went kind of nuts.”
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Packers Send Definitive Message on Aaron Rodgers’ 2021 Future