Aaron Rodgers Says He Might Play for a Team Other Than Packers
Former Cal star Aaron Rodgers has not decided yet whether he will return for the 2023 season, but he noted on the Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday that if he returns next season, it could be with a team other than the Packers.
"I think I can win MVP again in the right situation," Rodgers said on the show. "Right situation, is that Green Bay or is that somewhere else? I'm not sure. But I don't think you should shut down any opportunity. Like I said during the season, that's got to be both sides actually wanting to work together moving forward, and I think there's more conversations to be had."
That does not sound like someone ready to retire.
Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst seemed to say a few days ago that Rodgers would remain Green Bay's starting quarterback next season if he chose to return, and Rodgers spent several days talking with Gutekunst, head coach Matt LaFleur and other Packers officials to get a feel for their plans and how he would fit in.
Rodgers said he thinks Jordan Love might be ready to be a starting quarterback.
"If they want to go younger and think Jordan's ready to go, then that might be the way they want to go," Rodgers said. "And if that's the case and I still want to play, then there's only one option, right? And that's to play somewhere else. If it's not and they are like, 'No, no, no, we still want you to play,' and this and that, then it'd have to be the right situation with the roster that looks like we can win it all because there's no point in coming back if you don't think you can win it all."
Rodgers is coming off his worst season as a starting quarterback, although injuries may have had something to with it. He threw 12 interceptions in 2022 after not throwing more than five in any of the previous four seasons, and his season passer rating of 91.1 was his worst since he became an NFL starter. The Packers were expected to be a playoff team and finished out of the postseason with an 8-9 record, including a loss to Detroit at home in the finale when a win would have put the Packers in the playoffs.
Rodgers will be 40 years old next December, and that is about the limit for Hall-of-Fame-caliber quarterbacks these days. Peyton Manning was 39 in his final season in the NFL, and Drew Brees was 41. Tom Brady played this season at the age of 45, and it's unclear whether he will be back in 2023. Manning and Brady both went to new teams late in their careers, and both won Super Bowls with those new teams.
Rodgers does not want to be part of a team that plans to tear apart its roster and start over.
"I think no player wants to be part of any type of rebuild; I said that years ago," Rodgers said. "Reloads are a lot of fun because you feel like you're close, you're only a couple guys away. This game is about relationships, it's about the players you play with and count on even if they don't maybe show up huge in the stat book."
Rodgers' segment on the The Pat McAfeee Show starts about two hours into this video and lasts one hour and 10 minutes.
Whether some other Packers veterans who are close to Rodgers plan to return in 2023 may affect his decision. Among those players are Allen Lazard, Marcedes Lewis, David Bakhtiari and Randall Cobb.
"There's a lot of interesting names that we'll see if there's desire to re-sign certain guys that are glue guys in the locker room, will be an interesting conversation to be had," Rodgers said. "Take all that away, I still need to mentally get to a point where I feel 100 percent locked in and ready to play a 19th season. And if I do, then we'll rock and roll and figure that out. If I don't, then we'll go into the jungles for a while."
Rodgers is not ready to make a decision on his future yet.
"They're not pressing for any type of specific answer, and I'm not mentally or emotionally at that point to give one," Rodgers said. "If I'm asked about it, I'll respond in honesty. But this is not going to be something where I'm going to respond to a bunch of inquiries about, 'What are you thinking this week?' Or 'What are you thinking next week?' It's get away from it mentally and emotionally, and then physically as your body starts to come back after a few weeks of TLC, then I think you're in a better frame of mind to contemplate your future."
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Cover photo of Aaron Rodgers by Jeff Hanisch, USA TODAY Sports
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