Why the Aaron Rodgers Free Agency Tour May Keep Dragging On

Reading the tea leaves on the reporting about the future Hall of Famer, he could still give the Vikings a chance to change their minds instead of committing to the Steelers or Giants.

Rodgers competing in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in 2024 / Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

Given what I believe about Aaron Rodgers and the Minnesota Vikings (that they should sign him), I’ve chosen to take Wednesday’s multiple reports about Minnesota’s apparent lack of interest in the future Hall of Fame quarterback differently. 

When NFL Network says the Vikings rejected multiple trade calls on J.J. McCarthy, telling other teams they are moving forward with him as their quarterback and that they plan on adding a veteran but are not pursuing Aaron Rodgers at this time; and The Athletic notes that the Vikings are not ready to commit to Rodgers and “against making the move for now,” it doesn’t seem like the slamming of a door, especially when jibing this sentiment with multiple reports that Rodgers is in no hurry to make a decision. 

Instead, I view it as Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell being a former quarterback and understanding what he would have wanted in the same circumstance. To me, it’s significant that we’re now finding out that multiple teams have tried to trade for McCarthy and the Vikings said no. Similarly, it’s just as significant that, in all these reports, the Vikings have seemed to commit to a bit of legalese, leaving the door open for Rodgers should the team’s confidence in McCarthy not end up justified. They are not bringing Rodgers in at this time. 

While any plan has its pitfalls, the handling of this situation from the Vikings’ perspective—as well as Rodgers’s—has been absolutely brilliant. The team is keeping a talented, desperate-for-meaningful-games quarterback on the hook while simultaneously gassing up a 22-year-old 2024 first-round pick and allowing him to operate the first phases of organized team activities with the confidence in knowing that O’Connell wouldn’t trade him or bring in legitimate competition. Rodgers, it would seem, is allowing himself the breathing room of not having to attend an optional NFL training program, which, at various points in his career, he has demonstrated his feelings on. 

If McCarthy has a phenomenal spring, the Rodgers interest will get completely buried as a kind of media creation. Rodgers can also sign with the New York Giants or the Pittsburgh Steelers if he so chooses, utilizing the extra months to decide whether he wants to play another chunk of his final snaps in games that may not lead him to meaningful playoff snaps … or call it a career and finally start that podcast. 

If McCarthy isn’t in shape, hasn’t fully recovered from his season-long injury from 2024 or doesn’t have that necessary gravitas, than Plan B can kick into gear and—I’m guessing—we’d start to learn that Minnesota has observed what great shape Rodgers is in and that the team feels he’s a benefit for McCarthy. 

To me, all of this underscores the fact that Rodgers wants to play for Minnesota, for O’Connell and with Justin Jefferson. That he’d like to go out with a less dour reputation as a player. It also underscores just how stunning it is that the Steelers and the Giants are still without starting quarterbacks and begs questions about whether the teams were misinformed about Rodgers’s interest, chose to believe that they were better positioned, or—as they will likely frame it—simply viewed Rodgers as one of many fleeting birds in this wayward duck hunt.

The more interesting question is what happens to Rodgers if McCarthy plays so well in the spring that he leaves no doubt about his future in Minnesota. Rodgers is one very mediocre season away from surpassing Ben Roethlisberger and Philip Rivers on the all-time passing yardage list, which would nestle himself just beneath Brett Favre at No. 5. He is one Kenny Pickett–like season away from passing Favre for fourth on the all-time passing touchdowns list, and one phenomenal season (36 TDs) away from passing Peyton Manning. 

While different people are motivated by different career goals, Rodgers seems to have purchased himself some breathing room to mull the importance of those facts. 

The cavalier members of the Giants’ and Steelers’ fan bases have begun to adopt the position that they’ll simply move on, which feels laughable given both teams’ current situations. With all due respect to Cam Heyward, who seemed to challenge Rodgers on a recent podcast by saying that Rodgers should either be in or out, my guess is that waiting for a Hall of Famer is better than praying Mason Rudolph dramatically evolves during his age-30 season and is now fit to lead a team of end-of-career veterans trying to hunt for the Super Bowl. I also don’t see any Giants faithful flying a banner over MetLife Stadium that says, “Tommy DeVito is just fine, thanks.” 

If Rodgers were to show up like Eddie Martel in The Replacements a few days before the start of Week 1, I’d imagine the Giants and Steelers would still have a hard time saying no (even if Rodgers ends up lacking “miles and miles of heart.”)

And, so, it would seem we best get comfortable getting comfortable. We’re in for the long haul on Rodgers whether we—or the non-Vikings teams hoping for his services—like it or not.