Without Rodgers, Who Would Start at QB for  Packers?

One sportsbook lists 17 candidates to replace Aaron Rodgers. Plus, another sportsbook hints at the Packers’ championship odds without their MVP QB.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Aaron Rodgers will not be the Green Bay Packers’ starting quarterback to open the 2021 NFL season. That’s the latest odds, anyway, at Bet Online.

At BetOnline.ag, the odds are -140 that Rodgers will not be Green Bay’s Week 1 starter. That Rodgers will start is even money.

If it’s not Rodgers, who will be the Packers’ starting quarterback to open the upcoming season?

Not Jordan Love, Rodgers’ hand-picked successor. Rather, it will be Denver Broncos quarterback Drew Lock. That’s what the oddsmakers at SportsBetting.com say, anyway.

Its list of candidates goes 17 deep. Leading off is Lock at +300. The Packers were interested in Lock in the 2019 draft and the Broncos are considered the leading contender to acquire Rodgers if there’s a trade.

Up next is the Las Vegas Raiders’ Derek Carr at +400. The Raiders are another potential landing spot for Rodgers, with Carr presumably being a part of any trade. Carr and Davante Adams were teammates at Fresno State. Love has the third-shortest odds at +500.

Two interesting names are next on the list: Seattle’s Russell Wilson at +700 and Miami’s Tua Tagovailoa at +800. Teddy Bridgewater, who will compete with Lock for the starting job in Denver, is +1200.

Meanwhile, at PointsBet, Green Bay remains the top choice for Rodgers to open the 2021 season. The Packers are -150, followed by the Broncos (+130), San Francisco 49ers (+700), Raiders (+900).

There’s already been some movement in the Super Bowl market due to the uncertainty. At PointsBet, Green Bay has the eighth-shortest championship odds. If Rodgers were to be traded, it would sink into the neighborhood of NFC North rivals Minnesota and Chicago.

“Given the fact that he is second in terms of odds to win the MVP (behind only Mahomes), Aaron Rodgers will have a huge impact on whichever team he plays for this year,” PointsBet analyst Mike Korn said. “The Broncos currently sit just behind the Packers in terms of odds to win the Super Bowl (Packers at +1800, Broncos at +2200). If Rodgers were to leave Green Bay, the Packers would no longer be one of the top title contenders and their odds would move out to somewhere north of +4000. On the other hand, if the Broncos were to get Rodgers, they would immediately be in title contention. Their odds would shift south of +1500, but they would still find themselves behind the Chiefs and Bucs in terms of odds.”


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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.