Packers: Aaron Rodgers is going nowhere this offseason

Ever since the Green Bay Packers traded up to draft Jordan Love in the first round last spring, much of the conversation has been about Aaron Rodgers‘ future with the team.

Even after his MVP season which ended with the Packers exiting at the NFC Championship Game for the second straight year, the talk of Rodgers’ future continued.

However, general manager Brian Gutekunst echoed the comments of head coach Matt LaFleur and team president Mark Murphy by saying Rodgers won’t be traded this offseason.

“He’s our quarterback and he’s our leader,” Gutekunst said during Monday’s season-ending press conference.

When asked about the possibility of a trade, Gutekunst’s answer was clear.

“Absolutely not,” Gutekunst said. “Like I said, he’s such an important part of what we’re doing. He’s a leader of our football team and that’s not part of our plans.”

Case closed.

The team’s response has been clear on this. Aaron Rodgers is going nowhere.

And why would the team be desperate to move on? Rodgers is the almost-certain league MVP this year and is coming off arguably the best season of his Hall-of-Fame career. Including the postseason, Rodgers threw 53 touchdown passes with only six interceptions.

Those are video game numbers. To throw over 50 touchdowns but still protect the football like Rodgers did is simply phenomenal.

Going one step further than the NFC title game has to be the focus for this football team. Navigating through some salary cap challenges won’t be easy, but there are moves to be made to help this roster improve in 2021.

I wrote about five offseason moves the Packers need to make. The first was to commit to winning with Rodgers. Gutekunst’s comments on Monday made it 100 percent clear that Rodgers is the quarterback for a while longer yet.

Now the team needs to back up these comments by strengthening the roster for another Super Bowl run.