Packers: Why June 1 is important date in Aaron Rodgers situation

It’s felt like a year has passed since ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that Aaron Rodgers doesn’t want to return to the Green Bay Packers.

It’s now June 1, and that’s a significant date in this situation. We’ve heard about why it makes sense to trade Rodgers after this date and not before, but why is that?

The Packers have repeatedly said they won’t be trading Rodgers. However, if they change their mind and do agree to trade him away, doing so after June 1 always made the most sense.

It all comes down to how it impacts the salary cap both this year and in future seasons.

As ESPN’s Rob Demovsky noted, had the Packers traded Rodgers before June 2, his cap hit for 2021 would actually increase despite the fact he was no longer on the team. According to Over The Cap, Rodgers’ current cap hit for 2021 is $37.2 million. According to Demovsky, that would increase by around $1 million in a trade before June 2 as it would “accelerate his remaining signing bonus proration to the 2021 cap”.

According to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, trading Rodgers post-June 1 would create cap room for the current year, reducing Rodgers’ cap number down to $14.35 million. Clearly, that’s a significant difference from his current cap number. Green Bay would also take on a cap hit of $17.198 million in 2022.

Based on GM Brian Gutekunst’s comments to date this offseason, the Packers have no intention on trading Rodgers regardless. So it’s entirely possible the contract differences between trading Rodgers before or after June 1 makes no difference to them.

But it’s certainly something to keep an eye on. If they are willing to consider trading Rodgers, it would seem to make more sense to do so post-June 1.

Only time will tell. “Post-June 1” will be tomorrow. Maybe the Packers won’t trade Rodgers. But if they are going to consider it, doing so beyond this date makes more sense from a cap perspective than to have made a deal before now.