Green Bay Packers: Preparing for life after Aaron Rodgers

There is no shortage of different avenues the folks at 1265 Lombardi Ave can take this off-season in an effort to reconstruct this roster. The one thing we know for certain is that the front office has some difficult decisions to make and the Green Bay Packers are going to look awfully different moving forward.

Aaron Rodgers said after the team’s playoff exit that he intended to speak with the powers that be and take some time away from football before ultimately deciding on what comes next for the aging superstar.

One would have to imagine it would be difficult to walk away from football after back-to-back MVP seasons (presumably). So, if Rodgers returns it begs the question, who will he be throwing passes for?

The Packers laid out, in my opinion, a pretty transparent succession plan at quarterback. One that was set in motion on draft day back in 2020, with the intention of giving Jordan Love the keys to the car after the 2021-22 season. The likelihood of that plan coming to fruition increased when Rodgers re-negotiated his contract, voiding the final year of his deal (2023).

This essentially forces the Packers front office to either extend him — giving the team immediate cap relief by pushing money down the road — or trading him to free up money this off-season and accumulate significant draft capital in return to begin the re-tooling process.

Should Rodgers be dealt to another team, the Packers would free up over $19 million for next season, while taking on a dead cap hit of over $26 million. This cap relief would be significant for the franchise considering the financial corner the Packers have painted themselves into. Green Bay currently sits at roughly $50 million over the salary cap entering the off-season.

Which direction will the Packers go?

GM Brian Gutekunst is currently in the driver’s seat of a franchise-altering decision. No matter what route he decides to go, he’ll surely be scrutinized on a national level – much like his mentor Ted Thompson.

Should the Packers choose to extend Rodgers, Gutekunst is going to have his work cut out for him reconstructing this roster. Resources will be scarce, and there will be very little money to bring in impact replacements. There are also several big-name players the will need to be cut this off-season for financial reasons. This might not be appealing to an aging Rodgers who has said he has no intention of being a part of a rebuild.

However, we have to at least acknowledge that it’s been more than a decade since Green Bay has appeared in the Super Bowl, and while they’ve had a ton of success, change may be a necessity.

Which brings us to the next option, the one that I believe is the most likely to occur. I expect Rodgers will be dealt to another team sometime this off-season, hoping to load up on draft capital or other assets in effort to speed up the re-tooling process. This, of course, would put in motion a shift in QB1 to former first-round pick Jordan Love.

The only way this doesn’t happen is if Green Bay is absolutely certain he’s not capable of being a starting caliber quarterback in the NFL. Yes, Rodgers is better than Love, and probably will be until the day he walks away from the game. Nobody is arguing that, but Love doesn’t need to be Aaron Rodgers for this team to win games, he just needs to be passable, and play within the system he’s been learning for the last two seasons.

With the assets the Packers could presumably attain from dealing Rodgers, it’s not inconceivable that Brian Gutekunst could put together a quality supporting cast around the former Utah State standout.

The identity of this team is going to change, and that’s OK. They have a great offensive line, two stud running backs, and some stars on defense they can continue to build around. All hope is far from lost, things are just going to look different than we’ve become accustomed to. This will be Matt LaFleur’s team and we’re going to see it run exactly as he envisioned it when he took the job.

Fans need to begin mentally preparing themselves for the very real possibility that the Packers will be moving on from the best quarterback in franchise history, and soon. It might be time to turn the page and begin a new chapter of Green Bay Packers football.