GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers and Aaron Rodgers’ agent, David Dunn, are working on a contract extension, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
Rodgers hasn’t decided if he wants to return to Green Bay, but the two sides are trying to hash out a deal to have it in place should the four-time NFL MVP wish to come back for a 15th season as the team’s starting quarterback.
“This would be a short-term deal that would make Rodgers the highest-paid player in the NFL,” Rapoport said.
General manager Brian Gutekunst said last week that he hasn’t put a timeline on Rodgers because Rodgers knows the offseason realities. The Packers need to cut Rodgers’ $46.6 million cap number down to help create the money to use the franchise tag on receiver Davante Adams. The deadline to tag Adams on March 6. It is that date that serves as the unofficial deadline.
“Earlier the better, depending on what that decision is,” Gutekunst said. “We’ve talked about this at length and he’s very aware of our timeline. I’m very hopeful that those things will happen the way they were supposed to, and I believe they will.”
Rodgers is coming off back-to-back seasons and the Packers are coming off three consecutive 13-win seasons. It didn’t mean a hill of beans in the playoffs, though, with Green Bay losing in the NFC title game in 2019 and 2020 and falling in the divisional round in 2021.
Still, the team’s success shows it’s a championship contender so long as it plays better in the big moments. That includes Rodgers.
“As a team, we have to play better,” Gutekunst said. “I don’t think it’s one player or anything. Obviously, we have the MVP of the league so I’m pretty pleased with his performance. But I think as a team, you have to complement each other. There’s going to be days where certain units on our team are playing well and then there’s days when they’re not and the other units gotta pick that up. I think we’ll get there. I think we got there a lot this year in different ways; just not at that moment.”
Rodgers and Adams are the two biggest decisions of the offseason as the team has to get to the $208.2 million salary cap by the start of the league-year on March 16. The Packers are about $30 million over the cap after restructuring the contracts of Kenny Clark, Aaron Jones and David Bakhtiari.
“Greatness is the expectation. It’s not a destination,” Rodgers said at NFL Honors. “I’m thankful for the 17 years I’ve gotten to play in Green Bay. I’m thankful for the squad that Brian (Gutekunst) and Russ (Ball) and Matt (LaFleur) put together the last few years. I think there’s a lot to build on there, whether I’m there or not. I think they’ve got a really good nucleus in place. Should I come back, there’s some things that need to get done, probably, to get the team where it needs to go.”
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