To the surprise of absolutely nobody, former Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has been the center of all sorts of drama during this NFL offseason.
With his two-year run with the New York Jets coming to an end—sorry, make that his one-year and four-play run—the four-time NFL MVP seemingly had several options at his disposal as it pertains to finding a new team. Retirement is clearly still an option as well, but we’ll put that aside for now.
Nobody ever really thought Rodgers would sign with the Cleveland Browns or Tennessee Titans, but both were apparently available to him. The New York Giants were a popular choice among pundits, but that went out the window when they signed both Russell Wilson and Jameis Winston.
Then, you’ve got the Pittsburgh Steelers, who let both Wilson and Justin Fields walk out the door in free agency and were (are) seemingly putting all their eggs in the Rodgers basket. Now, the New Orleans Saints may be in play, given the injury news surrounding Derek Carr.
And then, of course, we come to the Minnesota Vikings, who most believe were Rodgers’ preferred destination, as he apparently (and hilariously) wanted to just go ahead and complete the Brett Favre career path.
Favre, of course, was traded to the Jets in 2008 when the Packers were ready to hand the reins to Rodgers, just as Rodgers was dealt to New York two years ago when Green Bay was ready to give the ball to Jordan Love.
And after one season with Gang Green, the three-time MVP signed with the Vikings, which damaged his relationship with Green Bay for years. One has to assume Rodgers signing in Minnesota would do the same, especially if the reported plea he made is valid.
Aaron Rodgers reportedly wanted one year to help the Vikings win a Super Bowl and mentor J.J. McCarthy
The Vikings had a big decision to make this offseason regarding the quarterback position.
Around this time a year ago, they’d already signed Sam Darnold to a one-year, $10 million deal but then selected J.J. McCarthy with the 10th overall pick in the draft, clearly seeing the latter as the future of the franchise.
McCarthy, of course, went down with a season-ending injury in the preseason, thus giving Darnold a chance to shine, which he undoubtedly did, as he had the best season of his career while leading Minnesota to a 14-3 regular-season record.
There were reportedly discussions about bringing Darnold back, but he ultimately signed with the Seattle Seahawks.
The Vikings also thought about re-signing Daniel Jones, who they’d acquired late last season after he was released by the Giants, but he chose to ink a deal with the Indianapolis Colts, perhaps because he feels he has a better shot at taking Anthony Richardson’s job than he does taking McCarthy’s.
And make no mistake; the Vikings are moving forward with McCarthy, which is why Aaron Rodgers isn’t wearing purple and yellow right now. But according to Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer, the 10-time Pro Bowler did everything he could in an attempt to make that happen.
“When the four-time MVP reached out to the Vikings, with the idea of making a one-year run at a Lombardi and tying it to being a willing mentor for McCarthy, the team felt it had to listen,” Breer wrote.
“The proposition, of course, was different than the other two—they’d be jamming the pause button on the idea of playing McCarthy, rather than generating competition and multiple quarterback options.
“In the end, faced with all that, the Vikings found themselves emboldened to give McCarthy the runway to seize the job, the staff the opportunity to build the offense for him, and see how that looked at the end of the spring.
“So the Vikings passed on Rodgers, pushing their chips in on a 22-year-old.”
Packers fans can’t be pleased with hearing all that, nor can the organization itself.
Look, from purely a football standpoint, it makes sense for Rodgers. I mean, what quarterback wouldn’t want to sign up to throw passes to Justin Jefferson? And even beyond Jefferson, the Vikings certainly have enough talent on both sides of the ball to make another strong run at both the NFC North and the No. 1 seed in the NFC.
But Rodgers, like Favre all those years ago, clearly doesn’t care what this would have meant for the Packers. Nor did he seem to care that, like Favre, he would’ve immediately become a villain in Green Bay, which he really isn’t right now.
Sure, some are still upset with how his tenure ended, but one has to think he could easily go the route of signing a one-day contract with Green Bay and retire a Packer tomorrow if he wanted to.
But had he signed with the Vikings, one has to assume that it would take years for him to be welcomed back as a franchise hero, just as it took Favre several years to get back in the good graces of the organization. Favre is a villain to a lot of people these days for far different reasons, but we’re not going to get into that.
With Rodgers, it wouldn’t have only been him playing against the Packers as a Viking, it would’ve also been the fact that he was willing to mentor McCarthy.
None of this really matters now, as the Vikings have moved on. But if this is how things actually went down, maybe Rodgers will still be seen by some as a villain after all.
