GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) – Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst reiterated Thursday that the team remains committed to quarterback Aaron Rodgers amid a report the reigning MVP doesn’t want to return to Green Bay.
“As we’ve stated since the season ended, we are committed to Aaron in 2021 and beyond,” Gutekunst said in a statement released by the team. “Aaron has been a vital part of our success, and we look forward to competing for another championship with him leading our team.”
In the hours leading up to the draft, ESPN reported that Rodgers doesn’t want to return to the Packers. The ESPN report said the Packers have offered to extend Rodgers’ contract and that team CEO Mark Murphy, Gutekunst, and coach Matt LaFleur each flew out separately to meet Rodgers during the offseason.
Rodgers, 37, has spent his entire career with Green Bay since the Packers selected him with the 24th overall pick in the 2005 draft. But his long-term future has been speculation ever since the Packers traded up four spots in the first round to select Rodgers’ potential successor, Utah State quarterback Jordan Love, with the 26th overall pick in last year’s draft. Rodgers has three years remaining on his contract after signing a four-year, $134 million extension in August 2018.
Gutekunst said Monday during a pre-draft Zoom session with reporters, “Aaron’s our guy.”
“We’re excited about Aaron Rodgers and his future with the Green Bay Packers,” Gutekunst said then. “We think he will be our quarterback for the foreseeable future. I believe that every year, there are different things you go through to kind of get to the season, and I think we’re going through those right now,w whether it be contractually or whether it be working with our players on other things and that’s where we are.
“Again, he’s such a unique, different player than anyone I’ve ever been around. He affects our organization in so many ways that you can’t value him because he’s so important to what we do. We’re excited moving forward and’ll see where things go.”
Rodgers acknowledged after last year’s draft that he was surprised by the Love selection and that it complicated his hopes of finishing his career at Green Bay. Even as Rodgers threw an NFL-leading 48 touchdown passes and earned his third MVP award last season, he referred to his future as a “beautiful mystery.” During a Zoom session with reporters following the Packers’ NFC championship game loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Rodgers said, “many guys’ futures are uncertain, myself included.”
Rodgers attempted to clarify those postgame remarks more minor than a week later when he said on “The Pat McAfee Show” that “I don’t think there’s any reason why I wouldn’t be back” with Green Bay in 2021.
“There are conversations to be had. I’m going to have them with the right people,” Rodgers said. “But it’s the same conversations we have every single year. There’s no big, ‘I’m going to come to the table with I need this, this, and this.’ We have honest conversations about where we’re at every year, whether with Brian, Matt, or Mark. I’ve had these conversations for years. That’s part of being a leader on the squad and having a pulse on the team and our direction.”
