Rodgers is back.

[vegas492]

22 minutes ago, packfanfb said:

Working on doesn't mean done but this is pretty close to confirmation. 

This is very funny to me.  Cobb.

I mean, Rodgers wants some kind of "say" over the roster.  Demanding that Cobb be brought back does not inspire confidence that he has any clue what he is doing in that regard.  And that is without taking Cobb's compensation right now into the equation.

OTHER BREAKING NEWS:  AJ HAWK HAS STARTED WORKING OUT AFTER RECEIVING A PHONE CALL FROM A GIDDY AARON RODGERS.  IT IS BELIEVED THAT HAWK WILL SOON BE A MEMBER OF THE PACKERS WITH A MASSIVE CONTRACT OFFER.

[packfanfb]

Rodgers lopping off QB heads. 

[Leader]

Just now, packfanfb said:

Rodgers lopping off QB heads. 

It's all about the people

[packfanfb]

Rodgers to Benkert: "Sorry bro, I'm the only QB here allowed to sport the long hair/man bun. I just cut your buddies Blake and Jake. You want next or nah?"

[ThatJerkDave]

2 hours ago, Pugger said:

We don't have to like Aaron Rodgers. We just want him to ball out and get us another Lombardi either this year or next.  I don't know the man personally and his private life doesn't effect me in the least.

oh, no doubt.  I really don't, don't like him that much either.  I am just having fun.  

[ThatJerkDave]

So what happens when we cut Cobb when we get to the 53 man cut down because Juwan Winfree is a better ST player?

[Old Guy]

Funniest thing I've seen all day. In the Bears forum they have a thread titled, "Latest on Aaron Rodgers!" It's one of their busiest threads! LOL They have nothing to talk about other than is Rodgers coming back to drill them twice again this year! 

Edited July 27, 2021 by Old Guy

[Isherwood]

2 hours ago, incognito_man said:

Oh I remember this. It was when we convinced ourselves our offense was WAYYY better than it actually was and we got our teeth kicked in by Denver in a like week 8 matchup of the undefeateds, right? I recall a buncha free play long passes to Jones that wasn't sustainable.

That was a brutal game. That was the beginning of McCarthy's end, where you could see the offense just wasn't working no matter what he would throw at the wall. Lost the team over it. 

Thankfully I trust the handsome and motivated MLF to use Cobb in a productive manner and continue to craft one of the NFL's best offenses out of whatever he's given 

[packfanfb]

 

[Smidgeon]

Cobb = Favre's Antonio Freeman Electric Boogaloo

[AlexGreen#20]

My annual attempt at blogging before I get bored and give up by week 2:

++++++++++++++++++++

What matters to Packer fans in the short term is that Aaron Rodgers has reported to camp. That places the team firmly in the hunt for another Lombardi trophy and should provide another extremely enjoyable season for fans. With that said, there is some long-term and short-term fallout from today’s events.

We will likely never know the full extent of the conversations pertaining to Aaron Rodgers future that took place over the past several months between Aaron Rodgers and the Packers triumvirate of Mark Murphy, Brian Gutekunst, and Russ Ball. No one other than the parties involved can claim to know everyone’s motivation, so I’m not going to declare anybody any kind of winner in this, but it does appear that both sides got what they wanted, albeit not everything they wanted. As Andrew Brandt is fond of saying, “you know it was probably a fair deal when neither side leaves particularly happy.”

+++

The details on the agreement between the two parties are still coming out, mostly from Adam Schefter. If Schefter is to be believed, the following contract mechanisms are going to happen:

·          Rodgers' contract would be adjusted with no loss of income to give the Packers more cap room now.

·         The 2023 year in Rodgers' contract -- the last one in his current deal -- would be voided, with no tags allowed in the future.

If those two agreements are to be believed, that would mean that Rodgers deal now likely breaks down in the following ways:

This assumes that Rodgers base salary is lowered to the league minimum and the rest is converted into a signing bonus. The two big items of note here is Rodgers lowering his 2021 cap hit by almost $9.5 million, and the Dead Cap hit to move on from Rodgers before 2022 going up by $9 million.

In the immediate future, lowering the 2021 cap hit will allow the Packers some flexibility to pursue a few different avenues. As it stands now, the Packers have $5 million in cap room. Getting the team up to $14.5 million makes a Davante Adams extension look far more palatable. An extension that sees Adams paid $75 million over the course of 3 years would probably add about $8 million to the Packers cap hit in 2021. The organization needs a decent piece of the Rodgers money to get that deal done if they choose to go that route.

Some of that money will likely go to bringing back Randall Cobb at Rodgers request. Cobb’s current cap hit to the Packers if traded for is $8.25 million. That’s really expensive for a 31 year old receiver who had less than 500 yards last year, but even something like $4.5 million becomes much more survivable with the extra cash on hand.

The other possibility is that money could simply be rolled over into 2022. The Packers are currently $35.7 million over the cap (given a $208 million dollar cap), Assuming that Rodgers is gone, that would save $13 million off of the current cap hit, but there’s still a lot of work to be done to get under the cap. Rolling over $10 million would do a lot to get the team within striking distance for next year. This obviously is before any hypothetical Davante Adams extension. The shortage of cap space in 2022, is another reason that Rodgers looks likely to be moved in 2022. This move made his cap hit go up $4.5 million in 2022 if he isn’t cut or traded.

The downside of this trade is the increased dead money in 2022 when Rodgers is likely to depart. The cap space for this year gets pushed into next year, which is inevitable. That’s going to somewhat impact the quality of the team the organization is able to put around Jordan Love, but the move straddles the fence between trying to win now and building towards the future.

The clause about not using the tags is interesting. That is the Packers one piece of leverage if Rodgers has another phenomenal year and they want him back, but Rodgers doesn’t want to come back. That may be a big deal, it may be nothing at all.

+++

In addition to the items that Schefter is reporting, there seems to be several soft promises made to Rodgers that will likely tell the tale of the future. Schefter is reporting that:

·         The Packers would agree to review Rodgers' situation at the end of this season.

·         Mechanisms will be put in place to address Rodgers' issues with the team.

·         The Packers will trade for Randall Cobb, pending Cobb altering his contract to bring his salary down to a more tolerable level.

In addition, and I’m only speculating, the Packers may do something to add the $500k back into his deal that Rodgers missed this year for holding out of OTAs.

The Cobb aspect has already been partially discussed. Cobb is something of a toxic asset for the Texans. He’s 31 years old and is scheduled to make $10.5 million next year. His salary in 2021 is guaranteed, so they can’t cut him to save money, but he could be traded, which would save the Texans $8.25 million. That $8.25 million in savings may be of more valuable to them than Cobb. That means the draft pick the Packers would send to the Texans is likely to be a 6^th or 7^th rounder.

Of course, all of this is dependent on Cobb re-negotiating his contract in order to join the Packers. Asking anybody to pay any kind of money out of pocket is a very difficult thing. I could see Cobb paying $1 million, or even $2 million, but I don’t know if he’s going to be willing to lower his cap number to something the Packers are willing to accept. Several sources are already reporting this is a done deal, so it will be interesting to see what the money actually comes out to.

“Mechanisms put in place to address Rodgers’ issues with the team” doesn’t seem to be anything worth discussing. It’s very likely a courtesy check in before any kind of moves are made, but if the writing is on the wall that Rodgers is gone after the year, I don’t think the org will take any of his opinions very seriously. It’s not like Rodgers is going to have the leverage to sit out a game because the Packers didn’t trade for someone at the deadline.

The last and most significant item is the decision to review Rodgers’ contract at the end of the season. Simply looking at the way that Rodgers contract is currently written, it seems like the plan was always to move on from Rodgers in 2022. But would the Packers be willing to do that if he has another MVP season?

The extent of this promise is something that doesn’t seem universally agreed upon around the league. Schefter seems to think that it’s essentially a guarantee that the Packers will trade Rodgers in 2022, if he asks to be traded. Others around the league have scoffed at that idea, basically saying that a verbal agreement is worth exactly as much as the paper it’s not written on. Given what we’ve seen and observed however, it seems likely that the Packers will explore a trade for Rodgers in 2022. It’s a situation that both sides seem to be interested in based on comments made in the media and how the contract was written.  

+++

If nothing else what is known around the league at this point, is that nobody is confusing this renegotiation for any kind of long-term peace. This is merely a temporary cessation of hostilities. If Rodgers isn’t traded immediately after the season, this story will be back to rear its ugly head immediately. I would encourage Packers fans to watch and enjoy Rodgers this year, because it looks like the train is coming to the end of the line after this year.  

[squire12]

19 minutes ago, AlexGreen#20 said:

Excellent review

 

awesome write up @AlexGreen#20

Definitely feels like this is a lets push the decision on this until after 2022.  

GB gets Rodgers for 2021 where they have a contender and have made moves pushing a lot into winning in 2021 ...re-signing Jones, Bahktiari, pushing money out on Z Smith, P Smith, Amos, Turner.

Rodgers gets the 2023 year dropped, possibly the no tag clause and potentially some say on a possible trade destination. 

The cap savings for 2021 is a nice get to provide more flexibility for in season moves, pushing some into 2022 is not ideal, but that is a situation GB will have to deal with then.  

My personal thoughts are that Rodgers is probably 80-90% gone from GB after 2021 barring another MVP season and a super Bowl appearance.  That % can certainly change if Jordan Love shows something in developing or not.  

*****************

I think this makes any extension on Adams really interesting.  GB would not have more cap to work with for 2021, but would GB want to add another big contract in 2022 if Rodgers is likely gone and the team moves into a mini rebuild/reload.  Adams at a 3-4 year extension that is $20-25M per year (or more) is a tough pill to swallow.  

[40Year Pack Fan]

4 hours ago, Old Guy said:

Funniest thing I've seen all day. In the Bears forum they have a thread titled, "Latest on Aaron Rodgers!" It's one of their busiest threads! LOL They have nothing to talk about other than is Rodgers coming back to drill them twice again this year! 

Complaining on the outside, contended on the inside....One excuse they've fostered as to the reason for their irrelevance will go on at least one more season....

[mikemike778]

17 hours ago, incognito_man said:

This is just categorically false. He could have EASILY restructured back in Feb/March and made it possible to add another piece or two to the 2021 roster.

 

You are missing the point.

Output claims we can't win the super bowl because Rodgers cap hit is too high which is clearly nonsense when we have borrowed it from next year. Which of the following gives you a better chance of winning in 2021

• Rodgers has a 10% cap hit
• Rodgers has a 30% cap but you secure an extra 25% cap space by pushing money back into future years via void years

Obviously the second of these gives us more money to spend in 2021 and therefore a better chance of winning (whilst screwing the 2022 team).  But Outpost's silly QB percentage rule suggests we can win the super bowl with option one (because it doesn't break his 12% rule) but not with option two.

[Leader]

Andrew Brandt / SI - Rodgers Returns, But What Did He Get?

Aaron, by all reports, wanted out of Green Bay, and had for some time. I am still not sure about the “wanting out” part of the reporting, but I do know he had issues there, yes. There appeared to be no one in the Packers front office for whom Aaron felt as a “point person,” someone he could shoot the breeze with about things beyond football and talk to openly and honestly. I have spoken before about the Packers’ tradition of “football guys” running the operation, with great talent in player evaluation but deficiencies in communication and people skills. Although I was clearly a minority in this thinking, I always believed the Packers should be more communicative publicly, as I have always seen them as somewhat of a public trust, but they are not. And I think that filters down to player communications.

When the Packers drafted Love, I said two things: 1) we had an expiration date on Aaron and the Packers (what I have always thought to be 2022); and 2) the Packers would have to manage this situation, as we did many years ago with Brett Favre in Aaron’s current role and Aaron in Love’s role, and that’s not easy. It is challenging managing a situation with no specific transfer point and competing interests on each side. And it appeared the Packers had not managed this well.

Aaron is not blameless here, but superstars like Aaron drive the product; they move the needle; they merit special treatment. The Packers seemed to be stuck in a pattern of treating everyone the same and not making special allowances for anyone, even Aaron, and that was coming home to roost. It is the world we live in; sports is a star-driven business and stars have to be treated with great care and attention. Adapt or die.

I have said for months that the Packers weren’t trading Aaron in 2021, that Aaron can’t trade himself, that he wouldn’t retire, that the Packers would make some kind of financial or other accommodation to have Aaron play this year and that he would be traded in 2022. I believe this is on track.

Deadlines spurred action (sound familiar) and after all the angst and breathless reporting of Aaron’s discontent, he is going to play this season for the Packers. There are reported “concessions” made to Aaron, with some information on them, although still awaiting the details.

In recent weeks and even as recently as Sunday, I advanced a potential resolution that both sides would hate, but often the most distasteful deals are the ones that get done. It would have had the Packers granting Aaron a void, an ability to get out of the contract—as the Patriots gave to Tom Brady a couple years back—after this season (2021). It would be distasteful to the Packers as they would get no trade compensation in 2022. It would be distasteful to Aaron because if he wanted out of Green Bay as bad as it seemed. But maybe, I posited, the mutual distaste could make it work. It was food for thought.

According to reports, there was a meeting of the minds between the Packers and Aaron in this way I advanced, with a void. But, surprisingly to me, the void is after 2022, not after 2021. Thus, the Packers would retain the ability to garner trade compensation for Aaron next year after riding his expected MVP-level play this year. To me, this seems like a win for the Packers. Their plan, in my mind, has always been to play Aaron this year and move to Love next year. My sense was that Aaron was not down with that and perhaps he even suggested to just move the calendar up a year and trade him now, which the Packers have resisted all along. But alas, the Packers will have their wish: Aaron as both MVP and placeholder for Jordan Love.

Another concession that was reported was some kind of review of the situation after this year, despite the void not being until after next year. What does that mean? Well, to me, that means Aaron will be traded and have major input into where he is traded. And according to reports the Packers, at Aaron’s request, will be bringing back Randall Cobb to the team; a step, although not a huge ask from the team.

Again, my strong sense is that the Packers plan was to move to Love in 2022, next year. And their plan is intact.

I am left scratching my head as to what Aaron accomplished here but maybe it was the reporting, not Aaron’s discontent, that was over the top. Wasn’t Aaron, according to reports, “done with Green Bay”? And now he is committed there another year, perhaps even two, for getting a void in 2023 and Randall Cobb? Really?

I guess what all of this means is what I have said all along: There is a limit to player empowerment, even for the elite of the elite, in the NFL. Aaron is a true superstar, but in a sport still tilted towards management. He is not James Harden or Anthony Davis; this is not the NBA. The superstars have some power in the NFL, but the teams have more, a lot more. Heck, it took 20 years for Tom Brady to “get out” of New England and exert some level of power. As I say often, the only true driver of player power in team sports is free agency, and NFL teams prevent that well with long-term contracts (which Aaron had) and the franchise tag. NBA superstars always hit free agency; NFL superstars virtually never do.

Maybe one day we will have true player empowerment in the NFL, where A-listers like Aaron can truly force teams’ hands in a way that did not happen here. But that day is not today. As great as players like Aaron are, the winning side of the business of football is still the team side.

According to reports, there was a meeting of the minds between the Packers and Aaron in this way I advanced, with a void. But, surprisingly to me, the void is after 2022, not after 2021. Thus, the Packers would retain the ability to garner trade compensation for Aaron next year after riding his expected MVP-level play this year. To me, this seems like a win for the Packers. Their plan, in my mind, has always been to play Aaron this year and move to Love next year. My sense was that Aaron was not down with that and perhaps he even suggested to just move the calendar up a year and trade him now, which the Packers have resisted all along. But alas, the Packers will have their wish: Aaron as both MVP and placeholder for Jordan Love.

Another concession that was reported was some kind of review of the situation after this year, despite the void not being until after next year. What does that mean? Well, to me, that means Aaron will be traded and have major input into where he is traded. And according to reports the Packers, at Aaron’s request, will be bringing back Randall Cobb to the team; a step, although not a huge ask from the team.

Again, my strong sense is that the Packers plan was to move to Love in 2022, next year. And their plan is intact.

I am left scratching my head as to what Aaron accomplished here but maybe it was the reporting, not Aaron’s discontent, that was over the top. Wasn’t Aaron, according to reports, “done with Green Bay”? And now he is committed there another year, perhaps even two, for getting a void in 2023 and Randall Cobb? Really?

I guess what all of this means is what I have said all along: There is a limit to player empowerment, even for the elite of the elite, in the NFL. Aaron is a true superstar, but in a sport still tilted towards management. He is not James Harden or Anthony Davis; this is not the NBA. The superstars have some power in the NFL, but the teams have more, a lot more. Heck, it took 20 years for Tom Brady to “get out” of New England and exert some level of power. As I say often, the only true driver of player power in team sports is free agency, and NFL teams prevent that well with long-term contracts (which Aaron had) and the franchise tag. NBA superstars always hit free agency; NFL superstars virtually never do.

Maybe one day we will have true player empowerment in the NFL, where A-listers like Aaron can truly force teams’ hands in a way that did not happen here. But that day is not today. As great as players like Aaron are, the winning side of the business of football is still the team side.