Just Say No to Aaron Rodgers
May 6, 2021
by Steve Thomas
Apparently, Aaron Rodgers now wants out of Green Bay. Good for him. Allow me to answer the obvious question for you: Washington’s leadership should run from a trade for Aaron Rodgers like a child should run away from a nest full of angry wasps. I can’t think of a dumber thing to do than to trade significant assets for a 37 year old quarterback with a bad attitude. This sort of thing only works if the team is one player away from a Super Bowl. News flash: Washington is not one player away from a Super Bowl, and they have an absolutely brutal slate of opponents coming up in 2021.
Washington has an offense that needs to continue to gel, to put it kindly, and they need to keep adding talent. What sort of assets would a trade like this take to get done? Yes, Rodgers is a three-time league MVP and one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history, and it hypothetically sounds great to have a guy like that in the maroon and black[1], but the Packers wouldn’t just give him up for nothing – I assume the asking price is going to be multiple high draft picks, and possibly also a player in return. Is it really in this team’s best interests to trade away a significant number of high draft picks when this is still a young and developing team? I’d be all for it if the team already had a mature roster and there was a reason to believe that Rodgers was going to last more than a year or two, but they don’t, not on offense, and he probably won’t. And that’s to say nothing of Rodgers’ $37M cap hit in 2021 and $39M in 2022. Washington can’t afford that without dumping players or a re-negotiation by Rodgers, the latter of which almost always involves adding years to the end of existing contract years.
Do people actually want the Redskins Washington to trade away a bunch of high draft picks and get rid of a player or two either via trade or having to cut them, just for the honor of being married to a quarterback into his 40s at a high salary cap figure ? Plus, other than Tom Brady to Tampa Bay, how many times has an elite but old quarterback moving to a new team actually worked out? Does that sound like a good idea? Joe Montana didn’t win a Super Bowl in Kansas City and Peyton Manning got one in Denver but went 13 for 23 for 141 yards, 1 interception, and no touchdowns in a defensive battle in Super Bowl 50 in 2016, which means they probably could’ve done it without him. It seems to me that the idea of Rodgers is far better than the reality of Rodgers.
To me, the smartest play for Washington is to wait and draft a quarterback who can develop along with the rest of the roster. For a team in Washington’s situation, it’s by far better to find and develop your own superstar than trying, and probably failing, to buy someone else’s magic. It’s not like it’s a guarantee that Rodgers could come in here and drag Washington to a Super Bowl even in the best of circumstances, particularly given that the offensive system used by Ron Rivera and Scott Turner is different than what Rodgers has run for many years. Bringing in Rodgers would most likely improve Washington just enough to keep them out of the race to draft a top-rated quarterback, and with their draft assets having gone to Green Bay, they’d be unable to move up to get one.
More importantly, though, the Packers management needs to be very careful about moving Rodgers at all. If Green Bay is happy with Jordan Love and thinks he’s good enough to be their quarterback of the future, then so be it. But it would be a horrible idea to kowtow to a player simply because that player got his feelings hurt. That’s what the NBA has done time and time again – those team owners have in many respects surrendered their league to the whims of their players, and it hasn’t worked out for them from a fanbase growth perspective. Allowing every player who gets upset to pout their way out of town sets a bad precedent and takes far too much power away from ownership where it belongs and sends it to the employees, where it doesn’t belong. So, sure, if the Packers are just done with Rodgers, then by all means trade him, but if not, they shouldn’t allow one player to hold the franchise hostage. Tell Rodgers that he’s staying, period, and dare him to retire. If Rodgers calls their bluff and retires, then he loses the remaining portion of his annual base pay, the Packers could go after him for a refund of the remaining prorated portion of his signing bonus, and his replacement is already in the building. Whatever happens, my hope is that Washington does the right thing and stays away.
[1] Email us if you don’t understand this reference.