OPINION: It’s Over, But Not Over, Over

For a few breathtaking nanoseconds after a Tom Brady third-down pass sailed wide of its intended target, it seemed as if Green Bay might have a chance.

Despite another abysmal overall performance with mistakes in all three phases, it looked like the Hail Mary King would get one more chance to pull the Packers from the ashes. Then, a yellow hanky served as the final curtain rather than Aaron Rodgers’ curtain call. From the press conference that began minutes later onward, there has been incessant speculation over every word Rodgers has uttered.

Anyone in his shoes would realistically have doubts about serving out the remaining three years on his current contract, but Rodgers’ comments in the week after have been as affirmative as could be expected. Immediately after the loss of what he would have to admit was one of his last, best chances at a second Super Bowl appearance, Rodgers was hardly jovial. He spoke of unknowns pertaining to the pending free agencies of teammates like Aaron Jones, Jamaal Williams, Corey Linsley, Lane Taylor and Marcedes Lewis, while even hinting that “A lot of guys’...futures are uncertain, myself included.”

Predictably, those chomping at the bit for drama rushed to grow this molehill into the biggest mountain they could muster. Once the sports talk show storm grew too big to ignore, team president Mark Murphy and Rodgers each made public comments that should have put the matter to bed.

“We’re not idiots,” Murphy told The 5th Quarter Show on WNFL in Green Bay last Monday. “Aaron Rodgers will be back. He’s our leader.”

Rodgers weighed in himself on his weekly appearance on the Pat McAfee Show with his own perspective, saying “I don’t think there’s any reason why I wouldn’t be back.”

With Murphy on record as not wanting to self-label himself and the rest of the Packers’ front office as ‘idiots,’ and Rodgers far from the trade others had him supposedly demanding, was there room for more misinterpretation? As of Thursday, it appeared so, as Adam Schefter of ESPN suggested he was not “As convinced that everybody feels the same way about Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay as the coaches.” That basically puts everyone in the building on the same page except for perhaps the one person that actually pulls the trigger, general manager Brian Gutekunst.

While Gutekunst undoubtedly wants to build his own core around 2020 first-round draft pick Jordan Love that lasts well beyond Rodgers’ final snap in the NFL, to move on this offseason makes little to no sense. The NFL is likely facing a salary cap crunch due to the financial impact of COVID-19 and limited fans, not to mention the dead cap cost of cutting or trading Rodgers this year that exceeds $31 million according to Spotrac. For Gutekunst to subject the team president that hired him to looking like an idiot, ignore the will of his head coach and get rid of a player who has stated his desire to stay is a narrative that does not hold water.

The sunset of the Rodgers era in Green Bay is coming, but he is still in the saddle for now.