Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Emergency podcast -- Aaron Rodgers is going to play for the Green Bay Packers

Episode Date: July 26, 2021

Matthew Coller and Sam Ekstrom get together to break down reports that Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers have worked things out and that Rodgers is coming back. How good will the Packers be with him under center? What does it mean for the Minnesota Vikings this year? Where do we think Rodgers finishes his career? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to an emergency podcast, Matthew Collar and Sam Ekstrom here and Sam A.A. Ron is back in Green Bay. Adam Schefter and Ian Rappaport and the like have been reporting throughout Monday that Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers have come to an agreement that not only will convince Aaron Rodgers to come back and play but also sets up for a potential Aaron Rodgers exit after this season. Rodgers is back. Your thoughts.

Rodgers, I think, did a pretty masterful job of digging his heels in and giving no wiggle room. I never sensed that there was anything coming from his camp that was leaving the door open. So he did a nice job of negotiating. The interesting thing is, is that the Vikings have used this tactic with a couple key players. Now, it's not someone as notorious as Aaron Rodgers, but they kind of used it with Anthony Barr. Like, hey, Anthony, we'll give you early free agency

if you come back and play this year at this price. Hey, Daniil, we'll slash a couple years and give you a chance to renegotiate after this year. And same thing with Everson Griffin. So like, this is a tactic that's been used and we just don't see it very often with franchise quarterbacks who teams are usually desperate to extend, like, you know, even before they have to, to keep them around. And the quarterbacks are usually amenable to that. So this is just an unprecedented situation where things are so tenuous,

the quarterback will only return on the grounds that he can then leave. And I'm sure the team is maybe delusionally optimistic that if they have time, like another year with Aaron, that they can woo him, whether it's with their own success, whether it's with some smooth-talking executive, whether the captains on the team can convince him to stick around longer. But they moved around a lot of cap space and renegotiated other contracts to kind of keep the gang together for this year at the expense of future salary caps.

They were really all in for this season, and expense of future salary caps like they are we're really all in for this season and it would have been insane if they hadn't had Aaron Rodgers to bring it all together so they needed to do whatever was required of them and it appears like though we don't have official confirmation at this point every report points to that it's still not great like rogers is not going to hang around forever but he will come back it seems for at least one more year and then potentially negotiate his own exit from the team which is an amazing power position for rogers and who can now sort of set up his next contract based on what he does this year it is truly a last dance situation he and Devante Adams had put on Instagram a picture of Jordan and Pippen and my thought was oh okay I get it

then they're coming back for this year and that's going to be it after this that's the message nobody in Chicago was happy in 1998 and they came back and if I recall pippin said i don't want to f up my summer and everyone was unhappy with jerry kraus at the time the bulls general manager and some people are too young or didn't see the documentary and misunderstood what was going on with these pictures and to me it clearly meant they're going to come back sort of in spite of the team they're going to try to win a super bowl and then they're both going to leave and go their separate ways. Just the same way that Pippen and Jordan, you know, Jordan retires, Pippen ends up with the Rockets, that kind of thing. That very well may be the case the way that this is set up, because he has the power to have himself traded somewhere, which is why he can't become a Viking.

Unfortunately for Vikings fans who want the Favre route, I don't think it's going to happen. But the way that it is, is it's voiding the 2023 and it looks like they're saying we will trade you after this year or you can continue to play that out and negotiate a new contract. That is the read from smart people. I saw Joel Corey, who is a former NFL agent, was reading it exactly that way. And that's the way that makes most sense for both sides, because that also allows the Packers to decide whether they want to turn to Jordan Love at that point. The original reason they drafted Jordan Love was they thought that Aaron Rodgers was dipping in his value, which he kind of was in 2018 and 2019.

He wasn't as good as he was in 2020. And so if he does not have another MVP season, then they will happily trade him to someone else and move on to Jordan Love because they'll think, why should we have a quarterback who is, you know, hit that wall and started to decline some of the same way that with the Chargers, where the Chargers said, okay, Phillipilip rivers we love you but it's kind of over we're going to draft somebody else and move on and you can go play for the indianapolis colts i think that that is ultimately what ends up happening here with aaron rogers from the perspective of this year though guess what vikings your run as the nfc north champion champion or favorites for the NFC North championship was

very short a very very short run as the favorite in the NFC North and now the mountain is back up to full peak that they have to climb in order to prove it this year and Rodgers will come here late in the season now his presence makes the second half of that schedule very challenging for the Vikings. They go on the road. They play a bunch of teams that were in the playoffs last year. And now it's Aaron Rogers twice in the final. I think it's maybe eight weeks or something like that. Final six weeks, they play him twice.

And that both makes things more difficult for the Vikings, but also says, OK, prove it. If you fix this defense, prove it. If Cousins can win big games down the stretch to get you in playoff position, if you can win the NFC North, prove it. Because Rodgers and his team are there. And now you have a real opponent. This ain't Detroit or a rookie quarterback in Chicago. You've got a real opponent. Go beat them. Yeah,

this is so much better for us and for the theater of potentially a Roger Swan song. I'm excited for it. Fans might not be Mike Zimmer might not be who's had like a sort of tongue in cheek rivalry with Aaron Rodgers over the years. And I think he respects the heck out of him, but he always says things like, I hate him. I hope he, I hope hope he leaves but I think they need each other it's kind of like Batman and Joker um you can't get rid of Rodgers he's gonna stick around and uh Mike Zimmer will have the challenge again and I have a hard time seeing Rodgers like sucking after after this I think he's gonna come in really good like a lot of quarterbacks if they goofed around all summer you know at charity golf tournaments and you know kind of visibly vacationing you might say well they might not be thinking about football but it's Aaron Rodgers

he's he could come in any day um with any amount of time before the season and probably perform pretty well I'm pretty confident of that I guess the only thing I'm curious about is whether or not he's generated any resentment from his teammates. And I get the feeling that kind of the people that are most important for Rodgers, it's going to be Devontae Adams. Okay, well, he and Rodgers both seem to kind of have similar gripes with the organization. We know a little less about Adams, but I think they're going to be on the same page. He's tight with Bakhtiari. I mean, the offensive line is going to protect him. It's not like he has to be buddies with the defense. He doesn't have to be, I don't care if he's friends with Aaron Jones, to be honest either. Like as long as he's got chemistry

with his wide receivers and offensive line, and it sounds like he wants Randall Cobb back, he's going back to the Randall Cobb well, which I'm, I'm scratching my head a little bit, but that's fine. Uh, he must, I'm sure Amari Rogers loves that news. Oh, great. You're going to go back to the, the 35 year old wide receiver. That's awesome. But, uh, I think, I think he's going to perform and I think that team is set up to win. So it is going to be a challenge for the Vikings to take down a team that's been 13 and three the last two years the only thing that's really different about their

roster is that they lost uh offensive linemen and um I you know look I mean it's Aaron Rodgers so even if you're not a perfect offensive line or one that is allowed to hold all the time according to Mike Zimmer then you're still going to be good i mean repeating an mvp year is very difficult there's going to be fans in the stands this year which will impact aaron rogers at u.s bank stadium and probably lots of other places but it will also impact all the other quarterbacks in that way as well and last year it wasn't like Rodgers showed signs of aging along with his great season, where even with Drew Brees in his final years, he still had great statistics. But you would also watch him and go, oh, you know, I'm not sure that the arm strength is

really there anymore. Right. Even Peyton Manning, when he had his great year, I think it was 2014, where he was really, really good statistically. There was still some ducks that were getting thrown, and the velocity wasn't there, and then that really showed up in 2015. Same with Phillip Rivers, same with Matt Ryan, Ben Roethlisberger. All these guys are still good, but not versions of themselves as they were before.

But Rodgers, he looked every bit as strong, and then he has an offensive setup that is similar to Kirk Cousins all the things they do to protect Kirk Cousins they're now doing them with Aaron Rodgers and then he can make the special plays that allowed him to be MVP so I don't know if he'll win MVP again but he is a formidable opponent that I would put at them right now with Aaron Rodgers coming back, especially with this sort of Jordan complex that he has now trying to win the Superbowl in his final year, trying to do the last dance thing and trying to sort of solidify his legacy with the other all-time great quarterbacks who have more than one Superbowl and get one more than Brett Favre. I think he's going to be incredibly

motivated. And all through the years, there have been players who don't like Aaron Rodgers that much. He's had lots of uncomfortable situations there, and yet he's always in the MVP race. So if I'm predicting right now, and tell me if you disagree, I would say that they win 13 games this year, the Packers. 13 to four season. Yeah. See, they were primed for regression last year based on some of the underlying analytics the 2019 team might have been a paper tiger and everyone assumed that you know that was going to be a 10 win team 10 and 6 last year and then they go in 13 and it was a better 13 like the offense was more dominant than the previous season. The defense was stingier than the 2019 team. And even though the record was the same, that looked like a legit

13 and three. And then, you know, a couple of plays from the Superbowl, obviously, you know, looking at the schedule, they do have some pretty tough opponents on the road, particularly Baltimore, Kansas city, Minnesota, Minnesota obviously New Orleans we don't know as much about them yet that's week one and San Francisco like the road schedule is pretty hard for Green Bay this year 13 wins is a lot like that's that's such a good season a lot of teams get one of those like every 20 years they've had two in a row I just I can't see everything going so well that they win 13 again I think it's going to be more of a tight battle to the finish in the NFC North I think the Vikings and Packers will finish within one or two games of each other and it comes down

to week 17 18 that's my gut um but you know again it is sort of that last dance feel and maybe the Packers will be galvanized because of that. And, you know, they're meeting with the Vikings and I can't remember what week it is. I have it right here. Eleven and seventeen. Eleven and seventeen. Yeah. I mean, that week eleven game is going to mean a ton because that's that's going to be the first time that that one of the two teams is is going to be able to have the chance to separate from the other and and kind of get in the driver's seat for that tiebreaker so if Minnesota wins that game I think it's going to be a really even battle down to the stretch I just feel like the version of Rodgers that was there last year even if that drops a little bit in Matt LaFleur's offense with Devante Adams. If they add Randall Cobb, then at very least they've got two receivers that should be a little more helpful for them in Amari Rogers

and in Randall Cobb. And Randall Cobb has been very effective as a slot receiver throughout his career. So even if he is old and not like the old version of Randall Cobb, still somebody who's better than whatever they were running out there for third and fourth and fifth receivers behind Devante Adams. I think Rogers will just continue to be one of the great NFL quarterbacks that he's usually been because he didn't show those signs of aging last year. I could always be wrong. He could always pull the Peyton Manning or what we saw from drew breeze and

just suddenly hit the skids. It's just hard to see with the shape that he's been in from last year. And even before that, you know, he gets them to a 13 and three season, even if he wasn't quite as great. So even if he isn't quite as great, that roster is strong. Their offense is strong. They've got a terrific running game, a good offensive line a good defense they are for me they are the nfc favorite sort of co-favorite with tampa bay i think there's more of a chance that tom brady falls off than aaron rogers but that's that's what your conference is right now your conference is sort of this is sort of same as it ever was nfl like aaron rogers tom brady and then everybody else is hoping something bad happens to Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady.

That's that's the way I see this season. But if if Rodgers is fully healthy for the entire year, there's a lot of the things that can repeat. When you don't have a Rodgers, you expect regression. But like you said, they won 13 games a couple of years ago and then they just yeah two years ago and then just did it again and so i i expect them to be not quite as good but to still win a heck of a lot of football games so let me ask you this though um before we wrap up our short emergency podcast here and we can get into other rogers related things as we go along and camp begins um who do you think aaron rogers finishes career with he's kind of making it clear with this that he doesn't want that team to be the green bay packers so who does he finish it with you know denver was going to be the team this year um the mark schlereth scoop on draft night didn't go as mark schlereth planned he said it was a done deal rogers to to denver and

it was pretty easy to latch on to that because denver doesn't have a quarterback really right now that that has a track record they have a history of going after veteran quarterbacks they have a new gm former viking george payton who might be wanting to make a splash you know there's a winning tradition there john elway struggles to draft the guy, like a lot of reasons. So I guess unless Drew Locke is really good, that still seems like a possibility to me. But now the door is open to other possibilities, probably in the AFC. If there is going to be a trade after this year, some of the scuttlebutt is that Aaron Rodgers will have at least some control over where he lands um I can't imagine it's 100% control

because if he said I want to play for the Vikings Green Bay would never allow for that uh and he probably wouldn't say this but if he wanted to play for Detroit I'm sure that wouldn't happen either like I'm sure there's going to be some parameters set up that he's going to leave the conference. He's probably going to the AFC. And then if you narrow it down from there, you know, there's probably half a dozen teams that might be in the running. Um, is Miami going to work out with, you know, with Tua, if that goes awry, maybe he winds up in South beach and goes the LeBron route, taking his talents there. Um, I, I, it's hard to speculate. Um, you probably want an answer though. So I don't cop out. So I will say Miami. Okay. And I think that's a really good pick. Yeah. The thing with someone

like Houston is that makes the most sense for the Packers, but if they're not in great shape, then Rogers could just go, Nope, I'm not doing that. And it seems like from their reporting, he's going to have control over where he goes. So they will have to work on a deal together to decide where Rodgers ultimately ends up. And I think that Miami is a great choice and one that I was probably going to say myself.

But I also thought of the Indianapolis Colts, if Carson Wentz doesn't work out the Las Vegas Raiders, if they look pretty good, but also maybe want to move on from Derek Carr, that could be a possibility. AFC teams are a little harder to find than NFC teams for, for teams with the future quarterback questions. And I mean, it is, yeah, the Broncos still make the most sense for them for sure. But if there's one NFC team that's out of the division that could be looking for quarterback, it could be good that he would consider going to, I was thinking the New York giants,

because if Daniel Jones and great, that roster is actually really good. They have Kenny Galladay. Now they drafted Kadarius, Tony, their defenses in pretty good shape that that could be a team he might want to go to. It's just, would they actually trade him to the New York giants being that it's the NFC? So the, you know, the other team, maybe a dark horse here could be if Ben Roethlisberger leaves and the Pittsburgh Steelers are another team that's pretty strong, but doesn't have a quarterback and he could take them to the next level. So, I mean the the possibilities are all over the map what about the Rams like I I just I can't get out of my head that okay he's got this you know fiance who's an actress LA is probably a little bit of a hotbed you know they

trying to find something that works for both of them um Stafford you know and you'd be the first to say this Stafford is no guarantee to work out in LA. Contractually, things might get messy there, but who wouldn't want to get a chance to play with those receivers and that coach in a great climate toward the end of your career? I think that could be another kind of crazy sleeper if things go badly for the Rams this year. Yeah. And with Matt Stafford's contract situation, I'm just looking at this right now. They can cut him after this year with zero dead cap. So this is, yeah,

this is essentially a contract year for Matt Stafford as well, which the only thing is how much would the Rams have to be able to trade to the green Bay Packers after trading right a couple of first round picks but there's a lot on the table for aaron rogers give me your odds that he actually finishes his career as a green bay packer so i would say about 15 to 1 but i'll lower it to um 10 to 1 because he could retire he could retire he could i mean he could call it quits if they they win the super bowl certainly or even if they don't he could just say i'm done that's exactly what i was thinking if they win the super bowl then aaron rogers retires goes off into the sunset pulls

the peyton manning i think that it's become very clear how much he cares about his legacy here and so he's either going to win a super Bowl here or go Super Bowl chasing with the best possible team. And it's very hard to project the year out who the best team is. But I would put Denver still as the favorite. Let's say Denver starts Teddy. They go nine and eight. Like they'll easily take Aaron Rodgers after that

if that is the case and that's where he wants to be. So I would also, I'm just gonna add this that i feel like we've been on it we we never expected aaron rogers to retire we never expected him to host jeopardy no matter how dodgy it got no matter the reports no matter vegas took it off the board at one point and there were all these reports oh vegas knows vegas knows um vegas knows a lot but they don't know everything so So Rodgers is coming back, and this makes this Vikings season all the more interesting.

So, all right, that's your emergency episode. We'll catch you next time.