The Ringer NFL Show - Aaron Rodgers Is Back in Green Bay. But Will He Be Traded Next Season?

Episode Date: July 27, 2021

Kevin and Nora react to the deal that will bring Aaron Rodgers to training camp in Green Bay. What concessions did the team make to convince him to come back? Plus: Will this situation ultimately result in Rodgers getting traded this season? Hosts: Kevin Clark and Nora Princiotti Producer: Bobby Wagner Additional Production: Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On R2C2, C-2, C-Sabathia and Ryan Rucco guide listeners through everything going on in the MLB, NBA, and NFL. They also talk to friends, athletes, and celebrities about the world of sports and much more. Check out R2C2 with C-C-Sabathia and Ryan Ruko on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. It is the ring-o-fell show, part of the Ringer Podcast Network. I am Kevin Clark. Semi-emergency Aaron Rogers edition. Aaron Rogers has reported to camp. He's going to play 2021 with the Green Bay Packers.

I'm in Pittsburgh. It is for the first time in two years. a ringer-round a fellow show recorded in a car on the side of the road in 90-degree heat. I cannot emphasize enough how much I've missed this. Nora Preciati, what's going on? I was going to say, I think it's pretty exciting. I think, you know, you're doing a great job of powering through and making this happen. Big picture.

Pretty nice to have on-the-road car recording podcast. I am not in any way complaining. I am extremely sweaty right now. I look like absolute garbage, and I couldn't be happier. You look great, Kevin. Don't talk about yourself like that. The car is not running, so I'm going to progressively less great as we continue with this Rogers pod. Okay, if there's any bad takes, it's due to the heat on the side of the road, by the way.

That's a blanket statement for all of our shows, I think. Blake Bortles has been released. You know, tough one. You got to feel bad. You got to feel bad for Blake Bordles. But this is a decision that is going to have major implications on the 2021 season on the rest of the Packers franchise for the rest the decade. There's a lot to digest here. Nora, take us through the concessions that the Packers made. All right. Yeah. So as of a few days ago, I think the NFL world writ large felt like

there was a pretty solid chance that Aaron Rogers was not going to show up to Green Bay for training camp as he did this morning at around 8.30 central time. But, and it's not done yet, but according to Adam Schefter, the concessions that in basic form are being made for Rogers to get him to show up are mainly that the 2023 year in his contract, which was the last one in his current deal, will be voided with no tags allowed in the future. This, again, this is, according to ESPN and

Adam Schaefter, the Packers will quote, agree to review Rogers's situation at the end of the season. We can put a pin in that and figure out what that means in a second. Rogers' contract will be adjusted with no loss of income to give the Packers more salary cap room. So realistically, that

means that they're going to convert money to signing bonus, and he'll get the same amount of money this year, but the Packers will be able to probably in practice have more flexibility with Devante Adams. Sounds like they're trading for Randall Cobb, so have a little bit more financial wiggle room there. And then, again, this is Schefter's wording. Mechanisms will be put in place to address Rogers' issues with the team.

So the biggest thing here is that they're making the 2023 year void, which sets up a situation where they will have to, figure out how they can come together next off season and likely trade Rogers somewhere else. Now, I'm hedging that a little bit, right? Because it sounds like what Rogers would like most of all. And again, this deal, as we're recording, is not quite done. What Rogers would like is full say over where he gets traded next off season. The benefit to Green Bay there being that they get something in return for a trade instead of letting him leave as a free agent. the following year. But what type of control he has over that is not quite clear yet.

And what reviewing his situation at the end of this season means is also not quite clear. So there's some stuff to be worked out. But the big picture is that this is probably Aaron Rogers' last season in Green Bay. So there's a lot to unpack here. First of all, is this was one of the most dramatic offseason moves in history to on draft day. The story comes out that he doesn't want to play in Green Bay. Bay anymore and it ends with kind of a whimper in the sense. I agreed, Adam Schedfer said this couple weeks ago on Chris Collinsworth's podcast and I agreed with this that if Aaron Rogers was

actually going to get out for 2021, he would need to have dirtied his hands. He couldn't have done the passive aggressive. I'm not getting involved with the drama kind of thing that he did. And so I kind of felt that he was going to play this whole time. I think that was pretty consistent for everybody on this podcast, you, me, Danny Kelly, Danny Hyford's. You've all sort of said that because there's a lack of leverage, because this isn't the NBA and, and, and, you know, what I'm going to get into a second. I don't think that the, in the cap ramifications,

I didn't think he was going to play anywhere but Green Bay in 2021. I think he was going to retire. I think that to quickly go into the comparison, but in the kind of quote unquote player empowerment eras, I think you see the limits of that right now in the NFL. And I think that that will change going forward, but this is the reigning MVP who won it out. He had signed a contract,

but in a league with a franchise tag, in a league where teams don't even scramble to put together packages for franchise players. I didn't think this was ever going to be the situation that maybe Rogers thought he was going to have. I remember talking to him a couple years ago. We were talking to him in generalities, and he was saying the first thing he would do if he was a commissioner is get rid of the franchise tag because it limits everything. And it's the reason he's never reached true free agency. And there's just a lot there. The NFL player in general lacks leverage.

And when even the best NFL player asks out, he's still going to lack. leverage, even if he's in the last year of his contract. I mean, it's just a different deal. So the fact that he was in the middle of his contract makes a different situation. I just think it depends where you set the benchmark for what an advance in player empowerment means, right? Like over the last couple of years, so Rogers just did this or is in the process of doing this. In 2019, Tom Brady signed a quote unquote extension. That was really buying himself into free agency the following season, which enabled him to leave New England. you can look at those two moves as two of the highest profile stars at the most important position in the sport,

not being able to work themselves out of contract situations that they didn't love. Or you can look at it as those players using their leverage to change their contracts in such a way that they could eventually negotiate their departures from the teams that they used to play for. In Rogers' case, still do play for. And look, they signed the contracts in the first place. So I think it's an open question whether or not that represents, you know, star quarterbacks being able to throw their weight around. But it's not an NBA situation where you can just say, hey, look, I want out. And that's a feasible thing.

And I think we have pretty clear proof of that if it's not a feasible thing for Tom Brady or Aaron Rogers. The limits of player empowerment in the NFL, what I mean by that, if this is player empowerment, it means the team gets another year of MVP play from a quarterback. and then they'll trade him after next season. But there's just limits on it, and we see it right now. And again, I will think that, I think that will change.

I think the franchise tag. I don't think that it can be over-emphasized how important the franchise tag is to limiting player movement, player futures. I mean, the fact that the guys can be tagged three times is ridiculous. And the fact that there are some superstars now who are insisting on no tag clauses and contracts is really, really, really important. But let's put that aside for a second. because I want to talk about...

Can I throw one more thing in here? Just based on... So I think it totally makes sense what you were saying and what Schefter was saying about if Rogers had wanted to pull this off, he would have had to dirty his hands. The other thing that I think he might have had to do,

and that is one of the things that's still fascinating to me about how this all played out and kind of an open question. He... We don't know if it was directly from him, but we heard about his desire to like really, really,

strong desire to get out of Green Bay, did not want to play for them in 2021, on draft day in April. What I wonder is, was that in some ways a misstep? If Aaron Rogers' goal was originally to not play for the Packers this year, what would have happened if that story

had gotten out several weeks before then in as clear terms as it was reported the first night of the draft? Because the Packers really didn't have an opportunity in teams that might be interested in Aaron Rogers, either then or next offseason, did not have an opportunity to put together compelling trade packages that the Packers could have said, okay, well, that helps us

in 2021. Maybe we should think about it if he's really that upset. Now, what this does is basically puts a giant for sale sign on the lawn at Lambeau Field all year. So it's a completely different situation. So I have so many thoughts about what you just said. And it's a great point. And the for sale sign, it's going to be, it's going to evolve the entire year from both the Packers perspective and then every other team's perspective. And what I mean by that is, with the exception of Kansas City, and I honestly don't know who else, because every other team, there's a path to Aaron Rogers.

What I mean, you know, Russell Wilson, he wants out in Seattle too. Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, Baker Mayfield, not even under contract in a couple of years because they're 2018 class, right? So with the exception of, I don't know, Jacksonville and Kansas City, there's no team that can't be linked with Aaron Rogers if it's a year from now.

I mean, so here's in 2022, the top seven teams in salary cap space are the Colts, the Steelers, the football team, the Jets, the dolphins, the Broncos, the Raiders. I mean, you can make an argument that the Jets just spent a lot of draft capital on a rookie quarterback and wouldn't necessarily be looking. But like, this is Aaron Rogers. So you're at least at six out of seven in terms of cap room. That could be suitors.

Then you've got, okay, the Giants have two first round picks. The Lions division rival, but would have two first round picks. The Eagles have three. All of those teams are in the Aaron Rogers conversation. Right. And I don't actually think, and I want to make this clear, I don't think there's 30 teams are going to put together a trade package. I think the NFL lacks creativity.

I think that there are not enough front offices. It'll just absolutely go for it. But what I do think is it's going to be a story in every NFL locker room. If you're a beat writer right now, you're looking into the path to Aaron Rogers. Literally everybody but Jacksonville and Kansas City. And if I'm blanking, I mean,

I would say Dallas would be in that discussion as well. Obviously, having just signed Dak Prescott, who I think is really good quarterback. And I also think that, by the way, the whole mega contract thing, the Eagles just moved Carson Wenz and his extension, it barely kicked in. Jared Gough's the same way. Mega contrast can be moved, okay. But if I'm, am I missing somebody? I mean, Justin Herbert, I guess, would be in that mix for the Chargers stand pat.

But I'm really struggling to see a lot of teams that there wouldn't be a pathway to. And so I think that's a huge story in every NFL locker room. And then I think it gets into also, by the way, how is, first of all, you know, any mediocre season from any, any quarterback. And in this league, they'll look to a, they'll look to a replacement. But then what happens in Green Bay this year? And is a pissed off Rogers going to be even better this year? I've joked a lot that the Jordan Love should have been rookie the year last year for how he unlocked Aaron Rogers. Is this going to be a true, I mean, like, when we say last dance situation, remember, they won the title in the last dance.

they fueled that in a positive way and made Jerry Krauss the enemy. If Devante Adams and Aaron Rogers were leaving after this year, is that, is it pissed off Aaron Rogers the best player in the NFL? Yeah, but Aaron Rogers was already pissed off.

I know, but now he's even more pissed off. He had an entire summer in Hawaii to stew. So the answer is, the answer is, are they a title contender? Yes, absolutely they're a title contender. But football is not basketball. Even Aaron Rogers,

even at the most important position in sports, even playing at the absolute top of his game at the MVP level that he did last season, you don't know, right? Like there's, you can't, one player being pissed off cannot will a team to a championship the same way that can happen in basketball. Should they be really good?

Yeah, probably. But whether or not that leads to a Super Bowl, I mean, it didn't last year. The bottom line is the Packers will be very good. in 2021. I agree with that. If you don't win, nobody remembers.

Well, that's true. Okay, so a couple of things. Number one, Tom Brady did an awesome town hall with Sirius X-M that I listened to last night. I texted you about it because he was not complaining,

but he was talking about going on his boat in Tampa, and he mentioned how it gets to be dark at 4.30 in the afternoon in the northeast, just a contrast. And then he mentioned, and they did win a lot of, they did a lot of good things in New England, like win a bunch of Super Bowl.

Bowles, but it also gets dark at 4.30 in the afternoon. That's all. No big deal. But in it, and these quotes have been floating around, but I was listening to it last night, he says, the one thing you learned when he got into free agency, there's not as many, he said this is a quote, said there's not as many smart people as you think, which I found very funny because there were, and he said this before on the shop and other places, but there wasn't as much interest as he thought. And I wonder if now that's going to be instructive to the league, that there's going to be a GM who says, you know what? I regret, casting on Tom Brady, I'm certainly not going to regret it now.

And by the way, maybe I put San Francisco with Trey Lance on the list of teams that wouldn't go after Rogers, but you can never be too sure in that situation. But I'm intrigued to see what the market is for him. And I'm intrigued to see, listen, I am not, I do not believe in distractions. I don't believe, as I've said many times, I remember one time talking to an NFL player about distractions and they said the only distraction is being bad. and distraction is a code word for just anything a coach doesn't like. But is there going to be huge news stories if we hear that so-and-so is a huge contender?

Remember the Brady stuff? We didn't know Brady was for sure leaving until he made that announcement on Instagram a couple weeks before he made his decision. There wasn't the for-sale sign. Is there going to be just firestorms of media when we hear, oh, so-and-so is preparing a huge bid? So-and-so, this quarterback got benched. going to have five first five picks on the table starting in january i don't know the answer to that remember matthie stafford and jared golf were were exchanged super bowl week essentially so i think this is

this is going to be the story of the year on on just just a lot of different platforms and i do think if if the packers can keep this together and and channel this in the right way they can make the super bowl yeah okay so a couple of things there but just just for the record there kind of was a for sale sign with Brady. Like the second that it was, and not that there were dozens of teams knocking down the Patriot's door, he ultimately had two good offers. But people knew once he had,

I mean, I remember the combine before all of that came down, people knew that he had negotiated his way to free agency. And there were a lot of teams that thought about it in the earlier days. I think a lot dropped out pretty quickly. Brady is also older. Obviously that was proof. itself to not necessarily be the most legitimate concern, but there was time for for teams to get their assets together. Think about what kind of package they could present to him.

Now, one thing that I think is relevant in both cases is that older super accomplished quarterbacks who make moves like this tend to have fairly specific criteria for where they want to go. So I think a lot of that stemmed from the fact that Brady wasn't going to go just anywhere. He wasn't going to go somewhere where he didn't think that he could compete pretty quickly. You also want to more daylight? More daylight. More daylight. And he also didn't want to be super far away from his kids. Like he, all of these things, particularly, and I mean, Rogers doesn't have children, but he's entering a new phase in his life. He's getting married, especially as people get older. They have a little bit more life going on. And that stuff factors in too. So it's kind of true both ways. right? Like there's probably a 28 team list or so of franchises that should be thinking hard about

whether or not they should make a serious play for Aaron Rogers. I don't think Aaron Rogers' list is 28 teams long, you know? So that stuff can get whittled down pretty quickly. I totally agree with you. It's going to be about five teams long. And it's not, it's going to factor in contenders. And I bet it's going to factor in location, other career, opportunities, quality of life, you can, look, the NFL season is not all year long. Like, you can kind of just be somewhere for part of the year and go back and be in LA the rest of the time and everything's hunky-dory. So sometimes that stuff gets overstated.

But I don't think that he's going to not consider it at all. I agree. I think that there's just, I think that this whole situation is, is pretty, you know, fascinating and I don't really remember anything that had the capability to take over an entire season like this. I want to talk about the Packers as a franchise because I think that the Brady effect was such that not only did we see that Brady, you know, didn't have the suitors or whatever, but we were able to see that he had immediate success as soon as he got there in the weirdest year of all time in a time that I think that generally, I don't think we certainly didn't expect him to win

the Super Bowl in his first year. I think that it's in play that Rogers would go somewhere else to win the Super Bowl. What I want to talk about with the Packers here is they're going to review the situation. That's the big quote there. I'm not sure what that means. That sounds like you're trying to get like reinstated into a bar you got banned from or something. That was a very oddly specific thing. I never been banned from a bar.

But it seems like the kind of thing where it's like, you know. Right. Sure. It's nobody called the bars in Orlando. But I wonder what happens if the Packers are super, super, super. super successful. And they either get to the Super Bowl, almost win it, or win it, or get to the NFC championship game and losing the last possession. I wonder if he still wants out. I wonder if he wants to go to Denver and roll a dice there. Do you think there's a path for Rodgers to be on the team in 2022? Well, so what I really think, so yes, the answer to that is yes, but what I really think is that

the haziness in this language that we're kind of sorting through here is a reflection of the fact that they are still working on this contract. Like, we should be clear here that, you know, at 5 p.m. or whatever time it is right now, we don't have perfect information. And the implication in what ESPN reported was that that piece of it, what type of control Rogers will have over his destination next off season or under what circumstances he might be willing to say, that's the part that doesn't seem super clearly delineated. the void year in 2023, that seems pretty nailed down.

The, we'll trade for Randall Cobb to make you happy. That seems pretty nailed down. I don't know what. How upset is John Coon right now? It is really tough. One side effect of this, I mean, there was that whole kerfuffle where David Bacteara was tweeting about, shoot, I guess I'm not people close to Aaron Rogers. There has been a byproduct of, I think, people tend to know where they stand with

Aaron Rogers after all of these waves of news. But yeah, mechanisms will be put in place to address Rogers' issues with the team. Brian Goetukunst have to wear a funny hat all season. Like, who's to say? But it seems like the rub is what type of guarantee is there that he can move? Is there a $400 million guaranteed roster bonus that kicks in if Aaron and Rogers is still on the Packers roster on June 1st. It's like late night TV.

It's like late night TV show contracts. Like the Craig Ferguson bonus because he didn't get the big job. Right. Just poison pill. Like is there something that is there a real poison pill where they would have to do it unless he just says like, okay, we're cool. Just kidding. I hate when we fight.

You can take the funny hat off Brian Gutakun. I'm just sticking with this idea. I know, I get it. And I feel like it's realistic that he would, he would ask him to wear a funny hat. I will say this, though, with, it's, it's, it's a okay problem to have that a GM and a quarterback don't talk. I think that there's probably,

there's probably GMs who go the entire year without talking to their, their quarterback. Like, you know, I'm being facetious, but like, it's fine. You can keep those guys separate. If it was a coach, that's, that's a bigger problem. The fact that it's the floor, I, the fact that it will flore, the fact that LaFleur seems to be on Roger's side here is actually quite important in this, and I think that you keep Goody away from Rogers and everything can be fine.

Or Mark Murphy. Well, I think that's true to a degree, except that we are seeing because of, again, Randall Cobb's about to be back on this team. So it had been previously reported, and this had to do with sort of watching property just put a suggestion box, just a suggestion box outside his window. and Rogers can just tell them which guys to sign. Yeah. I just solved the Packers.

Thank you. But it seems like, okay, you just solved it. This is incredible. But it does seem like Rogers wants some say in personnel here and that that has, that is one of the mechanisms. Does he still want say in personnel

if he's leaving in a year? This is like when Dwight- I don't know, Kevin. Mechanisms have been put in place. Let me tell you something. This is what happened with Dwight Howard. When Dwight Howard was going to leave the magic and we were like,

why don't we let me let me? Dwight Howard make all the decisions. And we traded for Big Baby Davis. And we tried to get Josh Howard on this huge contract. And then he left. And then Big Baby Davis was on our team. We just had Big Baby Davis.

Yeah. Yeah, that's a good analogy. And then my best friend saw Big Baby Davis at a gas station and said, are you Big Baby Davis? And he said, no, I'm not. I think we've lost the thread. Was he wearing a funny hat? I think he probably was.

That's an incredible story. He said, no, you got the wrong guy. I'm not Big Baby Davis. By the way, I know you're going to take us back to a real place. But while we're in the weeks over here, can we just do like a quick outfit breakdown of when Rogers came back in? So tell us the shirt. Tell us the shirt he was wearing.

So the shirt was an office t-shirt. The like Kevin and Chili on it. He was wearing hugely oversized polarized sunglasses, flip-flops. There was a half-up, half-down manned situation. And this, to me, was just the IDGAF in outfit form. And I just, I didn't feel that it got enough attention. I was curious what your reaction was to it.

I just thought that it seemed like Aaron was strolling in there being like, ha-ha, I don't care. Um, I felt like it was the right thing. And I felt like this, you know, Peter Shiger made this point on Twitter. And I, I tend to agree with it. That the vibe Rogers wanted to give off was no drama here. And the way he played this, there was some plausible deniability from the drama. And he got to be a chaos agent without, as we said, ever dirtying his hands.

And I kind of felt like he wanted to show up and just be like, life is good, you know, just like came in from Margaritaville kind of thing. No, he didn't. no one is buying this. Like, I get what you're saying. No, I understand that, but he showed up. No, I understand that, but he showed up in flip-flops, long hair, and an office t-shirt. Like, he wasn't trying, I don't think he was, you know, he had that, that I'm offended shirt that he wore before, in the media tour of the match.

Like, I think that he did the whole, like, I'm a little unhappy thing. And now that he's in Green Bay, he just wants to show that, like, he's, he's just, he's totally calm and collected. I think that's what he was trying to do today. And listen, I don't, I'm not one, huge one for sort of reading into outfits, but I'm saying if we had to handicap why he showed up hanging out. Although also, by the way, by the way, as someone who adores Green Bay, who has family from Green Bay, who likes Green Bay as a city, you have to take advantage of nice weather in Green Bay.

That's what I'll say about that. Today was a good day in Green Bay and he wore appropriately summer clothing. I don't think we, it has to be that deep. As someone who loves to analyze outfits, I don't. I think the message in that was, I'm not mad. You're mad. That's it. That's it.

I've never been mad. Aaron Rogers wants everyone to know he's never been mad. Okay, but that is the fastest way to convince people that you were mad. Of course it is. But that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about what he was. We're not talking about whether or not he accomplished it. Anyway, let's sort of steer back into the matter at hand.

All right. All right. How far are the 2021 packers going to go? I think same thing as last year. Lose in the championship game. Okay. Ran the numbers. They're going to make the Super Bowl.

I've thought about it. It might be the heat. It might be that Steelers players are walking in front of my car and wondering why I'm talking to a microphone in a parking lot. It might be that. But I think that they're going to make the Super Bowl. I think that they have a stacked roster. I think they have a pissed off Rogers.

I think it's perfect. I think that the AFC team is probably, they're going to win the Super Bowl. But I think that there's a crop of NFC teams. It is really good. And I think the Packers can win that once you're in the tournament. So that's my pick. Just to go back,

the Packers had a stacked roster and a pissed off Aaron Rogers last year. Yeah, and then they ran into a bus stop. I like your enthusiasm. I'm just saying there is logic to my argument here. Can I throw something at you? Yeah. Aaron Rogers should go to the bucks. I've been throwing a lot at me.

I'd know that I've thought about that. I thought about that. How incredible would that be? I've thought about that. I'm a Jason Light super fan now. I just want to like throw that out and establish that. This is what I'm rooting for now. Aaron Rogers should go to the bucks and he should live in the same.

Actually, I think didn't that house that Brady was living and gets sold or something and he's not renting it anymore? The Jeter House got sold. He found a buyer. All right. Well, he should. buy it back and rent it to Aaron Rogers, who should go and take over for Tom Brady in Tampa? Maybe.

I'm trying to think, we also have to see it. This is the part that's moving. Maybe there's a team that has an amazing defense this year. There's a young core that develops. We're like, oh, my God. Maybe it's Miami, by the way. Maybe it's Miami. Maybe Miami is, you know, wins 11 games this year.

and Tua doesn't look that good and we go, oh, this is a no-brainer. Maybe it's that. There's just so, there's so, we mentioned that. I don't know. Dan Snyder? I don't know about that. Admittedly not great. I don't know about that.

You want to go from dysfunction, dysfunctional franchise and then your savior is Dan Snyder? I don't know. I will say this. Maybe he would want to get involved in politics. I'm not expecting. I'm not expecting, you know, when I was talking about earlier, but the class 2018, listen, like, the Ravens are just going to resign Lamar Jackson and move on.

The Browns are probably going to do with Baker Mayfield. Josh Allen is going to be a bill for life, right? But I'm just saying that every front office needs to have. Well, we got to be careful about saying that, right? Because at one point it seems like Tom Brady would be a Patriot for life, and Aaron Rogers would be a pastor for life. I meant in practice. I mean, we might, Josh Allen seems like he's going to be there for the long haul.

But I think what I'm saying is that every front office needs to have this conversation. Hey, would it be better to try to trade for Aaron Rogers than sign this quarterback for $45 million? Why don't we just pay Aaron Rogers? Like, I just, that's the conversation that's going to be happening in different front offices. Any other thoughts in this before I tell you that two people at Stoist practice were flabbergasted and just came up to be cold that you've never been to a wedding? This is out of control. I think that that conversation that should we just go get Aaron Rogers or should we pay this guy, whatever, it's a different conversation than it was.

Like this is another interesting thing about it is that that is a different conversation than it was, I don't know, two, three years ago, in part because of Aaron Rogers where we've seen the merging of these offenses, particularly the sort of offshoot of the Shanahan Kubiak scheme

that at first, I think a few years ago, was held up as this thing that could kind of overcome some weaknesses at the quarterback position through play calling, through scheme, through having a good situation around them. And then it seems like there's been a little bit of a shift recently where, okay, Sean McVeigh wants to upgrade, right?

Kyle Shanahan wants to upgrade. The idea that you can get there with a guy who's very good, but not necessarily going to be in the top six players at the position on a routine basis, maybe that's not good enough anymore. Maybe it's good enough if there's an outlier year, you know, you can have a Nick Foles situation, but you can't really count on it. And I think that there's not a year in recent memory where there wouldn't have been a lot of teams that would have thought long and hard about the ability to get Aaron Rogers.

But I think the premium on that top group of quarterbacks that can really, really get you there, that's gone up. So it's going to be interesting. And we talked so much however many months ago about how there could be this like unprecedented I'm a precedented quarterback movement situation this offseason. And it didn't really work out that way, right? But I don't think that that's because those players didn't sort of chip away at their situations, particularly Rogers.

It's just showing us that it takes a long time and it takes a lot of planning because the deck is stacked against players because of the way that NFL contracts work to be able to move in the ways that they want to. But that doesn't mean that it can't eventually happen. And so if some of that, that this could be the biggest year of quarterback movement and most significant ever stuff didn't come true this offseason, the seismic part of that can still happen. It's just that even if you're Aaron Rogers, you have to work at it for a long time to be

able to make it happen. Do you want to talk to me about the wedding thing? Yeah, people were just flabbergasted. Two people, one, see-or's employee come up to me. And then he was like, I can't believe this wedding thing. And then I said, yeah. And then I mentioned that I ranked his GM number one. And he was like, oh, yeah, I haven't even gotten to that part.

I'm just mostly focused on the wedding part. Yeah, it really did. It took over the narrative. I am going to keep everybody updated as, so I'm going to a bachelor at party this weekend. Next weekend, I have the second wedding. Did you look up wedding on Wikipedia to figure out kind of what was going on, what the, what the customs are, the dress. Did you wear like a t-shirt and jeans to the first wedding? Well, I'm a, I'm a bridesmaid. So it actually helped because she, she picked out the dress for me.

Oh, good. Good. Let me know if you need any help on that because we, the internet listeners, we can let you know how people dress at weddings. I do. So here, this is a quote, this is for women. This is less so for you. Although I'm sure you and Emily have been to a number of weddings. Maybe she has advice. We've been to, we've been to our own wedding, in fact. Well, yeah. But again, you have. had some sort of specific needs for that one. What type of bag you bring is difficult for me. I think it's got to be like a clutch situation, but there's almost, there's so little that

I need for it where it's like, do I even bother, but it just feels weird to not have, like, I don't want to be walking around with my cell phone out. It's okay. Okay. Interesting. Maybe somebody will put up a suggestion box. Maybe I can ask Brian Kudakunst. Any other Roger's thoughts?

I wonder how many weddings he's been to. A lot from what I understand. But not his own yet. Not his own yet. But probably also in the Belichick category we talked about where it's just like, if you vaguely know Aaron Rogers, you're inviting him to your wedding. This has been the Remenafel show on the Ringer podcast network. Next up on this feed, Nora and I will probably have more training camp thoughts.

It'll probably be news somewhere. Love news. Thank you to Bobby Wagner for producing this with additional production by Arduna Ramco.