“He thinks about it all the time” - NFL analyst believes Packers could lose Aaron Rodgers on eve of training camp
Aaron Rodgers participated in a charity golf event earlier this week, teaming with Tom Brady to narrowly etch out a win over Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen.
But most of the attention from media outlets is focused on the round table discussion after the event. Rodgers stated that retirement is something that he thinks about all the time.
NFL analyst and host of Pro Football Talk Mike Florio said he could see a scenario where Rodgers walks away from the Green Bay Packers before mandatory OTAs.
“And you think back to last year, he claimed, who knows whether it's true or not, but he claimed he was 50-50 on whether he was going to retire going into the weekend before the start of training camp. This is a guy who's completely detached from the Packers right now. They assume he's going to be there for mandatory minicamp, maybe he will, maybe he won't."
Florio went on to wonder if Rodgers' heart was still in the game.
"Who knows the $100,000 fine, if they even have the guts to collect it from him. Is he, is he? If he thinks about retirement all the time, we take him at his word. He thinks about it all the time. Was he thinking about it now? Is he is he thinking about? Is he thinking about retiring? Now? If he thinks about it all the time, now is included in that very broad statement."
Florio added that there is a possibility of Rodgers announcing his retirement all of a sudden.
"I just want to shock you, want a lightning bolt? It's Aaron Rodgers announcing the day before camp opens: 'Oh, by the way, I'm done. Hey, Jordan, love. Here's the baton. Good. Have fun'. Yeah. And I'm not saying it's gonna happen. But if you think if he thinks about it all the time. And he's not there for OTAs. I just, you can't rule out the possibility."
Florio thinks that if Rodgers was on the fence last year, what's to say he won't retire this year?
"If he was 50-50. Last year, going into the weekend before camp opens, you can't rule out the possibility that he's just going to say wait, you know what, guys, thanks for the new contract. But I just, I really can't do this. I just can't do it. And I'm not going to do it.”
Aaron Rodgers could be ready to spend more time on the golf course and leave football behind
Aaron Rodgers would return to a team with no Davante Adams and a wide receiver room mostly made up of young, inexperienced talent with the exception of Randall Cobb.
A situation that the veteran signal caller may not want to enter, seeing as he’d have to build an all new rapport with mostly new pass catchers. Does Rodgers want to put that kind of time in?