There is a lot of speculation surrounding the future of Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, but he still thinks he can scoop up the MVP award once again.
Rodgers retained his MVP status last season but suffered a brutal year with the Packers, narrowly missing out on the playoffs after losing to Detroit Lions in the final week. Rodgers has teased since that his future may not be in Green Bay, even though he's still got two years left on his bumper deal.
There's a lot of work to be done behind the scenes at the Packers, and Rodgers has warned the franchise that no player wants to be 'part of a rebuild'. Rodgers has his heart set on winning MVP again before retiring, wherever that may be.
Rodgers revealed all on ThePatMcAfreeShow on Tuesday, but despite remaining coy over his future, he did pledge to fans that he wants to be named the best player once again in the NFL. "Do I still think I can play? Of course. Can I play at a high level? Yeah. The highest," Rodgers said.
"I think I can win MVP again in the right situation. Right situation, is that Green Bay or is that somewhere else? I'm not sure. But I don't think you should shut down any opportunity. But like I said during the season, it's got to be both sides actually wanting to work together moving forward."
Rodgers is tied down to a contract, but at this stage in his career he holds a lot of the power. It's likely he will still touch base with the Packers before getting ready for a new season, but he has warned them that a 'rebuild' isn't attractive, while a 'reload' is more exciting.
"I think there's more conversations to be had," he added. "I think no player wants to be part of any type of rebuild. I said that years ago. Reloads are a lot of fun because you feel like you're close, you're only a couple guys away.
"This game is about relationships. It's about the guys you rely on, even if they don't maybe show up huge in the stat book. A guy like Marcedes Lewis, he's an important cog in the wheel of the locker room and the momentum of the team.
"That's a guy I want to finish my career with. You know? If I'm playing, I want that guy next to me. I want the Randall Cobbs of the world, if he wants to keep playing, in my locker room. Guys you can win with. Allen Lazard , Robert Tonyan, David Bakhtiari.
"There's a lot of interesting names that we'll see their desire to re-sign these certain guys who are glue guys in the locker room will be interesting conversations to be had. Take all that away, I still need to mentally get to a point where I feel 100% locked in a ready to play a 19th season.
"And if I do, then we'll rock and roll, and we'll figure that out. If I don't, we'll go into the jungles for a while."
