The Green Bay Packers are “open” to trading away quarterback Aaron Rodgers if the four-time MVP decides he wants to return to football but play elsewhere during the 2023 season, according to new reporting from Tom Pelissero and Ian Rapoport of NFL Network.
“If Rodgers comes to the team with a request to play his 19th season elsewhere, sources say the Packers are open to working with the four-time AP NFL MVP on a trade,” Pelissero and Rapoport wrote Sunday.
For now, the waiting game continues as Rodgers decides his future. But the ball is in the quarterback’s court: “The first move belongs to Rodgers,” per Pelissero and Rapoport.
This is the first legitimate reporting on the Packers’ willingness to trade Rodgers in the event he – or the team – doesn’t want the relationship to continue next season.
Teams have already reached out to the Packers on a trade but the team is waiting until Rodgers decides his future.
The reporting also provides the flip side to the equation: The Packers would want Rodgers back if he’s fully committed to playing the 2023 season in Green Bay.
Rodgers, who turns 40 years old this December, is still deciding his football future. Following the Super Bowl, he will begin a four-day, four-night darkness retreat featuring sensory deprivation, an exercise he hopes will bring clarity to his personal future.
The Packers and the rest of the NFL await his decision. For the third straight offseason, Rodgers has three options: He can return to the Packers, retire from football or request a trade. For the first time, it appears the Packers are willing to entertain the possibility of the trade option.
Is this pre-decision positioning from the Packers, or the team showing Rodgers that the door on the trade option is wide open? The Packers clearly want Rodgers to make the first move. And the quarterback clearly knows his options. It’s possible neither side wants to look like the bad guy in the looming divorce. An answer, one way or another, is coming soon.
