Aaron Rodgers might have another card to play if he’s really serious about not playing again for the Green Bay Packers.
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk presented the idea: Rodgers, who remains in conflict with the Packers, could opt out of the 2021 season and avoid all the financial pitfalls of holding out of training camp and the regular season.
It’s a long shot, but it’s also a threat Rodgers could use to leverage the situation in his favor.
Imagine the scenario: Rodgers threatens an opt-out, leaving the Packers in a tough situation where the MVP quarterback could sit out the entire season – leaving a giant hole on the roster with nothing coming back in return – if he’s not allowed out of Green Bay.
The Packers would have no choice but to turn to Jordan Love, who essentially redshirted during his rookie season, as the Week 1 starter for a team that would otherwise have legitimate Super Bowl aspirations with Rodgers.
Then again, the team has remained rock-solid about not trading Rodgers, so calling his bluff on this potential threat might be an easy decision for the Packers.
The timeline is tight. Rodgers has only one week to make a decision on opting out. The deadline for opting out is July 2.
Rodgers is the NFL MVP, a future Hall of Famer and one of the most talented players at the most important position in football, but he needs the extra leverage. His contract still has three seasons left, and the Packers have the ability to reclaim millions and millions of dollars on his deal if he retires or sits out. The team has shown no sign of willingness to trade him throughout this offseason, and a player can’t trade himself.
The financials of the scenario are certainly interesting, as Jason Fitzgerald of Over the Cap showed here. The Packers could gain almost $30 million in cap room in 2021 if Rodgers opts out, and his cap hit in 2022 – after his contract tolled – would fall slightly.
The guess here is that Rodgers won’t seriously entertain the idea. It’s an intriguing potential threat in this showdown. But he has only a week to make the threat and put the pressure on the team, and it’s too easy in this scenario for the Packers to just call his bluff, as they’ve done throughout the offseason.
If the Packers call his bluff, using the opt-out only pauses the situation for a year.
If Rodgers is truly done and won’t return to Green Bay, the Packers are going to get financial relief regardless of whether he opts out or holds out. And Rodgers would have to be willing to sacrifice a full season after playing at an elite level in 2020.
We also don’t know how serious Rodgers is about leaving Green Bay or potentially even retiring from the game. Opting out would be a drastic measure that could help him achieve whatever his goals might be, but the guess here is that it would be used only as a threat in this standoff, and not likely used in practical terms.
If nothing else, the idea provides another date to watch in this saga. If Rodgers or any NFL player wants to opt-out of the 2021 season, they must do so by next Friday.