A chat with Tom Silverstein on what's next for the Packers and Aaron Rodgers
GM Brian Gutekunst and the Packers want to move on with Jordan Love. But how exactly will they get there. With the "complicated fella," it's always... complicated.
Quarterback movement has begun. Derek Carr isn’t waiting around for Aaron Rodgers to make a decision, signing a four-year deal with the New Orleans Saints.
At some point, Rodgers will put his personal podcasting on hold to inform GM Brian Gutekunst and the Green Bay Packers whether or not he’ll continue to play football. Given his stranglehold of a contract, he holds a lot of leverage.
And yet, you don’t even need to read between the lines now to see Gutekunst is ready to play Jordan Love. The Packers — as first reported by Bob McGinn on our podcast — are prepared to move on from Rodgers and start their 2020 first round pick. In the two-plus weeks since that bomb dropped, we’ve see the organization push back via national reports because it obviously hurts their trade leverage for such information to go public. And then we’ve seen some of the same national folks shift gears in citing this as exactly what it is: a clunky break-up.
While we wait, I figured it was a good time to welcome on my other former colleague at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Nobody covers the Packers on a day-to-day basis better than Tom Silverstein.
Silverstein penned an exceptional column from Indianapolis that’s worth your PackersNews.com subscription. He’s hearing the same stuff as McGinn — Green Bay is ready to move on. For nearly an hour we discussed a little bit of everything…
The nitty-gritty details of Rodgers’ contract, a horrid deal for Green Bay that gives the quarterback a lot of power right now. Silverstein calls the contract an organizational failure.
Gutekunst’s clear purpose in his media sessions down in Indy. He wanted everyone to know exactly what he felt about the quarterback he has been in contact with: Love.
Did the GM actually want to move on from Rodgers last year?
Where does Matt LaFleur factor into this all? In the name of self-preservation, it’s always been smart to attach himself to an MVP quarterback. He’d probably also enjoy a quarterback to executes his offense.
Rodgers’ 2022 season. What went wrong for the quarterback may surprise you. He simply wasn’t seeing the field.
If Rodgers wants to play — and calls the Packers’ bluff — what happens next? Could he serve as Love’s backup?
Is Jordan Love as ready as Rodgers was in 2008? The parallels are striking. Silverstein explains why the Packers were able to take a lot from that Philly game.
His prediction. This saga could drag on through the NFL Draft. And while, yes, the New York Jets are a perceived front-runner, Silverstein mentions two other teams that absolutely could be in play. You’ll want to stick around for the full pod.
Green Bay’s future. OK, so the Packers missed their shot at multiple first-rounders. They still have an opportunity to draft a receiver, a tight end and build around a young quarterback.
Thanks for listening, everyone.
Here’s our longform piece on why Love is ready, icymi. Everyone who knows the QB best — Steve Calhoun, David Yost, Siaosi Mariner, Packers teammates — explains why he’s ready to start in 2023… right down to those Mahomesian qualities that’ve been cooking behind the scenes.
You’ll love Silverstein’s sharp perspective on the entire situation.
The audio link is right here for Go Long subscribers: