Did the Packers Make a Very, Very Expensive Mistake With Aaron Rodgers’ Contract?
 
New revelations about the Green Bay QB don’t show him in the best light.

Prior to last season, the Packers signed Aaron Rodgers to a four-year extension that guaranteed him more than $100 million and also made him the highest-paid quarterback in the NFL in the process.

After signing the deal, Rodgers, who had two years left on his deal at the time of the extension, led the Packers to a dismal 6-9-1 record that saw head coach Mike McCarthy get fired hours after the Green Bay’s embarrassing Week 13 loss to the Arizona Cardinals.

According to a new report from Bleacher Report, Rodgers was likely very happy about McCarthy’s dismissal because he held a grudge against his former coach dating back to 1995 when, while with the 49ers, McCarthy voted to draft Alex Smith instead of Rodgers.

Rodgers’ dissatisfaction with McCarthy reportedly manifested itself in various ways and, since so much of Rodgers’ money was guaranteed, the team could do little to get him in line.

Packers CEO Mark Murphy was so worried about the situation following McCarthy’s firing that he reportedly had to order Rodgers not to be a problem after Matt LaFleur was hired as his replacement.

As ProFootballTalk points out, Green Bay kind of painted itself into a corner with the huge deal and may have made a massive mistake.

“If the Packers hadn’t signed Rodgers to that extension, they’d have a great deal of leverage with him right now: They could tell him, If you’re the problem this season, you won’t be here next season, but if you get back to your MVP form, we’ll reward you with a lucrative contract extension,” ProFootballTalk notes. “As it is, the Packers have given Rodgers so much money that they couldn’t move on from him now if they wanted to: Rodgers’ huge signing bonus means he would have about a $45 million dead cap hit if he were traded. It’s simply not feasible.”

In my opinion, the answer to this question is yes. In their haste to score PR points by making Aaron Rodgers the highest paid player in league history, the Packers voluntarily relinquished all leverage for future disputes. If the organization was planning to move on from Mike McCarthy—which I believe was the correct decision, and probably long overdue—they should have held off on giving Rodgers a new contract until after he'd spent at least a year in the new coach's system, if only to see how well the two worked together. Instead, that enormous contract hangs like a millstone around their neck. Should the new marriage not work out, the Packers willhave no choice but to make the new head coach the fall guy. Rodgers is simply too expensive to part ways with, despite only having a single ring to his name (not that that is entirely or even mostly his fault, of course). Very poor tactics on the part of Green Bay.

Originally Posted by: Nonstopdrivel 

This whole thing is bullshit. Rodgers has been under personal attack for the better part of two years all based on speculation that circulated so much it has begun to be presented as fact and has infiltrated it's way into literally everything packer related. This guy should boycott the media for the rest of his career. I wouldn't blame him one bit. I can't wait for him to light the world on fire this year and giving a silent fuck you to the world the whole time.

Originally Posted by: gbguy20 

Had the Packers NOT given him the huge contract, the same fans that are complaining about it would be screaming that the Packers didn’t do enough to keep Rodgers here.

Originally Posted by: Cheesey 

I would say hindsight is 20:20, but we don't even have enough hindsight to make a reasonable judgement on his contract yet. In 2 or 3 years the contract could look like a steal, it could look fair, or it could look terrible. If you think you've got it figured out today, I would like to hear your lotto numbers and stock picks.

The flip side to this whole premise is that, had they not sorted out the contract, not only would they be dealing with the McCarthy drama, a new HC, they would also be playing chicken with their star QB. If you think what's gone on in the last years was dysfunctional, you don't even want to know what that would have looked like.

Originally Posted by: earthquake