GREEN BAY, Wis. – Aaron Rodgers did not take the Julio Jones/Earl Thomas approach to training camp. There were no such extreme measures to try to accelerate his contract talks.
The Green Bay Packers quarterback never seemed like a candidate to hold out, but there also may have been expectations that he would have signed a contract extension by this point, especially considering team president Mark Murphy first acknowledged in February that talks were underway.
But there was Rodgers at Lambeau Field on Wednesday, when the rest of the Packers reported for their conditioning test to open training camp. He’s expected to be on the field for Thursday’s first practice and probably will speak to reporters after the on-field session.
“Like I always stated – and I clearly understand and respect Aaron’s place in our organization – but business affairs are what they are; This isn’t the place to speak on them,” Packers coach Mike McCarthy said Wednesday during his camp-opening news conference. “They’re very personal for everyone that goes through it. I have confidence in the organization, and obviously I have confidence in Aaron. So we’ll just stay the course.”
Rodgers still has two years left on his current deal, a five-year, $110 million extension. But his $22 million average per year has dropped to 10th on the quarterback pay scale. With deals done for Kirk Cousins and Matt Ryan this offseason, it cleared the way for Rodgers to return to his rightful spot atop the quarterback pay scale. However, there are likely structure issues – such as how to keep Rodgers at or near the top of that scale – still to be worked out between Rodgers’ agent David Dunn and Russ Ball, who negotiates on behalf of Packers GM Brian Gutekunst.
Said Rodgers earlier this offseason: “Obviously, we’d like to lock something in at some point. The team has made it public knowledge that they’d love to do that. I’ve said I’d love to finish my career here. There’s more than mutual interest on both sides.”
Still, it should mean a fairly typical training camp for Rodgers even considering he’s coming off the second broken collarbone of his career. It was the same way in 2014, when he was coming off his first broken collarbone. That likely means little, if any, restriction on what Rodgers does on the practice field but little, if any, work in the preseason games. He hasn’t played in more than two preseason games since the summer of 2013. Last year, he played in two of the four games for a total of 26 snaps – the same number he played in one game in the 2016 exhibition season.
Rodgers, 34, may not be on a strict pitch count during practice, but McCarthy said he will be “very cognizant of it as far as how many times he throws the football.”
“I haven’t seen him yet, I’m sure he’s in great shape,” McCarthy said. “I thought he was in great shape when he left here [in June]. Physically, he just needs to … the interactive cognitive training is what will be his focus.”
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