What Aaron Rodgers Should Do If A Title Is His Top Priority

Aaron Rodgers says he’s still not sure if he’s coming back or not. But if he is, he needs to decide why he’s coming back.

If he comes back because he likes the competition: cool.

If he comes back to collect another gigantic paycheck: good for him.

But if (as I hope) he comes back because his primary objective (not a reason, but the reason) is to win another Super Bowl, his approach has to reflect that.

He can’t win a Super Bowl all by himself (no one can), he needs a great team around him. The hardest part about building a team is managing the salary cap. The biggest challenge in the salary cap is Aaron Rodgers’s contract.

The Packers started the offseason at about $50M over the salary cap for next year. Despite aggressive moves that will negatively impact future caps, they still have a ways to go. That presents a lot of challenges, but Rodgers can fix a big part of that all by himself.

Last year, nothing was fixed. If anything, Rodgers had a hand in making this more difficult.

The team bent over backwards, restructuring nearly every veteran they could, to push cap hits into 2022 so they could add more talent in 2021.

This year, maybe Aaron Rodgers (who doesn’t want to be a part of a rebuild) could bend over backwards to try to win a ring.

Actually, he doesn’t even have to bend over backwards.

He just has to be realistic.

Here’s the reality: putting together a championship team would be a lot easier is Aaron Rodgers didn’t have such an obnoxious cap number.

He currently has a cap number of about $47M. Now, a lot of that is prorated bonus money, but he could lower his salary to the veteran minimum (which would be $1.12M for him) and clear up about $20M for the Packers.

I know some people are saying “Oh, so you expect Rodgers to play for free this year?”

First off: I don’t consider $1M to be “free.”

Second off: Not at all. I do not expect him to play for the veteran minimum at all.

That’s because I don’t expect that winning a championship is his primary focus. Sadly, I don’t think this is the primary focus of very many pro athletes at all – Aaron’s buddy Davante Adams has certainly made it clear that his primary objective is getting paid.

Adams has stated in no uncertain terms that he wants to be the Highest-Paid Receiver In The History Of The Game. He’s never had that title before and he certainly deserves it.

Aaron Rodgers, on the other hand, has already had the title of Highest-Paid Football Player in the History Of The World. Twice.

Aaron Rodgers ain’t hurting for cash. He’s already made over $250M on his football contracts alone. That’s over a quarter of a billion dollars! That doesn’t include his endorsement deals, which are estimated to be around $9M per year, or his other business ventures (like being a minority owner in the Bucks).

Whatever ludicrous machinations Aaron Rodgers has dreamed up for what he wants to do with all his money won’t hinge on the next $20M he may or may not make.

But, if winning another ring – and not adding to his ridiculously enormous lifetime income – is his primary goal, he can prove that by doing the unexpected. He can prove that by saying: “Hey, I’ve made more money than I’ll ever be able to spend. I want to win another ring. I’m coming back for the veteran minimum.”

Wow.

Not only would that make it a lot easier for the Packers to bring everyone back for another run, but maybe – just maybe – it inspires some other players (maybe even his best friend Davante) to say “You know what? Me too.”

That would be powerful.

I could call it downright inspirational.

Another thing I could call it would be “painfully obvious.”

It’s simple and straightforward: if Aaron Rodgers cares about a ring more than anything else, money won’t be a sticking point.

If he cares about money more than a ring, his negotiating tactics will tell us.