Cut, Retire, Trade: What should Packers do with Aaron Rodgers?

The Green Bay Packers and Aaron Rodgers must each make a decision in their best interest this offseason. That could lead to a public falling out between the two parties.

Green Bay has tried to hang on to a team that made back-to-back NFC Championships in 2020 and 2021, failing to reach the Conference Championship in 2022 and ending their season before the playoffs even began this season. They are certainly trending in the wrong direction.

Rodgers wants to win another Super Bowl…err MVP, and wants to have the right crew around him to do so. He has his guys in Allen Lazard, Randall Cobb, Marcedes Lewis and David Bakhtiari that he feels will get them over the hump. I…respectfully disagree with that assessment.

The options for Aaron Rodgers this offseason seem pretty clear: Cut, retire or trade. What should the Green Bay Packers do with him?

I’ll lay out the case for Rodgers and what it would mean for the Packers if they cut or trade him or if he retires, and you decide for yourself which route the team should take.

In the case of Rodgers, the options are to cut or trade him or hope he retires. Re-structuring would save them zero dollars. Let’s dive into the three options.

Cut:

This is the least favorable option of the three from a Packers’ perspective. Cutting him before June 1st would trigger a dead cap of about $100 million in 2023. Even if they cut him after June 1, it will be a $31.5 million hit this year and $68.2 million cap hit next year while only saving them $50,000. That’s highly unlikely.

Cutting him would also allow him to sign with any team and ensure the Packers don’t get any draft picks or compensation in return. There’s no logical reason for Green Bay to pursue this route.

Retire:

Even a Rodgers’ retirement would be detrimental to the Packers financially. They’ve already paid him a lot of money that is set to come on the books and there is no way around that. If he were to retire before June 1, it would trigger a $40.3 million cap hit in 2023, a nearly $9 million increase to his cap number if he were to play.

He could retire after June 1 or allow the Packers to designate it as a Post June 1 retirement. That would put his 2023 cap number at $15.8 million and 2024 number at $24.5 million while saving them $15.8 million in the process. If this is the route he chooses, it’s probably best to designate it as a post-June 1st retirement.

Trade:

The most desirable outcome is to trade Rodgers. Don’t get me wrong, they’ll still have to eat a bunch of money, $40 million if he’s traded before June 1, but at least they’ll get something in return. Rodgers’ trade value was at his highest last offseason when they likely could’ve gotten multiple Day 1 and/or Day 2 picks. Now, they’ll be lucky to coup even one major draft pick in exchange for the aging star.