QB Carousel: Ryan Wood, USA Today Packers reporter

Step right up here.

Don't be shy. The Super Bowl is over, but the NFL quarterback carousel is just beginning. You've got to ask yourself a question.

Do I feel lucky? What does the future hold for all 32 NFL teams at the QB position? Now I'm going to give you an opportunity to spin this wheel right here. Let's spin the wheel and find out which teams we hit today. The Green Bay Packers. Alright, Ryan Wood who covers the Packers for USA Today is going to join us in just a second. But first, let's hear from Brian Gudekunz, the general manager of the Green Bay Packers when he was asked today at the combine if he wants Aaron Rodgers back next season. Yeah, I think those discussions have to happen and making sure that it's the right fit, but obviously we know the kind of player that Aaron is, and once we have those conversations we'll be able to move forward with a lot more to say.

Alright, Ryan Wood from USA Today. When you hear that, if I'm in the camp of I want Aaron Rodgers back in Green Bay, that doesn't sound all that encouraging to me. Well, what word there did you not hear? And just a hint, it's a word that you did hear in early December when Brian Gudekunz spoke to us media folk here in Green Bay.

It was asked the same question. Do you want Aaron Rodgers back? In December, he said yeah. Now he qualified it with we want all our players back. So it wasn't exactly a thumping ring endorsement. But what word you didn't hear there was yes. He didn't say yes.

He said all options. Now, to be fair, one of the options, if all options are on the table, is Aaron Rodgers coming back to the Packers next season, but all options completely opens the door to a trade this offseason. It's going to be a wild ride here over the next couple of weeks. The last two years I remained in the camp that he wasn't getting traded. This year I absolutely think he will get dealt.

Where do you stand on this one? I've had that feeling really before the end of the season. Look, he was a 39-year-old quarterback last year who had the worst year of his career. Since he was a starter in 2008, he's never been less productive than he was in 2022. He turns 40 next season. Oh, by the way, he also had three injuries. He had a broken thumb on his throwing hand. He played through lower body injuries. Usually 39-year-old quarterbacks that show decline and have injury problems don't get better. They don't heal up at this stage in their career. They don't turn it around.

Father time is undefeated. I think in hindsight you're going to see that a year ago might have been the perfect marker. Every franchise with a franchise quarterback always has to balance when is the right time to say goodbye. It's so difficult to do in this league because franchise quarterbacks are obviously worth their weight in goals.

You don't ever want to be leaving one too soon, but you get in trouble if you leave one too late. The playoff loss in San Francisco two seasons ago, not being able to get into the end zone, putting points on the board after having an opening drive touchdown, a game that was at home there to win, it felt like that might have been the time, but they held on for another year. In hindsight, I wonder if they're going to look at history and think they held on a year too late. When do you think we'll get this answer by? I know Rodgers is so unpredictable. It seems like the Packers want to trade him but don't want to be the ones that say that right away. Is this going to get resolved in the next two weeks, you think, or are we in for a long wait here? Brian Dudekind said very clearly today that he wants it done by the start of pre-agency. He wants a resolution so that this team isn't hung out the dry and held hostage by its quarterback.

That would be March 15th. It's now. Coming out of Indy, it's going to be the highest alert to see what happens. Aaron Rodgers has gone in the darkness. He's in the light now. He's gone through his process. There should be no more figuring out on his end.

He should have that clarity. The Packers, they've been preparing for whatever scenario takes place for years now. It's not like this has just sprung up on them. It's been going back to the summer of 2020. Or the summer of 2021 where Aaron Rodgers initially had the rift with the team. And it's been like this every offseason since then. There's nothing new from their end.

It is something that should get resolved quite quickly. I think a lot of people are thinking right now that Rodgers is done with Green Bay and the Packers are done with him. But what happens if Rodgers goes to Brian Dudekinds and says, I still want to be on this team.

Does that mean he'll definitely be back or will they still look to trade him? One of the things, one of the qualifiers that Brian Dudekinds also put on an Aaron Rodgers return today was restructuring his contract. And if you're not familiar, Aaron Rodgers' contract is an albatross.

There's no question about it. He's owed almost $60 million if he was to come back and play for the Packers in 2023 and not retire. And one of the ways that they could restructure that, because he's not taking less money, nor should he. Aaron Rodgers taking a pay cut is not happening. But they could put another voidable year on his contract that already has two voidable years. So we're talking about financing the credit card way of paying off a quarterback.

But that's one option. The other thing that Brian Dudekinds said today, and he was the most definitive on this, it's time for Jordan Love to play. It's not like they have an aging quarterback and no one behind them. They have a first round pick that they traded up to the 20-20 first round to go and get, who has now sat for three years and has finally, over the last season, shown some promise, shown some potential. Nobody has any idea if Jordan Love's going to be any good or not.

They're not going to know. He's got to go through the same process as any young NFL quarterback. Can he learn from failure? Can he take his hard knocks and bounce back? He hasn't had that chance to do that.

But Brian Dudekinds said, absolutely. Jordan Love is ready to get that chance. He's ready to play.

That's the next step for him now. And he was awfully definitive on that. So if Aaron Rodgers wants to come back, it's not a no.

But it's not a guaranteed yes. When you look at it also from the Packers side, Ryan Wood does a great job covering the Packers for USA Today. Why don't they just come out and say we're ready to move on at this point? Because that's what it feels like that they're ready to move on from. I think around here, the memories are long.

And it wasn't all that long ago, especially for Brian Dudekinds, who was with the organization during the summer of 2008. I think that there is a lot of diligent care whenever the divorce comes, whether it's this offseason, whether it's next offseason, whenever that time is, not to have a repeat of the Brett Favre saga. And so much of the situation already has hinges of that. The on again, off again, the every single year watchdog, what's going to happen, and just recycling it at the end of every season. All of that has a familiarity to what this franchise went through with Brett Favre. But the nastiness, the bitterness, the rift between the quarterback and the team, and the rift in the fan base most of all, is something that nobody around here wants to repeat. So I think everyone involved is going to be very delicate with this situation, whether it's this offseason or not, just because the memories aren't very long when it comes to what happened the last time a Hall of Fame franchise quarterback ended his time here in Green Bay.

So if they talk and they realize a split is the best course of action for both parties involved, do you think they'll have a mutual statement or will this just be the Packers that will have to say something first? You know, that's a great question. That's something I've been wondering. How would the statement look?

How would the announcement look? I wonder that in my head. Everything in sports now is mutually parted ways, right? And it never means that they mutually parted ways. Someone had to make a decision, then you're saving face for the other person. That's what mutually parted ways means.

But this feels like it'd be a mutually parted ways announcement. It feels like there's a lot of care for the legacy that was. You know anything about the Green Bay Packers? They care about their history. And this is a big, huge part of their history. The Aaron Rodgers era. It's Super Bowls in there. Almost unprecedented run since the 1960s. This is one of the highlights of their entire franchise.

There's going to be a lot of care. So yeah, this feels like a mutually parted ways type of decision coming. The only thing that I'll say to that is if I was Rodgers, even if you want out and you get a sense that the Packers don't want you anymore on that team. I would make them be the one that come out and say, OK, we don't want Aaron anymore.

Because whatever people in the fan base that still wants me are then going to say, oh, well, they're driving Aaron Rodgers out of town. Like one of the great quarterbacks. There's no question it's going to be fascinating if it does happen. How Aaron Rodgers handles this. He has obviously over the course of his career, spoken his mind and at times it can be, for lack of a better word, let's just say a bit of a petty sort of way. He's he's shown that over the course of his career. Is that going to be the case or not?

If it happens this offseason? Well, he's really been clearing the road, really going back to late in the season when he said that once to twice. He thinks it would be awfully egotistical of him to think that the Packers would want him back.

And when he goes on his buddy Pat McVeigh show and he said over and over again, there doesn't have to be a bad guy here. There doesn't have to be anger and animosity. There can be appreciation for what has been from his side. He's been clearing the road for a graceful divorce, if that is the outcome this offseason. Now, you can prepare all you want for divorce, but anyone that's gone through it knows that things can get dicey. Things can go different than how you prepare once you actually go through it.

So that's that's what we don't know yet. But from a preparation standpoint, he's been trying to clear that path. Talking to Ryan Wood about the Green Bay Packers. If Rodgers is back with the pack, what are your expectations for them this year? Because there's a team that missed the playoffs. That was the most jarring thing to me before the year, even though we expected some regression without Devonta Adams, I thought they were a lock to win the division or bare minimum make the playoffs. You know how Rodgers views the Lions, even though they're up and coming.

They're basically gum on the bottom of his of his cleat. And he lost to them twice in a situation with all the wrong that went on last year. They could have made the playoffs the final week of the season with the win. So if he's back, like, what could you even expect out of Green Bay next year? This is where the rubber meets the road. You haven't asked me yet what I would do if I'm not right.

Thankfully, I'm not, because it's not an easy steep that he's sitting in. But the bottom line, they're not winning a Super Bowl. They're in Rogers next year.

And I traded. They don't have the roster to do it. And if you know that and he's going into his age 40 season, you're not winning a Super Bowl. And again, you have a first round pick behind him that you need to figure out. That's where it's time to get out of this.

Squeeze all the juice out of the lemon. All the all the title shot that you can out of this window and start thinking about the next decade. If you know that you don't have the roster to do and they don't have the roster to go and win a Super Bowl with Aaron Rush, not unless he goes back and plays vintage, which, again, at this stage. And if you're not Tom Brady, you're not usually getting better when you go into your age 40 season. That's very historically against the grain of what happens. Father time is undefeated for everyone. So you put all those dots together.

That's that's where the rubber meets the road. The expectation can't be realistically that they're going to go win a Super Bowl next year. And even if he gets back to the MVP level, we just saw him win the MVP back to back years, go 13 and three, 13 and three and have two exits before getting to the Super Bowl. One in the NFC title game and the other in the divisional round.

Both at home. And it was the offense that let them down. It used to be it used to be impossible for opponents to come into Lambeau Field in January and walk away with a win. The last the last three years.

All right. Because effectively last year's regular season finale, the play in game might not be a playoff game, but it's a play in game, a game that you win and continue your season. The last three years, they have lost that home in that setting in that situation. Three years running.

So you're absolutely right. Even if he plays better than he did last year, nothing is guaranteed. And also the offense let him down in the second half of both those games against Tampa Bay. Brady threw three interceptions. They did nothing with the football in that second half. And in the game up against the 49ers, I know he's going for Adams, but he had Allen Lazard wide open down the middle of the field. You're absolutely right. Look, they had their defense against the 49ers did not give up a touchdown. At home with Aaron Rodgers at quarterback and they lost again.

That does not happen, but it did. So that's that's the that's the reality of what they're looking at is it's it's a tough road if you continue this way. Now, why would you go with Aaron Rodgers?

And this goes against everything that I've heard in conversations. What I have heard in all the conversations I have, I understand the Packers are very gung ho about Jordan Love. They're excited. They've seen some flashes. He's had time to marinate that time that he needed to have. He was not ready in 2020 to come in and set the NFL on fire.

He needed to wait. He needed to develop. But there is excitement over his potential. Doesn't mean that he's going to be a franchise caliber quarterback. They're not going to know that until he actually plays.

But they've seen flashes. There is excitement about Jordan Love. With that said, you know, he's not a known quantity. Aaron Rodgers is. You have an idea of what you're going to be getting out of Aaron Rodgers.

He has a very large sample size in his crew. That's that's the only you know, if you want to play devil's advocate, that's the only real tangible reason that you've got. OK, at least you know what you're getting with Aaron Rodgers. I know we both think should happen. We're both clearly in the camp that he should get traded this offseason. What will happen?

You had to put a percentage on it. The will that he'll get traded in the will that he'll be back with the Packers is what? Man, if I knew what was going to happen, I'd take those off to Vegas right now. You know, it feels I wouldn't say coin flip because I do think at the end of the day, I think that logic prevails. And there's just too many reasons now to to start another chapter, to turn the page.

What's the oldest adage in the NFL? It's better to get to move on from a player a year to a year too early than a year too late. Again, you look at history. They might already be late. Do you really want to delay that another year? I think logic prevails. But I've had plenty of conversations this offseason. People that are around the organization know the organization very well that have real doubts whether or not Brian Goudekins would pull the trade that goes against the grain of of what seems logical. But I don't think that it's a done deal that he's getting traded at this point. I there's just too much smoke for a potential that he could return for 2023 to think that it's 100 percent. I do think at the end of the day, though, that it's the logical thing.

This is the time to turn the page. That's fascinating because Goudekins had the cojones to trade up in the draft to go draft Jordan Love eventually to replace Rogers. But he may have some skepticism on if the timing is right now.

The timing is absolutely right. He had the forward thinking, the forward thought to make the trade to draft Jordan Love. It would it would almost be irrational to stop having forward thinking now.

If you're going to have the forward thinking, then you would just you'd continue with that that reasoning. But we'll see again. Aaron Rodgers is a known quantity in this league. And what what did general managers and coaches especially think about the next season?

That that is always first and foremost in their purview. Brian Goudekins said it as soon as the season ended, the accident. Who gives you a better chance to win in 2023? Aaron Rodgers, Jordan Love. Unequivocally, he said Aaron Rodgers without hesitation. And he's probably right because, I mean, Aaron Rodgers inherited a 13 and three team in 2007. That was coming off an NFC Championship game appearance in Lambeau Field. They lost that game to the Giants.

But that's a good team. His first year as a starter, 2008, he was six and 10. It took twenty nine games into Aaron Rodgers's career to have a winning record as a quarterback. The Packers aren't winning with Jordan Love next year either. It's going to be a transitional year. Brian Goudekins admitted as much today.

So from a known quantity standpoint, who gives you a better chance to win if that's your emphasis? It's 2023. It just seems like that would be such a mistake.

They put all your eggs in one basket. That's probably not getting to the Super Bowl. Instead of thinking of the entire decade that's coming up next. Last thing I'll ask you, Ryan, we've only got a minute left. Is there any chance he retires here?

And we're both wrong. It's not a trade or it's not coming back to Green Bay. Is retirement on the table? I won't be surprised if he gets traded. I won't be surprised if he comes back to the Packers. I will be shocked. I will fall over completely unconscious if he actually retires.

He's getting paid 60 million dollars to play football next season. What would be Rodgers like, though, to do the unconventional thing? I mean, who does that? Who does that?

Whatever you hate most in life. If someone was to say, do that and I'll pay you 60 million dollars? Sign me up. I think most of us would, you know, that'd be an easy call, right?

Yeah. This isn't something that he hates. He's done this for 18 years. Just do it another year, you get 60 million dollars. I would be shocked if he retires. Make sure you follow him on Twitter, at ByRyanWood. He does a great job covering the Packers for USA Today. Ryan, appreciate the time. Alright, take care.