Packers: QB Aaron Rodgers says focus is on the present, his future is a ‘beautiful mystery’

January 21, 2021
|In Packers
|By Zach Heilprin

Aaron Rodgers will be playing in his fourth NFC Championship Game in the last seven years when takes the field against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday. While the opportunity to punch his ticket to his second Super Bowl has been prevalent over the last half of his career, the Green Bay Packers quarterback has no way of knowing if this might be his final chance.

“I hope there are more opportunities but I don’t know. I really don’t. That stuff is out of my control,” Rodgers said Wednesday, echoing a familiar stance he’s taken since the Packers drafted Jordan Love last April. “My future is a beautiful mystery, I think. The present is such a gift. Just be able to stay in the moment and have gratitude for being in the situation I’m in, and being with the guys and having fans at our stadium and maybe snow in an NFC Championship Game. I mean, I’m going to enjoy these moments for sure and just not worry about what happens down the line.”

Rodgers turned 37 in December and is signed through the 2023 season. He just completed perhaps his best regular season ever, breaking the franchise record for touchdowns (48) and completion percentage (70.7). If he were to continue to play at such a high level, it would make the Packers contenders for as long as he’s under center. But it’s also entirely possible this is his best last chance, whether in Green Bay or elsewhere, to hold the Lombardi Trophy again.

“I’m thankful for the opportunity to again be leading these guys, to have played the way I want to play, to be called upon for a greater leadership role. Those things are really, really important to me,” Rodgers said. “But all that other stuff I’m just not going to focus on because to me it is a beautiful mystery what happens down the line. There will be a time when we meet that future, and right now I’m just going to enjoy the present.”

Adding Tramon Williams?

Green Bay could be adding a veteran presence to its secondary and it’s a guy that fans know well.

According to the NFL transaction wire, cornerback Tramon Williams visited the Packers on Wednesday, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Tom Silverstein reported the veteran is expected to sign with the club “if everything goes right.”

Williams was cut by Baltimore after it lost to Buffalo last Sunday in the second round of the playoffs. He played in seven games for the Ravens after signing with them midseason.

The Packers know the former undrafted free agent well. He spent the first eight years of his career with Green Bay and played a pivotal role in the team’s run to a Super Bowl XLV win in 2010. Williams left the Packers after the 2014 season, spending two seasons with Cleveland and one with Arizona before returning to Green Bay for the 2018 and 2019 seasons.

Looking healthy

Every player on Green Bay’s active roster practiced on a least a limited basis Wednesday afternoon. That included running back AJ Dillon (quad) and kicker Mason Crosby (shoulder), both of whom got hurt in the win over Los Angeles last Sunday.