Gutekunst: Aaron Rodgers is “our guy,” contract is something they’ll work through

Brian Gutekunst met the media Monday afternoon to preview this week’s NFL Draft, but it took some time for that topic to be broached during the 30-minute session. Instead, like it has for much of the offseason, the focus of the questions centered on the contract of Aaron Rodgers and whether the Green Bay Packers general manager planned to do something about it.

“Aaron is our guy. He’s going to be our quarterback for the foreseeable future. We’re excited about the things we’re going to try to accomplish here over the next couple years,” Gutekunst told reporters. “We certainly think the contract is something we’ll work through. We’re going to probably have to do a few things with different contracts as we head toward the season and through the season to make sure that our salary cap situation, not only this year but in 2022, is square, so we’re not done yet. We’ve done a lot to get here. We’ve kind of been doing things as we go and we will continue to do that as we go.”

This offseason the Packers re-worked contracts for Za’Darius Smith, Preston Smith, Adrian Amos and Billy Turner. They also moved money around on the new contract given to David Bakhtiari during the season. Rodgers’ contract, though, has gone untouched to this point.

“We’re going to be in the same situation next year as we are this year,” Gutekunst said. “Continue to push more money out to field our team. I think we had to do a lot of things to bring guys back this year. We’ll have to do that again, so we’re not done by any mean yet, and we are working through that with a number of our players, including Aaron.”

The future Hall of Fame quarterback’s contract runs through 2023, but there are reasons for the Packers to re-work it, assuming you believe Gutekunst sees Rodgers as his quarterback for the foreseeable future. He’s due to count $37.2 million against this year’s salary cap, which went down drastically due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Giving him an extension would clear cap space to help in keeping the team under the cap this year and in 2022 where the Packers are well over the projected cap.

An extension would also give Rodgers some peace of mind, as there is no guaranteed money left on his current contract, meaning he could feel like a lame duck this season knowing the team could move on from him and not take a huge hit financially.

“I don’t really get into too many details about conversations with players, contract negotiations with players, but again, like I said earlier, I think it’s very important for us to work through the next two years and get this salary cap thing right,” Gutekunst said. “We will have to address many contracts over the next four or five months to get under the cap for the season and (Rodgers’ contract is) certainly one where we’ll probably address that as well.”

There’s a perception, at least in some circles, that the relationship between Rodgers and the franchise has soured since the club traded up to select Utah State quarterback Jordan Love in the first round of last year’s NFL Draft. Rodgers hasn’t quashed that notion with his comments about him finishing his career in Green Bay being out of his hands, calling his future with the club a “beautiful mystery” and saying in early April that his MVP play last season “may have thrown a wrench into some timelines that may have been thought about or desired.”

Asked about the relationship with his franchise quarterback, Gutekunst said he wasn’t sure quite where that notion was coming from.

“We’re really excited about Aaron Rodgers and his future with the Green Bay Packers. He’s going to be our quarterback for the foreseeable future,” Gutekunst said. “Obviously every year there’s different things you go through to get to the season, and I think we’re going through those right now whether it be contractually, whether it be working with our players on other things. That’s where we are.

“Again, he’s such a unique, different player than anyone I’ve ever been around. He affects our organization in so many different ways that you just can’t value him because he’s so important to what we do. We’re excited moving forward. We’ll kind of see where things go.”