Aaron Rodgers continues to say his future is a "beautiful mystery" while the Green Bay Packers seemingly refuse to put the pieces together to help their future Hall of Fame quarterback capture his second Super Bowl title. Rodgers remains the Packers quarterback, but he and the Green Bay front office are apparently on a collision course.
When it's time for Rodgers and the Packers to butt heads, it could get ugly. Hall of Fame defensive back Charles Woodson, who played with Rodgers for seven years in Green Bay, told CBS Sports Radio's Zach Gelb things aren't likely to get better.
"It's one of those situations where there's all this talk swirling around him and Green Bay, and it could be one of those situations where it gets nasty," Woodson said on The Zach Gelb Show Tuesday. "I certainly hope that doesn't happen, but where there's smoke, there's fire. This could be a situation where -- before you know it -- someone makes some kind of play or offer and Green Bay can't refuse. They'll say 'hey, we'll go our separate ways and he wants to be somewhere else and we'll move on with the future of this team.'"
Rodgers is coming off a historic MVP season, as the Packers had the best record in the NFC with a 13-3 mark. Rodgers completed 70.7% of his passes for 4,299 yards with 48 touchdowns to just five interceptions at the age of 37. A First Team All-Pro selection, Rodgers led the league in completion percentage, touchdown passes, touchdown percentage (9.1), interception percentage (1.0), and passer rating (121.5). He set a career high in both completion percentage and touchdown passes.
Rodgers set three NFL records in 2020, including the most games with a passer rating over 100.0 (14) and the most games with a passer rating over 120.0 (10). He also had nine games with three-plus touchdown passes and no interceptions in a season, also the most in NFL history.
Yet the Packers still failed to reach the Super Bowl, falling to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFC Championship Game. Eventually Rodgers will want to take his talents somewhere he if Green Bay doesn't give him the help he needs. Woodson doesn't see his former quarterback ending his career with the Packers.
"If he plays well enough, he could end his career somewhere else. That's not an anomaly," Woodson said. "In this league, you try to play as many games as you can and win as many games as you can. At some point, a team is going to start looking towards the future. And I know the Packers are going to say 'we're going to take the best player available and this wasn't about looking to the future' -- well it is.
"I know A-Rod had to be thinking 'bring me someone in here that's going to help me immediately -- not someone that is going to sit behind me for the next two-three years' -- or whatever it is. I think he ends up ending his career in another place."
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