@ChilliJon posted:Rodgers could walk into the locker room tomorrow am and 100% of the roster would have his back. Unconditionally.
His replacement was drafted but he was never told. Ask any player in the locker room how AR should take or respond to that.
Rodgers wants a long term commitment because he thinks the players in the locker room can win a SB. He WANTS to be in GB. The players in the locker room know he gives them the best chance of winning a ring.
This is a good take. For all the posturing and leaks, you can sum up the situation fairly easily.
Gutey had 2 years to evaluate Rodgers when he was the GM. Rodgers threw for 51 TDs against 6 interceptions in those two years, and they went 13-3 in MLFs first year with Rodgers. However, Gutey (and probably MLF) thought Rodgers was starting to decline and was putting up hollow stats because he wasn't taking any risks with the ball and they'd probably see an even bigger decline in 2020. The title game loss to the Niners where they were clearly outclassed suggested to Gutey/MLF they got a little lucky to get that far and weren't that close to being a real title team. In that draft, they identified a guy they thought was high value and traded up to get him. This is defensible, but the high-fiving on camera and the failure to give him a heads-up enraged Rodgers (thin-skinned as he is). As a fan, I'm happy they were excited to get JLove but making it seem like they thought they just drafted the next Mahomes might have been a little over the top and Rodgers read it as they were done with him.
Rodgers comes in for 2020, buys into the offense, and has one of the top 5 seasons in NFL history at QB. They get beat in the title game for many reasons, but the main one is that they were playing a CB that shouldn't have been on the field due to a back injury. CB depth was a major problem going into the year, but they decided it was more important for the future of the franchise to get their QB and RB for the future than to upgrade ANYWHERE (probably because they didn't think Rodgers would turn back the clock and be this good again).
They thought they were setting themselves up to be fairly competitive after Rodgers retired (which they thought was probably 2022) and not fall into the 4 or 5 win category. There were articles (mainly from the local sycophants) about what a genius Gutey was for doing all this which probably further enraged Rodgers. Rodgers asks for a bigger commitment after the season to basically be guaranteed to play a few more years in GB and they hesitate to really commit because they probably still think there's an inevitable decline coming. Rodgers has had enough and goes nuclear.