https://sports.yahoo.com/article/aaron-rodgers-officially-becomes-free-141134781.html
When the new league year begins at 4:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday, the Jets will release quarterback Aaron Rodgers. He’ll officially become a free agent, for the first time in his 20-year NFL career.
So what will happen next?
Nobody knows, at this point. It’s widely believed to be a two-team race between the Steelers and the Giants. If Rodgers’s goal is to cap his career in the postseason, it shouldn’t be a question.
As of Tuesday, it became obvious that the sticking point for Rodgers and the Steelers is money. They need each other. The gap suggests Rodgers believes the Steelers need Rodgers more than Rodgers needs the Steelers — and the Steelers believe Rodgers needs the Steelers more than the Steelers need Rodgers.
Meanwhile, the Vikings could be lurking. Which could become a boom-or-bust proposition for Minnesota in 2025. The last time the Vikings embraced a former Packers and Jets quarterback, it went well. They made it to the NFC Championship with Brett Favre, where they outplayed (but lost to) the Saints. (Contributing factors included Adrian Peterson’s fumbles, the bounty on Favre, his ill-advised, Favre-being-Favre, cross-body throw when the team was in range for a potential game-winning field goal, an inexplicable too-many-men-in-the-huddle penalty after a timeout that made the potential game-winning field goal five yards longer, and the inherently unfair overtime rules that allowed a team to win the toss, take the ball, convert a couple of first downs, and walk off as the winner with a three-pointer).
The dynamics will change if/when any of the three teams decide to punt on Rodgers and address their veteran-quarterback needs elsewhere. That’s the risk Rodgers takes by taking time to make a decision. If the Vikings add, for example, Jameis Winston, they’ll be out. If the Giants or Steelers sign Russell Wilson, they’ll be out. And Rodgers, as it relates to having maximum options and in turn maximum leverage, could be (to use the technical terminology) shit out of luck.
The football world came to a standstill in 2012, when Peyton Manning was contemplating his options. Rodgers currently doesn’t have that kind of cachet. He had two subpar years with the Jets. And he has been more underwhelming than overwheling in the postseason for a lot longer than that.
Not long ago, it looked as if he had only one option for 2025 — the Giants. Once the Vikings and Steelers address their obvious needs at the position, it could be back to signing with the Giants or waiting for a starter on a short-list contender to suffer a season-ending injury. Whenever that might be. If it even happens.
https://sports.yahoo.com/article/aaron-rodgers-officially-becomes-free-141134781.html
