Aaron Rodgers has addressed the rampant trade rumors surrounding him.
Rodgers did his weekly spot on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Tuesday, and initially said that he has not made the decision as to whether he will return for a 19th NFL season. That hasn’t stopped people linking him to the Jets, who are considering adding a veteran quarterback and who just hired Nathaniel Hackett, the ex-Packers offensive coordinator, to the same position.
McAfee asked how the process will unfold as to whether Rodgers will let the Packers know what he’s thinking, and vice versa. This is where the 39-year-old Rodgers made an allusion to reports from ESPN’s Adam Schefter that the Packers “prefer to move on” from the quarterback.
“It sounds like there’s already conversations going on that aren’t involving me. That’s very interesting,” Rodgers said. “Honestly, I’ve been insulated to a lot of that. I was in Nashville [visiting Randall Cobb and David Bakhtiari] and I’ll be up here [at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am] this week playing in the tournament. So, I’m not a part of those conversations right now. When I make up my mind one way or the other, you guys and the Packers and everyone else will know at some point.”
Rodgers would not say if any coach’s placement in the league would impact his decision, but was highly complimentary of Hackett.
“Love Hack. Hack is my guy. Love him and Megan and the kids,” Rodgers said. “They’re really special to me. We really bonded when he was in Green Bay. He made it fun. He made the room fun. He made the weeks fun.”
Rodgers said he’s “confident” he’ll feel more strongly about whether to keep playing within the next couple of weeks.
Asked about how he is weighing whether to return, Rodgers said, “When you’ve played as long as I have you like to recap each week the things that happened. You enjoy journaling and those things. I think it’s important to look at the tone of those things and where your mind is when you get away from it. You have to get away from the emotion of it. That’s why you can’t make a decision until after the Super Bowl at the earliest, because there’s still football going on, number one.
“Number two, it ain’t about me. It’s about the Eagles and the Chiefs and the great season that they’ve had. But I think you gotta be cognizant of what was going through your mind during the season. Did you enjoy the grind as much? Did you enjoy practice? Did you enjoy the meeting time, the routine? And to not forget about those feelings and make an emotional response either way, I think that’s important.”