Aaron Rodgers feeling rejuvenated heading into potentially last season with Packers
Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and guard Billy Turner share a laugh during a joint training camp practice with the New York Jets on Aug. 18, 2021, in Green Bay, Wis. Credit: AP/Matt Ludtke
There was drama and intrigue. Controversy and uncertainty. Frustration and bitterness.
There was all of that for Aaron Rodgers, whose future seemed as if it was in a perpetual state of flux throughout the offseason.
But there was also something else for the Packers’ legendary quarterback, who kept the world guessing about whether he’d show up to the only team for which he’d ever played.
There was rest. There was relaxation. And there was rejuvenation.
Which may help explain why Rodgers, despite not participating in offseason workouts and only reporting to the team when it was required by his contract, has enjoyed one of the best training camps in his 17 seasons with Green Bay.
While controversy hovered over Rodgers’ tenuous situation from shortly after the time he lost the NFC Championship Game to Tom Brady’s Buccaneers until he showed up at camp on July 27, Rodgers put the time away to good use.
"The offseason work, the rest – both mentally and physically – allowed me to come in with a really good mindset," Rodgers said Wednesday after a joint practice with the Jets at the Packers’ training facility near Lambeau Field. "I’ve been throwing a decent amount in the offseason – not always to football receivers – but I felt really good with where my arm was at."
The result has been an efficiency that even Rodgers, the reigning NFL MVP who rarely makes mistakes in games, no less practice, has noticed.
"This camp, I’ve been feeling really good from the start," he said. "We’ve been pretty efficient in practice against a new [defensive] scheme."
The offseason was a time of reflection for Rodgers, who kept a low profile despite near non-stop attention paid to his situation – in newspapers, on sports talk shows, and especially in conversations among Packers fans unsure about what might happen this season.
Rodgers did acknowledge in his first meeting with reporters at camp that he has been frustrated by his lack of input in personnel decisions, but the root of the uncertainty started with the team’s decision to draft his eventual successor, Jordan Love, in 2020. Rodgers insisted last month that Love’s arrival had little to do with his frustration, but he admitted the obvious Wednesday: that the drafting of a young quarterback would mean Rodgers’ eventual departure.
It’s why he spent much of last season as if it would be his last with the Packers. And why he’ll do the same this year.
"I don’t look at it as ‘getting through’ this season," he said. "I’m going to enjoy it like I enjoyed it last year. The reason I approached it like that [in 2020] is I just knew when the [Love] pick was made that the clock had started, for sure. I thought that unless there was something in the season that really made me feel like I’m going to be here past 2021, that maybe this would be my last year, because I didn’t want to go into a year as a lame duck."
Rodgers said that wouldn’t have been "fair to what I’ve accomplished and what I mean to this team. I’m glad I enjoyed every moment. I’m glad I led exactly the way I wanted to lead."
He even "took the headphones off and enjoyed the surroundings and the road trips and the time with the guys."
But Rodgers wants to make one thing clear about the impending season, even though it may well be his last in a Packers uniform.
"I don’t want a farewell tour," he said. "I don’t know what’s going to happen after the season, but I’m going to enjoy it with the right perspective for sure. I’m just going to enjoy the hell out of all of it."
Yes, Rodgers has his mind right. And if this is it for his run in Green Bay, then his newfound perspective will serve him – and the Packers – well.
"For me personally," he said, "the perspective through some of the work I’ve done in the offseason and just trying to be more joyful and happier is going to allow this season to be really special and memorable."
Bob Glauber retired in 2022 after covering the NFL for nearly 40 years. He was selected in 2021 for the Bill Nunn Career Achievement Award by the Pro Football Writers of America, and is a three-time winner of the New York State Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. President of the PFWA for the 2018-20 seasons, he is the author of “The Forgotten First” and “Guts and Genius.”
