The four-time MVP actually reached out to a team about playing this year
For the first time this offseason, Aaron Rodgers answered some questions about his future and what we learned this week is that the four-time MVP still hasn’t made any decisions about what he’s going to do in 2025.
Although Rodgers is still a free agent, he might be in Minnesota right now if the Vikings had decided to sign him. At the NFL owner’s meeting in late March, Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell mentioned that Rodgers reached out, so it seems pretty clear that the one-time Super Bowl winner called the Vikings — and not the other way around — which suggests that he was highly interested in playing for Minnesota.
“He happened to be at a point in time in his career where he was free to have some real dialogue about what his future may look like. And we happened to be one of those teams that he reached out to,” O’Connell said, via ESPN.
Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated added some more context to this story this week. In Breer’s report, he mentioned the fact that Rodgers pitched the Vikings on the idea of “making a one-year run at a Lombardi” while also “being a willing mentor for J.J. McCarthy.”
During his interview with Pat McAfee on Thursday, Rodgers didn’t necessarily dispute the report, but he did make it clear that he hasn’t been sitting around waiting for the Vikings to possibly sign him.
“There are a lot of narratives that haven’t been anywhere near accurate, starting with the Jets and continuing with something I just read about me pitching something to the Vikings,” Rodgers told McAfee. “I only know this because Ben [Roethlisberger] was on the show talking about me waiting around for the Vikings. That’s not accurate.”
During the April 1 edition of his podcast, Roethlisberger theorized that Rodgers was still unsigned because he was waiting on the Vikings. Rodgers certainly disputed that notion, but he didn’t directly dispute the report from Breer.
If Rodgers did approach the Vikings with a pitch of him winning a Super Bowl in Minnesota, it would have been easy for him to do it and that’s because he’s friends with O’Connell.
“I’ve known Kevin forever,” Rodgers said. “We used to work out together at Fitness Quest 10 in San Diego county. I’ve known him for 17, 18 years. We’ve got a good friendship, so we talk outside of just this offseason. We keep in touch during the season, so we’ve had good communication.”
Although the Vikings showed interest in Rodgers, they decided in mid-March that they weren’t going to pursue the 10-time Pro Bowler and that they were going to move forward with McCarthy.
If Rodgers had his eyes set on signing with Minnesota, it’s possible he doesn’t feel as strongly about signing with the Steelers (or any other team), which is why he hasn’t been in any rush to make a decision. Rodgers also hasn’t been in a rush to pick a team because he’s been focused on his personal life.
“I have a lot of things that are taking my attention — and have, beginning in January — away from football,” Rodgers said. “That’s where I’ve been focusing most of my attention on. Making a commitment to a team is a big thing.”
Rodgers clearly gave a lot of thought to what life would be like with the Vikings, because he made it clear that he understood the optics of what it would look like for a former Packers QB to end up in Minnesota, which is the path that Brett Favre once took.
“I know there’s, I’m sure, a lot of sentiment from Packers fans and shit, maybe even Vikings fans about certain things,” Rodgers said.
At this point, the Steelers still feel like the favorite in the clubhouse, but with Rodgers, you just never know what’s going to happen. In the end, he might not sign with anyone and he might just ride off into the Malibu sunset.
“I’m open to anything and attached to nothing,” Rodgers said. “So yeah, retirement could still be a possibility.”
At 41, Rodgers is facing his football mortality: The 2025 season could be the final one of his career, so it certainly makes some sense that he wants to think long and hard about what he wants to do this year.
