Packers say Aaron Rodgers didn’t sit down to talk

General manager Brian Gutekunst told the NFL’s annual league meeting Monday that he tried unsuccessfully to contact Rodgers “many times.”

PHOENIX — Si Aaron Rodgers I wanted direct conversations with the Green Bay Packers about his direction and future, then a high-level team executive believes the quarterback must have responded to his attempts to contact him this offseason.

General manager Brian Gutekunst commented Monday at the annual meeting of the league of the NFL who tried unsuccessfully to contact Aaron Rodgers “many times” since their last meeting in January, shortly after last season.

This after Aaron Rodgers I said less than two weeks ago in “Pat McAfee Show” that the Packers They weren’t direct with him about their intentions and how it fit into their plans for the 2023 season.

“I really wanted to talk with Aaron to see how he fit into that,” he stressed. Brian Gutekunst on Monday. “That never happened. So there came a time where we had to make some decisions, so we went to his representatives to try to talk to him. [sobre] where we were going with our team. At that time, we were informed that he would like to be switched to the Jets“.

Brian Gutekunst he said he was under the impression that after they wrapped up their end-of-season meetings, they would talk again after both sides had a chance to assess the situation.

“Our inability to contact him or for him to respond in any way,” Gutekunst explained, “I think, at that point, I had to do my job and communicate [con otros equipos] and understand that a trade might be possible and see who was interested.”

During his most recent appearance on the show McAfee, Aaron Rodgers said that when he left Green Bay Going into the offseason, I was under the impression that he would be welcomed back for a 19th season, but that something changed when he came out of obscure retirement in late February.

“I wish that at the beginning of the offseason that would have been the conversation because I love direct communication,” Rodgers stressed on March 15. “If only they had said to me, ‘look at him, you’re going to be a member of the Packers Hall of Fame. You will enter the Hall as a Packer. We are going to withdraw your number; whatever, but it’s time to move on,’ he would have said, ‘Thank you very much. Just for telling me that. I really appreciate it. It means a lot to me that you tell me that.’ Because I really think that’s the feeling and it’s okay. It really is. It’s totally fine. This is an amazing profession, but it’s a tough business, for sure.”

It is not clear why Rodgers did not tell McAfee about attempts to Gutekunst to communicate with him.

“You’d love to have those conversations about the direction of the team and how I could fit into that,” he said. Gutekunst. “We couldn’t have that, so it is what it is. At the same time, Aaron has been a great player for us. He means a lot to the organization. There’s a lot of gratitude, but those conversations would have been nice.”

Gutekunstspeaking to reporters for the first time since Rodgers said he wanted to play for the Jets, said he and the Jets’ general manager Jets, Joe Douglas, have been in regular contact, and even spoke briefly here at meetings in Phoenixbut that a term has not been set to execute an operation. Gutekunst He doesn’t rule out that it could take until the summer to finalize a deal; waiting until after June 1 would allow Packers distribute part of the salary cap on his books for 2024, but it would not mean compensation in terms of help for the 2023 draft.

The Jets have reportedly been unwilling to trade their first-round pick this year (13th overall), but Gutekunst noted there are ways to make the trade without that pick.

“That’s not a necessity. I think fair player value is important. There are risks in all of this. But again, I’m hopeful, I’m confident we can come to a conclusion at some point.”

Gutekunst He didn’t speculate on what would happen if they don’t consummate the trade with the Jets, but at this point, the Packers hope to go ahead with Jordan Love as quarterback.

“We’ll figure those things out as they come up, but right now I think we’re just focused on facilitating a trade with the player and the Jets and what we want. I think it would be best for everyone, but we’ll see how it goes.”