Green Bay Packers

Bill Simmons Is Betting Against Aaron Rodgers

Photo Credit: Jeff Hanisch (USA TODAY Sports)

Add Bill Simmons to the list of Aaron Rodgers haters. The self-proclaimed “podfather” and die-hard New England Patriots fan threw some shade at Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers on a podcast this week with Ringer staffer Kevin Clark.

I’m excited that I get to bet against Rodgers in the playoffs again next year because that’s been pretty lucrative. Honestly, it has. Aaron Rodgers has been a playoff favorite the last couple of years. It’s been lucrative.

I think that contract is gonna make it really hard for them to put the right kind of team around him, and I’m not positive he cares.

Clark pushed back, saying it wasn’t much more than Rodgers’ cap hit on his previous 4-year, $134 million contract.

“Okay, first of all, it’s not that much more than he was already making in the grand scheme of things,” he said. “He was the highest-paid player in the NFL going into this before the Mahomes deal.”

“$50 (million)!” Simmons responded.

“He was in the high-$40s before,” countered Clark. “It’s not like he was a rookie.”

“I don’t remember six-time Super Bowl champ Tom Brady grabbing $50 million out of the cap,” exclaimed Simmons. “That’s why he was such a magnanimous Super Bowl hero for us. Don’t remember him chewing up the cap.”

“And then he had the exact same scenario as this,” offered Clark, “except he left.”

“That’s true,” said Simmons, laughing. “It’s probably the right move. Did you see our team the next year? He left just in time.”

“So, let me ask,” replied Clark, “who in the NFC next year is better than the Packers?”

That’s the point. Rodgers may have made headlines last offseason and continued to draw attention throughout the year. But he won his second consecutive MVP, and now leads the team in a weakened NFC. Tom Brady retired, the Seattle Seahawks traded Russell Wilson, and the Minnesota Vikings have a decision to make on Kirk Cousins.

The Packers are the team to beat in their conference. Unlike with Tom Brady and the Patriots, it looks like Rodgers will retire with the team that took a chance on him when he was falling in the 2005 draft.

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