Aaron Rodgers will decide his future between now and next March. He might want to keep playing in Green Bay, request a trade, or retire. But that choice will affect several other decisions the Green Bay Packers make regarding their offensive personnel.
Two scenarios, with Rodgers or Jordan Love as the starting quarterback next season, will demand different approaches to build around any of them. If Rodgers is the starter moving forward, many veterans may still be part of the team in 2023. If Love is under center next year, there might be a youth movement and a longer-term thinking to restructuring the offense.
Allen Lazard and Randall Cobb
The Packers overhauled their receiving group last offseason. They traded Davante Adams to the Las Vegas Raiders, and Marquez Valdes-Scantling signed with the Kansas City Chiefs in free agency. Green Bay drafted Christian Watson, Romeo Doubs, and Samori Toure.
They retained Allen Lazard and Randall Cobb, two reliable pass-catchers, but both will be unrestricted free agents in 2023. This year, Lazard was a restricted free agent, and the Packers decided to keep him via the RFA tender. If Rodgers stays in Green Bay, it makes sense to find a short-term solution to retain Lazard because the quarterback and the receiver have a good on-field connection. However, that doesn’t matter if Rodgers is gone.
There would still be a possibility to keep Lazard to reinforce the weapons around Love, but that would be more dependent on the market. Secondary receivers are getting more than $10 million yearly on the open market, so the Packers would probably prefer to increase the role of the young receivers.
Cobb has an obvious connection with Rodgers, and the Packers re-acquired him from the Houston Texans because of their close relationship. Cobb has been a mentor for the young receivers and a decent offensive contributor. Still, there would be little incentive to keep him if Rodgers won’t be there.
Robert Tonyan and Marcedes Lewis
The tight end position is a big mystery for Green Bay. Josiah Deguara is the only player at the position with a contract beyond 2022, and it is a place where prospects generally take more time to develop. That means if the Packers draft a tight end, it’s not necessarily an immediate-impact addition. Tonyan and Lewis will both be free agents, too. They have signed a series of short-term deals to stay in Green Bay in the last couple of years.
Lewis has been instrumental for the Packers since he arrived in Green Bay four years ago, but his relationship with Rodgers is one the most significant factors for him to keep playing despite his age. He will be 39 next season, and it’s hard to imagine a new deal will be done if the team decides to transition to a new phase.
Tonyan has a bigger chance of getting re-signed, even if Rodgers is gone, because he’s going to be 29, and he probably suffered a market devaluation in the last two years, with a serious knee injury in 2021 and a lackluster performance in 2022.
Deguara is a different type of tight end, more of an H-back style. Therefore, Tonyan would still have an essential role if the Packers can re-sign him for an inexpensive (and probably short) deal. But it will depend on if the market is right, and if Love is the starting quarterback, the incentive to find younger and longer-term pieces will be higher.
David Bakhtiari
Bakhtiari is signed through 2024, and there is no way he will get traded if Rodgers is the quarterback next season. They have played together for a decade and are close friends. It also makes sense to keep an experienced left tackle while Rodgers’ championship window is still open. However, if general manager Brian Gutekunst chooses or is forced to go with Love, there is a realistic scenario where trading Bakhtiari for draft capital is the smartest approach.
If the Packers trade Bakhtiari, they would have extra draft capital to find new building blocks and open cap space. Moreover, the left tackle replacement is already in town. Zach Tom has had two starts on Rodgers’ blind side and has played particularly well for a rookie.
Rodgers has said he will decide his future on a year-to-year basis, but at the same time, he won’t take months into the offseason to reach a conclusion. And that second part is especially important because the Green Bay Packers need a definitive answer before the new league year starts in March, given how many moving parts there will be.
