Denver Broncos: Latest Aaron Rodgers updates after OTAs

There are training camp battles brewing at just about every position (including quarterback), roster spots to be decided, and plenty of new faces to be excited about all over the roster. Yet there is truly just one question on the mind of the majority of Denver Broncos fans now that the team has concluded OTAs — What’s the deal with Aaron Rodgers?

At a local restaurant in south Omaha, Nebraska, I met a couple of people wearing Denver Broncos apparel. The common bond of Denver Broncos fandom quickly shifted to a discussion about the league MVP, and understandably so.

Heck, the Aaron Rodgers rumors — which started the night of the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft — even have my wife interested in what’s going on with the day-to-day of the Denver Broncos, and the last time I checked with her (today) she remembered that Drew Lock, Von Miller, and “Antoine” Chubb played for the team.

There is no question that the league MVP is going to be a big draw. When reports emerged that Rodgers would want to play for the Denver Broncos if he was traded by the Green Bay Packers, it was like Manning mania all over again for Broncos Country.

Only this time, there’s really nothing the Denver Broncos can do except wait. Wait, that is, until the Green Bay Packers relent and decide they are willing to trade Rodgers.

Until that happens, we’re simply in an old-fashioned Western stare down.

Well, the Packers and Rodgers are, anyway.

Denver Broncos odds of landing Aaron Rodgers

According to 850 KOA Broncos insider Benjamin Allbright, the odds of Rodgers playing for the Denver Broncos have steadily increased from 55-45 to 60-40 in recent weeks.

Packers team president and CEO Mark Murphy recently called Rodgers a “complicated fella” and the next time we saw Rodgers, he was wearing a shirt that said, “I’m Offended”.

The stalemate between Rodgers and the Packers does not appear to be salvageable at this point. The Packers do not have any sort of deadline (at least not that we know of) to trade Rodgers, but it seems rather abundantly clear at this point that he will never play for them again.

Perhaps the Packers think that, magically, in the next four weeks or so Rodgers will just let bygones be bygones and show up to training camp like nothing ever happened, but what cannot be overstated is that the action he has taken is completely unprecedented, even for such a “complicated fella”.

Rodgers has never skipped OTAs. He’s certainly not going to be hurting financially, but he’s sacrificing essentially free money from the Packers to prove his point.

The Packers would be borderline insane to let Rodgers just retire and get nothing for him in a trade. They could get a king’s ransom for him even with seemingly little leverage because he’s Aaron F. Rodgers, and you can determine what the “F” stands for on your own.

Rodgers has also made it clear that this dispute is not about money. The Packers could easily cure this with money if they wanted to, but there are not offers being exchanged between the two parties.

This feud is going to end in separation, one way or the other, and it would be less surprising for Rodgers to be the host of Jeopardy! this year than it would for him to be the quarterback of the Green Bay Packers, given all that we know and have seen unfold publicly.

And so, the question circles back to — will he be the quarterback of the Denver Broncos?

Benjamin Allbright seems to think there’s a decent chance of it, calling it 60-40 at this point that Rodgers will be a Bronco. The Denver Broncos certainly have assets to trade the Packers. The Packers already have a future franchise QB they believe in (Jordan Love) who, by a variety of reports, had a strong showing at OTAs.

Is there ever a good time to trade Aaron Rodgers? Probably not.

With that being said, sometime within the next month would be the best time to trade him, and I think the Packers could very well realize that, ultimately. They can get good value in return, Rodgers can move on, the Packers can move on, and the Denver Broncos can become Super Bowl contenders.

Denver Broncos: 53-man roster prediction at 2021 OTAs

The Denver Broncos will have some difficult decisions to make regarding the roster leading up to the 2021 season. Who makes the final 53?

Who says no?