Gutekunst: Attempts to talk to Rodgers went unanswered

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) - Communication between the Packers and their star quarterback went silent after the initial conversations following the season.

A couple weeks ago Rodgers went on the Pat McAfee Show and said that he intended to play next season, and intended to do so for the New York Jets. The four time MVP also saying he went into the ‘darkness retreat’ ninety percent retired, but came out to learn the Packers were talking to other teams about a potential trade.

On Monday, Gutekunst told reporters he has not spoken to Rodgers personally since their conversation following the season, and were unable to reach him.

“Our inability to reach him or for him to respond in any way. I think at that point, I think we, I had to do my job and reaching out, and understanding a trade could be possible if he was interested. Shopping was never really part of that,” Gutekunst told reporters, via Matt Schneidman of The Athletic.

“Coming out of the season you have a lot of conversations, not only with Aaron but with the rest of the team, coaches, everybody. As you go through that process, you kind of get an idea of where you’re going to move to as a team, how you’re going to go forward. I think I was really looking forward to the conversations with Aaron to see how he fit into that. Those never transpired. So, there came a time where we had to make some decisions. So we went through his representatives to try to, to kind of talk to him about where we were going with our team. At that point they informed us he would like to be traded to the Jets.”

Brian Gutekunst on Aaron Rodgers: "Certainly whenever a player may have issues, you prefer that they talk to you directly and not do it in the media, but that's not necessarily the way he goes about it and that's OK."
— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) March 27, 2023

As for those talks with the Jets, Gutekunst saying that there have been casual conversations with the Jets in Arizona. Gutekunst also echoing what Douglas said earlier in the day about there not being a hard deadline to get a deal done between the two sides.

Gutekunst also told reporters the Jets first round pick does not necesarily need to be included in a trade for Rodgers.

When asked if there’s a chance Rodgers returns to Green Bay next season, Gutekunst said all options are open.