Aaron Rodgers and the Packers ...

Down the stretch last season in the Aaron Rodgers vs. Tom Brady MVP race, the debate became a quintessential measure of success in the face of perceived weakness. Rodgers’ best argument for MVP was that when you looked at Brady’s surrounding pass-catching pieces and offensive line, the collections were far better than anything Rodgers had in Green Bay. One NFC head coach put a finer point on it, labeling the assortment of Rodgers’ wideouts and tight ends “one great player and a bunch of guys.” “Look at what he’s working with,” the coach said. “He’s elevating everything.” Roughly 10 months since that conversation, elevating has been transformed into excoriating. That is, if you could accurately read the lips of the Packers quarterback during Sunday’s stunning 15-9 loss to the Detroit Lions. Arguably no other defeat in Rodgers’ career featured such a demonstrative display of anger and frustration. And rightly so, given that this looked more like Green Bay bottoming out on the floor of the Mariana Trench than just losing to a bad team. In a postgame news conference that was strung together by sighs and painful pauses, Rodgers sounded close to defeated, even in the moments he was trying to project something positive. Frankly, I don’t know how many would count the Packers lucky when they see the remaining schedule. Especially after watching the loss to Detroit, which was exponentially worse than getting “exposed” by the Buffalo Bills just one week earlier. At the very least, it was a clarifying defeat for some speculated theories about this team. Now? Some of the theories are falling into the “accepted facts” column.

Should Rodgers, Packers have parted ways before 2022 season?

First, the “great player” that the NFC coach was referring to, Davante Adams, was holding it all together for Rodgers more than we understood over the past several seasons. Second, whether it’s out of frustration or unfathomable decline from last season’s MVP perfection, Rodgers is making significant on-field mistakes. Third, none of this seems like it’s going to get much better with a remaining slate that has five potential playoff teams in eight games. Finally, let’s just call last offseason for what it was: A mistake. If there was no way of keeping Adams in the fold on this team, there was no sense in doing a massive extension with Rodgers, either. Hindsight isn’t a great measure for NFL teams, but it’s a remarkable vehicle for accepting the current state of affairs. And for the Packers, reality looks like this: Rodgers should have been traded rather than re-signed to the massive extension. Or if it was truly his wish, he should have retired once he knew Adams was heading out the door. Either option would have been better than what he coined on Sunday as “frustration” but not “misery.” He’s right about that distinction. All of this right now — this is frustration. But when the season ends and Rodgers is sitting there staring at another failed year with no easy fix in sight, that will be misery. With that in mind, the Packers and Rodgers have to look one more time at whether some kind of fresh start for both can still be salvaged from last offseason’s mistake. Whether this season is spun as a culmination of surrounding injuries and inexperience that pushed Rodgers’ play off a cliff or just a disagreement on the scheme, the play here is for Green Bay to try and get something out of this flickering relationship while it still can. And the play for Rodgers is to shape up how he wants to end his career.