There’s an awkward date to w...

PHOENIX (AP) — As the Green Bay Packers and New York Jets work out the closing details of a deal for quarterback Aaron Rodgers, a pressure point is looming — and it's approaching quickly. Mark your diaries for April 17th.

Green Bay's offseason exercise regimen begins on that date. If Rodgers is still on the Packers' roster, the Packers are not permitted to keep him away from the company building once practices commence, according to the joint labor agreement between the NFL and the NFL Players Association. That means that if Rodgers wants to make things exceedingly awkward as trade talks continue — and he's not on good terms with Green Bay's front office right now — he could simply turn up.

That prospect prompts two questions: would Rodgers make such an aggressive move to put such pressure on talks, and would the Packers ever allow talks to drag on long enough to offer him the opportunity? There's a possibility we'll find out, though at this week's NFL owners meetings, Packers head coach Matt LaFleur dodged the issue of Rodgers' possible exercise attendance if a trade isn't finalized by April 17.

"That's between [Jets general manager Joe Douglas] and [Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst]," LaFluer explained. "I'll leave that one to them." We'll train whoever is on the team."

As of Tuesday, there was some hope that the two parties were getting closer to an agreement. A second person close to the negotiations said an agreement could be reached in "the next week or so." The most recent conditions discussed involved the Jets giving the Packers two second-round choices in the 2023 and 2024 drafts in return for Rodgers. The 2024 selection would include a team performance escalation factor applied to the Jets, which could raise the decision to a first-round pick. The Jets' demand for a draft choice "give back" in 2025 if Rodgers refuses to play beyond the 2023 season was the deal's stumbling point as of Tuesday.

The wrangling over that point has slowed trade talks, which are now in their third week and have openly veered into more thorny terrain. The most recent twist occurred this week, when Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst replied to Rodgers' assertion earlier this month that the Packers started marketing him for trade while he was participating in the nighttime retreat. Gutekunst indicated there was more to the tale, claiming Rodgers did not react to overtures from Green Bay's front office to talk his future plans and the franchise's direction. Rodgers also claimed on "The Pat McAfee Show" earlier this month that the Packers originally told him to take as much time as he needed to make a choice about his future.

This "he said/they said" volley about who failed to communicate and caused a stalemate is part of what bears on the coming days, as well as the chance that Rodgers will up the stakes by attending workouts. However, while this is a critical juncture in history, it is not unique. Last offseason, the San Francisco 49ers and QB Jimmy Garoppolo reached an agreement that essentially held him out of the team's facility while the two parties sought a trade partner. That trade suitor never happened, so Garoppolo took a pay reduction to stay with San Francisco in 2022 and then returned to training camp.

There is currently no evidence that Rodgers and the Packers have discussed such an agreement. That means that as the trade deadline approaches, so does the schedule for offseason workouts, leaving Green Bay to confront the possibility that the situation will worsen in a matter of weeks.

Individuals engaged in the trade negotiations, on the other hand, were a little less vague about what the exercise program entails, with one source labeling the April 17 workout start date "an artificial deadline," with the next important moment arriving the week before the NFL Draft.

"The beginning of [Packers] workouts could certainly make it awkward if it gets to that point," the source said. "It could happen. We shall see."