The Minnesota Vikings have not slammed the door shut on Aaron Rodgers just yet. It seems that they would like to turn their quarterback responsibilities over to J.J. McCarthy for the coming season and that's just what they will do if last year's first-round selection is healthy and able to handle the responsibilities that head coach Kevin O'Connell will require of him.
But while the Vikings have plenty of confidence — at least outwardly — that McCarthy will be up for the task at hand, they don't know for sure. It seems fairly likely that he will be healthy enough since he has passed all his benchmarks to this point. He also was in a good position prior to suffering a torn meniscus last year when it came to understanding the Vikings offense.
It's one thing to have made the first few steps, it's quite another to master them. That's why the door has to remain open for Rodgers. Even if McCarthy has all the ability in the world, if he does not master a high-level offense before the season kicks off — or is at least on track to do so early in the year — it would not make sense to put him in the starting lineup.
Former Packers linebacker A.J. Hawk was a guest on Pat McAfee's ESPN show and he said the Vikings may still have a belief that they could need Rodgers at one point or another. “The Vikings had the opportunity to completely close the door on Aaron Rodgers and they didn't,” Hawk said. “I know that Aaron Rodgers loves everybody in that Pittsburgh Steelers building.”
Vikings don't appear to be looking at Rodgers as insurance policy
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Hawk's assessment would seem to be a warning to the Vikings that if they think they might need Rodgers for the coming season they need to make a move quickly. That's because Rodgers believes he would be happy to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers and raise that team's level of play.
However, the Vikings don't seem likely to make a move in Rodgers' direction until they are convinced that McCarthy is not on track to be the team's QB1 by the start of the season.
Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah spoke earlier in the week about his team's quarterback room. “Obviously things can change, but right now, we're really happy with our [quarterback] room, and we're going to look to upgrade it in different ways.”
Rodgers comes with a lot of baggage in addition to being a 41-year-old quarterback who is no longer at the peak of his powers. How well Rodgers and O'Connell would get along has not been determined, but it seems clear that the last thing the Vikings coach wants is for his locker room to undergo any kind of upheaval. Bringing Rodgers could have a negative impact on team chemistry in Minnesota.
