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Bob McGinn covered the Packers for 38 years. Which makes his opinions regarding the team worth considering.

So consider this paragraph from McGinn’s review of Green Bay’s much-maligned 2020 draft for TheAthletic.com, which started with the Packers trading up from No. 30 to No. 26 to draft Utah State quarterback Jordan Love: “Public niceties aside, my sense is [coach Matt] LaFleur, fresh from a terrific 13-3 baptismal season, simply had enough of [Aaron] Rodgers’ act and wanted to change the narrative. With a first-round talent on the roster, the Packers would gain leverage with their imperial quarterback and his passive-aggressive style. If the Packers do indeed want to become a running team next season, they surely wouldn’t want Rodgers rocking the boat and becoming even more difficult to coach.”

There’s a lot to unpack in that passage. It implies that Rodgers acted in a way that LaFleur found distasteful in 2019. If so, the team did a good job of covering it up. By all appearances, LaFleur decided to embrace his franchise quarterback and to let him run the offense the way he sees fit, after the offseason awkwardness regarding the so-called “audible issue.” Indeed, after the team lost to the 49ers in the NFC Championship, Rodgers was surprisingly upbeat.

Also, McGinn suggests that Rodgers has continued to be passive-aggressive under LaFleur. That routine seemed to end after the Packers fired coach Mike McCarthy. however. All in all, Rodgers was pleased with the changes that the team made under LaFleur and G.M. Brian Gutekunst.

Likewise, McGinn believes that Rodgers was “difficult to coach” last year and that he will be “even more difficult to coach” if the team shifts its offense to a run-based attack in 2020.

If any of McGinn’s assessment is accurate, things could get ugly in Green Bay. The best outcome would entail Rodgers helping Love get up to speed quickly, so that it would be easier for the Packers to justify giving Rodgers what he already may want: A ticket to another team.

The biggest impediment continues to be the salary-cap implications of trading Rodgers. A deal before June 1, 2021 would wreak havoc on the team’s salary cap. Even then, it makes the most sense to keep Rodgers for two more years.

Regardless of whether McGinn’s musings have hit the mark, the circumstances suggest that things will be awkward at a minimum in 2020, and possibly beyond, for the Packers and Rodgers. Whether the Packers wanted that, at a minimum they’re OK with it. Even if Rodgers isn’t.