“I think you’ve got two really good football players that have played a lot of football together. When you have that type of relationship that they have — he started off the same way this year; he was leading the league in touchdown receptions — the chemistry they have is special. There’s no denying that. Anybody in this league that watches those two play, they know that.”

With a base salary of $9.25 million next year — plus $500,000 in roster bonus money and another $500,000 in workout bonuses — the Packers would save roughly $10 million in cap room if they parted ways with Nelson before next season. But the team has given no indication it wants to move on from Nelson or ask him to take a pay cut, even with Davante Adams having surpassed him as the team’s top wide receiver and in line for a major payday in free agency in March.

As long as he’s playing with Rodgers, Nelson seemingly can still be an effective possession receiver who lines up in the slot (something he’s done more and more in the last two years) but can still use his craftiness and savvy to be effective outside, too. Rodgers said upon his return for the Carolina game he still believes Nelson has plenty of “juice,” and getting them back together in 2018 should yield far more production.