Packers HC Matt LaFleur is “hopeful” Aaron Rodgers will return next season

Packers head coach Matt LaFleur spoke with Aaron Rodgers for “quite some time” after their loss to the 49ers on Saturday, per Matt Schneidman. He didn’t go into any detail about what they talked about, but reiterated his and Packers’ management’s desire to keep Rodgers around until he retires.

Rodgers has said he doesn’t want to play on a rebuilding team at this point in his career and with the Packers tough salary cap spot, it will be tough for them to retains some of the bigger names on the roster. LaFleur did tell reporters that they aren’t in rebuild mode, per Jason Hirschhorn.

LaFleur side-stepped the question about what they’ll do if Rodgers requests a trade by saying, “I just want to do everything in my power to get him back here and make sure he’s comfortable with the direction of our football team,” per Ryan Wood.

It was interesting that LaFleur talked about making Rodgers comfortable with the direction the team is going, which can be interpreted as taking the quarterback’s advice on off season moves.

But now we wait. Rodgers appeared to be happy with the team this season and LaFleur even said that this off season will be nothing like last of season, because the communication between Rodgers and management is much better now.

It appears that Rodgers will make his decision based on who will still be with the team and who might be added this off season. With Davante Adams as a free agent, his situation is likely a big piece of the puzzle.