NFL offseason storylines: Aaron Rodgers, retirements and the No 1 overall pick

The Rodgers Saga rolls into a third offseason. Prior to the Super Bowl, ESPN reported that the Green Bay Packers were now willing to go “all in” to keep the quarterback, pushing up to the limit of the salary cap for next season and beyond. The Packers are, the report suggested, looking to mirror the latter days of the Saints’ Drew Brees era, pushing cap pain down the line in order to squeeze extra juice out of the roster now.

It feels like 10 years too late. The Packers’ plan doesn’t hold much water, either. OverTheCap.com chronicles each team’s ‘effective’ salary cap, which looks at how much cap room a team is able to finagle by redistributing the money in the current contracts on its books. For instance: the Saints are currently $70m(!) over the cap. But New Orleans structure contracts in a way that they’re able to activate triggers that kick the money down the line. Their ‘effective’ cap, once they shuffle their options and renegotiate deals, will be closer to $30m under the cap by the time free-agency rolls around.

Things are different in Green Bay. The Packers don’t have the same flexibility. Even with the potential to rework contracts, their effective cap comes out right around dead even – and that’s before they work out deals with their upcoming free agents.

We should know Rodgers’ answer soon. He has set the upcoming franchise tag deadline as his limit for making a decision. By then, Rodgers and the Packers will know the future of Davante Adams, Rodgers’ top receiver and an impending free agent.

Coming off back-to-back MVPs, the Packers quarterback steps into the offseason with an unusual amount of power. He has teased that he could walk away from the game altogether. While, over in Denver, the Broncos have hired