Insider Says How Close Vikings Came to Signing Aaron Rodgers

As with every NFC North team who isn’t the Green Bay Packers, the Minnesota Vikings have been at odds with Aaron Rodgers for many years. Rodgers, of course, was the superstar quarterback for the Packers for a long run, so every NFC North team would love to beat him with his new team.

This season, after playing musical chairs, Rodgers is with the Pittsburgh Steelers. But, for quite a while, there was lots of talk out there about Rodgers ending up with a handful of other NFL teams, including the Vikings. For Minnesota, the reason has to do with this being the first year that the Vikings will depend on J.J. McCarthy serving as head quarterback. McCarthy was out for his full rookie season with an injury, so this is the first time he’ll take a snap in the NFL. That’s a bit troubling for the Vikings, so having someone like Rodgers in the fold would have provided some veteran help.

So, how close were the Vikings to actually signing Rodgers to a deal? One insider is answering that question.

 

Minnesota Vikings and Aaron Rodgers

It’s safe to say that Vikings fans were not happy about the idea of Rodgers coming to Minnesota. Even if it had been when Rodgers was in his prime, so to speak, it’s like having the enemy suddenly on your team.

Rodgers is still a solid signal-caller, though, and there was certainly interest by several NFL teams to sign him. Now, according ESPN’s Adam Schefter, it turns out that the Vikings were never really one of those teams. He says that the Minnesota Vikings “never got that close” to signing him.

During an appearance on the Rothman & Ice Show on Wednesday, June 25, Schefter stated that the Vikings didn’t get close to bringing Rodgers in because “there is a lot of belief in that building” in J.J. McCarthy.”

“There were conversations with Rodgers, they never got overly serious,” Schefter stated on the show. “It was just kind of like, I think the interest was more on Aaron’s side, to be honest. He recognized the team the Vikings have, the type of coaches they have, the type of players, receivers they have. And I think that would have been appealing to him.”

The Vikings ‘Really Believe J.J. McCarthy’

This contradicts some earlier reports that did have Rodgers, 41, in the same breath as the Vikings. At the time, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported that Rodgers “definitely had interest” in coming to the Vikings and “saw this as a three-year window right now to win a championship with a really good quarterback they like on a rookie deal.”

On the Rothman & Ice Show, Schefter added, “They were talking to Aaron because they were curious if it played out, if J.J. started slow during the spring and worried them, concerned them. They’re fully behind J.J. McCarthy and I think they really believe in J.J. McCarthy.”

So, it’s good news for the Vikings that Minnesota is supposedly putting their belief in to McCarthy. Chances are, Vikings enthusiests are sleeping better knowing Rodgers is with the Steelers, too.