Aaron Rodgers has officially begun his holdout with the Green Bay Packers, and head coach Matt LaFleur is sure to face a daily barrage of questions about the absence of the star quarterback. We now have a pretty good idea of how he plans to handle them.
LaFleur was asked on Tuesday if Rodgers’ absence was excused or if he will be fined. The coach categorized the situation as “team business” and said very little about it.
#Packers coach Matt LaFleur decline to say whether Aaron Rodgers' absence was excused: "That's team business that we're always going to keep confidential between us and the player."
— Ryan Wood (@ByRyanWood) June 8, 2021
Matt LaFleur declines to say whether there's a definitive date he needs to know whether Aaron Rodgers is in or out this season in order to prepare his offense accordingly for this season. He says, right now, he's just taking things one day at a time.
— Ryan Wood (@ByRyanWood) June 8, 2021
LaFleur said he is still optimistic the issues between Rodgers and the Packers will be resolved. He added that he has no concerns about Rodgers not being ready for the start of the regular season if he misses offseason time.
The Packers have the option of fining Rodgers more than $90,000 for every day he misses of mandatory minicamp, or they can categorize the absences as excused. They will be required to fine him $50,000 for each day of training camp that he misses.
There is some thinking that the Packers could be daring Rodgers to not show up at all. That would allow them to collect fines, recoup bonus money, see what they have in Jordan Love, and then potentially still trade Rodgers at some point.
Rodgers has given no indication that he is open to playing in Green Bay this season. The photos and videos that surfaced of him living it up in Hawaii recently left some with the impression that football is not at the forefront of his mind.
