Last season, Aaron Rodgers couldn't have made a more compelling case to remain the Green Bay Packers' starting quarterback. The 37-year-old veteran threw a career-high 48 touchdowns, completed a career-high 70.7-percent of his passes, helped lead the franchise to its first NFC title game at Lambeau Field since 2007, and won his third league MVP award.
But, career-year numbers don't guarantee a future Hall-of-Famer job security with the Packers. That's at least the message Green Bay has sent, as it remains unclear whether Rodgers will get the opportunity to finish his storied career with the team that drafted him.
And because of this confounding situation, it's fair to assume that Rodgers won't retire wearing green and gold, according to Hall of Fame defensive back Charles Woodson.
"I think if he plays long enough, I think he ends his career somewhere else," Woodson told CBS Sports Radio's The Zach Gelb Show on Tuesday. "And that's not an anomaly. You think about, over the years, the great players that played most of their careers in one place and then went on to play somewhere else. You know, Jerry Rice, Emmitt Smith, Joe Montana, Peyton Manning, myself -- I left twice. So, in this league, you're just playing as long as you can and winning as many games as you can.
"And at some point, though, the team is going to start looking toward the future. I know that the Packers are going to say, 'We're going to take the best player available and this wasn't about looking toward the future.' Well, it is looking toward the future. I know that A-Rodg had to be thinking, 'Bring me somebody in here that's going to help me immediately, not somebody that has to sit behind me for the next two or three years.' I think he ends up ending his career in another place."
According to Spotrac.com, Rodgers has three years remaining on his contract with Green Bay, and his cap hit of $37.2 million this upcoming season will lead the NFL.
Of course, the Packers could create cap space by converting a sizable chunk of Rodgers' $14.7 million base salary into a signing bonus, but in doing this, it would push cap dollars into 2022. And considering that Green Bay has former first-round quarterback Jordan Love standing idly by, this type of restructuring would impact Rodgers' trade market -- or the Packers' ability to move him.
As of right now, Green Bay's quarterback plan is puzzling. But Woodson believes things between Rodgers and the front office could turn ugly.
"I think it could be one of those situations where it gets nasty at some point, somehow, in the back and forth between the Packers and Aaron's agent," Woodson said. "And then before you know it, somehow the thing gets blown up. I certainly hope that doesn't happen. But where there's smoke, there's fire.
"This could be a situation where, before you know it, somebody makes a play or makes some kind of offer for Aaron Rodgers. And Green Bay can't refuse and says, 'Hey, you know what, we'll go our separate ways, he wants to be somewhere else, and we'll go on with the future of this team.'"
The entire NFL conversation between Woodson and Gelb can be accessed in the video and audio players above.
You can follow The Zach Gelb Show on Twitter @ZachGelb and Tom Hanslin @TomHanslin.
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