General Manager John Lynch admitted Thursday the 49ers reached out to the Packers about Aaron Rodgers. Why wouldn’t they? Rodgers is a three-time league MVP.
49ers coach Kyle Shanahan joined The Rich Eisen Show on Monday and added details about the team’s interest in Rodgers before taking Trey Lance with the third overall choice.
“Yeah, the exact truth is I don’t want to wake up the next day on Friday and see Aaron Rodgers, one of the best quarterbacks in this league, traded without doing any due diligence on him,” Shanahan told Eisen. “So, I just called [Packers coach] Matt [LaFleur]and asked him if there was anything to it, and Matt told me I’d be wasting my time if we had Lynch call, so Lynch did not call anyone the next day. But, yes, I did reach to Matt the night before and asked him, ‘Hey, man, I don’t want to wake up the next day and see that Aaron was traded for something, and I didn’t even at least look into it.’ That’s what I did with Matt. He gave me a very quick answer. . . . That worked out I guess. We were happy to get our guy, and hopefully it’ll work out for them.”
LaFleur said publicly during the draft the Packers have no intentions of trading the star quarterback and want him back. Both sides seem to have their heels dug in, so who knows where it goes from here.
For now, Rodgers is a Packer. If/when the team puts him on the market, many teams will have interest. The 49ers, though, might have taken themselves out of the running after using the high pick on Lance.
