Aaron Rodgers on Posts Urging Packers to Sign Clay Matthews: We 'Had a Couple Drinks'

Turns out, Aaron Rodgers was just having some fun when he suggested on Instagram that the Green Bay Packers bring back linebacker Clay Matthews.

"We messed around, had some dinner, had a couple drinks, started posting about Clay Matthews," he told former teammate A.J. Hawk. "That thing kind of went a little."

Rodgers, David Bakhtiari and Randall Cobb certainly turned some heads when they all posted similar messages on their Instagram stories this offseason:

That the entire situation was something of a joke echoes what Rodgers already told reporters:

"Friday night, I was with Dave (Bakhtiari) and his lovely fiance, Frankie, and the Cobbs. And we had a question about Clay that came up, because Clay just moved from California. So we got Clay on FaceTime. Those conversations turned into a social media post. There hasn't been, I don't think, a big push from any of us to sign him. We didn't even talk ball. We were just BS-ing with him. Having a good conversation. He's a big farmer now, kind of like Jordy. He's probably got that strength to play but I don't think he's thought about football for a while."

General manager Brian Gutekunst also said "we've had no discussions about that" when discussing bringing back Matthews.

Still, the idea of Rodgers pushing to bring back a former teammate isn't exactly unusual this offseason.

After all, the Packers acquired Cobb from the Houston Texans via trade, and Gutekunst said: "This is what Aaron wanted, that's why we did it."

While Matthews is 35 years old and hasn't played since he suited up for the Los Angeles Rams during the 2019 campaign, there was a time when he was one of the defensive leaders in Green Bay. The franchise selected him with a first-round pick in 2009, and he played 10 seasons with the team.

During that span, Matthews was a Super Bowl champion and six-time Pro Bowler who had double-digit sack totals four different times.