Packers' Aaron Jones on Aaron Rodgers: 'I Believe in My Heart He'll Be Back'

Green Bay Packers running back Aaron Jones said Tuesday he's hopeful quarterback Aaron Rodgers will return to the team for the 2022 season.

Jones explained on the NFL Network's NFL Total Access Live he doesn't have any inside information, saying he's "heard what everybody else has heard," but he wants the 10-time Pro Bowler back in green, gold and white.

"But I think he'll be there, in my heart. Green Bay, I can't imagine him anywhere else, that's where he's been his whole career," he said. "I just can't picture him anywhere else. I think we had a lot of fun this year, I hope to have him back and I believe in my heart he'll be back."

Rodgers was a first-round pick of the Packers in the 2005 draft, and he's provided the franchise with immense value, highlighted by the Super Bowl XLV title and three MVP Awards. The latter number will likely increase to four once this season's MVP winner is announced.

Whether he'll finish his Hall of Fame career in Green Bay has come into question over the past few years, though. He was away from the franchise for much of the offseason in 2021 before returning for the start of training camp.

The Packers' outlook for the upcoming offseason features multiple hurdles. Most notably, figuring out whether Rodgers is willing to return and, if he does, trying to work some salary-cap magic to ensure the roster around him is at a championship level.

Rodgers made it clear after the team was eliminated from the playoffs by the San Francisco 49ers he had no interest in waiting out a roster reconstruction.

"I don't want to be a part of a rebuild if I'm going to keep playing," the 38-year-old Cal product told reporters.

Yet Green Bay is a projected $49.3 million over the salary cap entering the offseason (via Spotrac) and still has to handle the future of Davante Adams, who'll likely be retained via the franchise tag if the sides don't agree on a long-term extension.

Rodgers could provide an assist by reworking his own contract, which features a $46.7 million cap hit for next season.

The one thing working in the Packers' favor in their efforts to retain the legendary quarterback is the AFC-NFC dynamic.

Joe Burrow, who'll lead the Cincinnati Bengals in the Super Bowl on Sunday, joins the Kansas City Chiefs' Patrick Mahomes, Buffalo Bills' Josh Allen, Los Angeles Chargers' Justin Herbert and Baltimore Ravens' Lamar Jackson among the high-profile signal-callers in the AFC. The conference's playoffs will be a hard-fought gauntlet for the next decade.

The NFC possesses a far more wide-open feel following the retirement of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' Tom Brady and the New Orleans Saints' Drew Brees over the last two years. The Seattle Seahawks and Russell Wilson also enter the offseason with an uncertain future for their longtime partnership.

So if Rodgers' main focus is chasing down another title, staying in Green Bay alongside Adams and Jones probably represents his path of least resistance.

Whether he views the situation the same way remains a mystery, though.