RandBall: The Aaron Rodgers to the Vikings story hasn’t gone away

The first few days of NFL free agency have demonstrated the meticulousness the Vikings have used in advancing their plan for 2025, particularly at quarterback.

But here it is Thursday, and there is one nagging doubt about all of this: Are the Vikings really interested in going with a gut feel and their own research in a pursuit of veteran QB Aaron Rodgers?

I’ve tried to ignore any smoke about Rodgers to the Vikings because it just doesn’t seem to make sense and the Vikings seem to be priming themselves for a full transition to second-year QB J.J. McCarthy.

However: Rodgers very easily could have signed with a team that has a clearer quarterback need by now. Pittsburgh and the New York Giants are at the top of that list, and they still logically are the favorites to get Rodgers.

The Vikings could have come out and said publicly that they aren’t interested in Rodgers.

But neither of those things have happened. Instead, national reports suggest the Vikings have an interest in Rodgers. And Star Tribune Vikings writer Ben Goessling in our conversation Thursday said Rodgers-to-Minnesota can’t be ruled out.

This would be an almost absurd, shot-for-shot remake of Brett Favre’s journey to Minnesota in 2009, whereby there is the acrimonious departure from Green Bay multiple years after a replacement is drafted, a trade to the Jets and then free agency after a New York implosion.

“By all means, sign with them,” Favre said earlier this week. “They got a really good football team. They’re loaded at pretty much every position. They made it to the playoffs last year. They got a tremendous fan base, much like the Packers. If you get the opportunity, that’s a good place to win. Of course, you gotta play the Packers then.”

Getting revenge on the Packers doesn’t factor into the equation the same way for Rodgers as it did for Favre, Goessling said, but athletes almost always have considerable egos.

From a Vikings perspective, there are more questions than there probably would be from Rodgers, who would presumably welcome the chance to throw to a bunch of talented receivers on a contending team.

Rodgers always craves attention, which could disrupt the locker room. More than that, he hasn’t played at an elite level since 2021 and will turn 42 during the 2025 season. And what would this mean for both the short-term and long-term outlook for McCarthy?

That’s why this seems more like a long shot than a real thing — perhaps a bargaining ploy by Rodgers' side to get better terms from the Steelers or even just some extra time dominating news cycles for the NFL’s No. 1 QB diva.