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INDIANAPOLIS, Feb. 28 (UPI) -- The Green Bay Packers want to know Aaron Rodgers' 2023 playing plans within the next three weeks, but have not set a date to meet with the quarterback, general manager Brian Gutekunst said Tuesday in Indianapolis. Gutekunst fielded questions from reporters about the star quarterback at the Indianapolis Convention Center, the site of the NFL scouting combine.
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"He's a great player, but until we have those conversations, I think all options are on the table," Gutekunst said. "We need to have those conversations.
"We want what's best for the Packers and what's best for him, so we'll get to that coming up."
Rodgers, who has contemplated retirement over the last several off-seasons, signed a three-year, $150.8 million contract extension last March.
Rodgers, 39, completed 64.8% of his throws for 3,695 yards, 26 scores and 12 interceptions in 17 starts this season.
The Packers most likely would need to trade Rodgers or would face large salary cap implications if they released the star quarterback. He would count as $31.6 million against the Packers' 2023 salary cap.
Gutekunst said Tuesday that it's also "fair to say" the Packers could restructure the four-time MVP's contract, if he decides to return.
Rodgers told reporters in January that he needed to "get away" to "contemplate" his future. He cited the team's youth and the possibility that several veterans could leave the roster this off-season.
"Right situation -- is that Green Bay or is that somewhere else? I'm not sure," Rodgers later said on the Pat McAfee Show. ""But I don't think you should shut down any opportunity.
"Like I said during the season, that's got to be both sides actually wanting to work together moving forward, and I think there's more conversations to be had."
Gutekunst confirmed that Rodgers completed a darkness retreat last week. ESPN previously reported that Rodgers spent several nights at Sky Cave Retreats in southern Oregon.
Rodgers told the Pat McAfee Show that attended the retreat, which included staying in a small, dark room, so he could "have a better sense of where I'm at in my life."
Gutekunst said he exchanged text messages with the quarterback, but "it would be nice to have some answers" from Rodgers before the start of free agency March 15. He said it was "premature" for the Packers' front office field offers to gauge the quarterback's trade value with other NFL general managers.
"We need to have some of those conversations about our team, where it's going and where he's at, before we go forward," Gutekunst said.
Jordan Love and Danny Etling are the only other two quarterbacks on the Packers roster for 2023. Love, the No. 26 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, started just one game over the past three seasons. He threw for 195 yards and one score in four appearances last season.
"I've expressed to a lot of people that he needs to play," Gutekunst said of Love. "That's the next step in his progression. He needs to play.
"But Jordan has done a great job and worked really hard. He has done everything we've asked of him."
Love is under contract through 2023, but his rookie pact includes a fifth-year team option for 2024. May 1 marks the deadline for that decision.
"There are a lot of other dominoes that kind of got to go before we make that decision," Gutekunst said.
The Packers' general manager said the team will continue to spend "significant time" on evaluating quarterbacks in free agency and for the 2023 NFL Draft, as they have in past years, regardless of Rodgers' decision or concern about a lack of depth at the position.
"The quarterback position has always kind of been in the forefront of our minds," Gutekunst said. "And it will continue to be."
The Packers will have the No. 15 overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.
