Re; Rodgers.....
For the team acquiring Rodgers they would be on the hook for the salary for the year. The cap charge would be $59,515,000 if they do not exercise his option and $15.79 million if they were to exercise the option. Rodgers has an injury guarantee of $49.25 million for 2024 but that does not become fully guaranteed until 5 days after the 2023 Super Bowl. If Rodgers was cut after 2023 it would cost the team $43.725 million on the 2024 cap. If he retired they could split that as $14.575 million in 2024 and $29.15 million in 2025 using a similar June 2nd date as mentioned above in the retirement option.
Apparently "the option" is to pay out his salary as a 58M+ "bonus", which would make his cap # just $16M for 2023 (obviously VERY good). That retirement scenario would be a tough pill to swallow, but I guess you cross that bridge if you get to it.
From an ownership standpoint, this is truly a "put your money where you mouth is" situation. The money he is owed is obscene. Will Woody agree to pay out the bonus option? And if he does, how much do you have to give up to get him? Plenty of articles claiming 2 first rounders is the starting point. For a 39 year old taking up that much of the cap, that's tough. He can still play. I'm sure the thumb hindered him a lot this year. And with that relatively small cap charge (assuming I'm understanding it properly) you can still improve the team around him. The O-line would obviously be the biggest key.
This is a hard one. Is 39 year old Rodgers REALLY enough to get this team to the mountain top? Hard to say. I'm also not crazy about having to root for the guy personally, but if it meant a super bowl appearance, I'd obviously suck it up.