Entering the final year of his contract, wide receiver Greg Jennings is preparing as though 2012 will be his seventh and final season with the Green Bay Packers.
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"This is my last year with the Packers under contract," Jennings said, according to Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. "That's my mindset. I'm not thinking about (the) contract. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, I have to make sure I go out there and do what I've been doing for six solid years here to get myself a chance to play somewhere."
Jennings discussed the possibility of playing for another team in 2013 with Eric Davis on Tuesday's "NFL AM."
"It's the nature of the game," Jennings said. "This is the business. You never know what's going to lie ahead and you just go out there and play each day and play each play. And that's what I've done for the past six years here (in Green Bay).
"Do I want to leave? Absolutely not. This is No. 1 choice. The reality of it is I don't know my future. Like you (Davis) said, you've been through it. It's tough when you've put in so much time, but hey, we still got time."
According to Silverstein, Jennings has instructed his agent (Eugene Parker, who negotiated Larry Fitzgerald's $113 million extension in 2011) not to contact him about his contract during the season unless a deal is close.
There are some NFL teams-- the Pittsburgh Steelers and Houston Texans, for example -- who do not negotiate contract extensions during the season as a matter of policy. The Packers are not one of those teams, as evidenced by Jordy Nelson's three-year, $12.6 million extension that was signed Sept. 29, 2011. So, a deal during the season remains a possibility.
Silverstein suggests that Jennings is seeking an annual average and guarantee in excess of the Vincent Jackson contract ($11.1 million per year, $26 million fully guaranteed), which makes a deal less likely considering the Packers' abundance of talent at the receiver position and core players (Aaron Rodgers, B.J. Raji, Clay Matthews) needing extensions over the next two seasons.
If a deal is not reached, the Packers could use the franchise tag on Jennings in 2013. With a salary cap that is expected to remain flat for the next two seasons, the 2013 franchise tag for a wide receiver has a projected value of $9.7 million.
Follow Brian McIntyre on Twitter _@brianmcintyre_.
