Many fans have wondered what it will take to get Aaron Rodgers back with the Packers and the answer might be something related to Tom Brady.
Green Bay Packers training camp begins next week and the Aaron Rodgers situation is anything but settled. There was a recent Adam Schefter report that the organization offered the quarterback a new deal that would make him the highest-paid player in the league earlier this offseason and he turned it down (something that had been mentioned with less detail previously).
So the question lingering over all of this is what will happen with the future Hall-of-Fame quarterback. Will he report to camp and when? What kind of contract will it take to make Rodgers happy?
Well, it turns out that it might take something surprising to make the quarterback content with his situation. FanSided’s Matt Lombardo was told by an NFC personnel executive that Rodgers “wants to get some sort of deal done” but the particulars are what’s surprising. Reportedly, Rodgers wants the Packers to take years off of his current deal with the intention of pulling “a Tom Brady” by leaving for another franchise in hopes of winning another Super Bowl.
Considering how much we’ve heard about long-term security with this situation, that’s certainly a shocking bit of information. But it’s also worth wondering what that means for the current predicament and whether or not Rodgers will even be in Green Bay for 2021.
The immediate future for Aaron Rodgers and the Packers appears promising but, beyond that, things could change quickly.
From what former teammates and friends have said combined with reading the tea leaves, it appears that Aaron Rodgers will be reporting to training camp. In fact, the same executive told Lombardo as much:
"“Aaron will show up on time,” the executive says. “Or very soon after camp begins so that everyone can be happy, the story can drop, and the Packers will have one more year with him before getting the chance to trade him to the highest-bidder.”"
For a Packers team that has made it to back-to-back NFC Championship Games, it should be exciting that Rodgers appears on-track to play for Green Bay in the 2021 season and make a run at a title for one last time with the team that drafted him.
But the “one last time” part of that equation looms large. Whether he works out a short-term contract with Green Bay that will allow him to “pull a Tom Brady” or if he stays on his current deal and then demands a trade, this could very well be the last hurrah for Rodgers with the Packers.
This preseason will be the first time that we get a substantial look at Jordan Love, the presumed successor to Rodgers in Green Bay, since the franchise shockingly used their 2020 first-round pick on the Utah State product. And that could give fans and analysts alike a ton of insight into what the Packers will look like moving forward.
As of now, though, the immediate results of this saga appear to be anticlimactic. The safe bet is on Aaron Rodgers playing for the Green Bay Packers this season and the team contending in the NFC again. Beyond this season, however, is when things start to look far less promising in Titletown.