Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is going to play for the franchise in 2021, but it looks like this could indeed be his Last Dance with the club. ESPN's Adam Schefter is reporting a new agreement that will essentially set up Rodgers' departure from the Packers after this season.
Here are all the details:
Over the past weekend, the two sides were able to reach mutually-agreed upon terms that are close to convincing Aaron Rodgers to abandon plans he had to skip training camp and instead return for it. Concessions do not include more money, per sources. https://t.co/NojVojcHjy
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 26, 2021
The new agreement, once finalized, would help set up Aaron Rodgers’ departure from Green Bay after this season, per sources. https://t.co/NojVojcHjy
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 26, 2021
*The 2023 year in Aaron Rodgers’ contract – the last one in his current deal — would be voided, with no tags allowed in the future, per sources.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 26, 2021
*The Packers would agree to review Aaron Rodgers' situation at the end of this season, per sources. https://t.co/Ku9X9k9lXP
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 26, 2021
*Aaron Rodgers’ contract would be adjusted with no loss of income this year to give the Packers more cap room now.
•Mechanisms will be put in place to address Rodgers’ issues with the team. https://t.co/Ku9X9k9lXP
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) July 26, 2021
All this reporting comes not long after Packers CEO Mark Murphy and general manager Brian Gutekunst addressed the Rodgers situation at Monday's shareholder meeting. The initial leak on Rodgers' plans to return came right after that, and now we have this waterfall of information about his future.
Article Continues BelowHere's more from Schefter on ESPN:
Adam Schefter claims the Green Bay Packers changed Aaron Rodgers mind from not playing this year over the weekend https://t.co/yO2in3HLCp
— Gifdsports (@gifdsports) July 26, 2021
The Aaron Rodgers drama has been ongoing for a while. There were rumors of a possible trade right around the 2021 NFL Draft, but nothing came to fruition and things have been stewing ever since. Rodgers wasn't happy with the Packers for a variety of reasons, and it wasn't clear if he was going to show up for training camp after skipping all the other offseason activities.
The way Schefter tells it, Rodgers was ready to no-show camp before the two sides got together and ironed this new agreement out. Rodgers will now show up to play and see how things go in 2021 before revisiting the situation in 2022. The Packers should be a Super Bowl contender this season, so perhaps a championship run would get him to change his mind.
Or maybe this really will be a Last Dance situation and Rodgers wants to leave next year no matter what. In that case, Green Bay can work out a trade after having plenty of time to prepare for that scenario. The Packers also can't tag Rodgers, giving him more freedom.
This seems like a reasonable compromise to a contentious issue.