Aaron Rodgers set to return to Green Bay

Fans of the Chicago Bears, Minnesota Vikings, and the Detroit Lions can go back to their regularly scheduled annoyance at the Green Bay Packers.

It was fun while it lasted, but the months long speculation that Aaron Rodgers would never play for the Green Bay Packers is over with the recent report from ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

The in-a-nutshell version of the story is that the Packers caved in and gave Rodgers some concessions to ensure he’d return for the 2021 season, while promising him that this will be his final year in Green Bay.

Schefter is reporting it’s not completely finalized, but that talks picked up over the weekend and things appear heading for a resolution. The Packer players are to report to Green Bay on Tuesday, with their first training camp practice scheduled for Wednesday.

The 37-year old Rodgers returning was always the most likely outcome considering he was under contract and still playing at an extremely high level. Retirement talk was just a last ditch effort to urge the team to trade him, but with that never even getting to the table, these concessions are his next best outcome.

Here’s the bullet point breakdown of Schefter’s report.

* The 2023 year in Rodgers’ contract — the last one in his current deal — would be voided, with no tags allowed in the future.

* The Packers would agree to review Rodgers’ situation at the end of this season.

* Rodgers’ contract would be adjusted with no loss of income to give the Packers more cap room now.

* Mechanisms will be put in place to address Rodgers’ issues with the team.

The cap relief will give them them room to lock up Pro Bowl wide out Davante Adams, and a recent report from Trey Wingo also suggests that Rodgers expects the team to trade for former Packer and current Houston Texans wide out Randall Cobb.

Rodgers returning obviously affects the landscape of the NFC North and the entire NFC, as Green Bay is back to being the odds on favorite to win the division, and an elite QB like Rodgers makes them a legit Super Bowl contender as well.

While it would have been nice to see the future Hall of Famer out of the Chicago Bears division, him returning isn’t going to change what the Bears hope to do this year. The 2021 season is all about getting rookie quarterback Justin Fields up to speed and ready.