GREEN BAY, Wis. — The beautiful mystery tour will continue. Aaron Rodgers is not done with the Green Bay Packers just yet, and now there really is a chance the four-time NFL MVP will finish his career in the same place it started.
Rodgers announced Tuesday on Twitter that he will return to the Packers for the 2022 season.
The sides are working on a new contract that would lower his salary-cap figure for the 2022 season while giving Rodgers, 38, contractual clarity well into his 40s.
Rodgers, however, said a deal has not yet been signed or agreed upon.
“Hey everyone, just wanted to clear some things up; YES I will be playing with the @packers next year, however, reports about me signing a contract are inaccurate, as are the supposed terms of the contract I “signed”. I’m very excited to be back #year18,” he tweeted.
The Packers’ Super Bowl odds improved from 15-1 to 12-1 on Tuesday at Caesars Sportsbook, which has Green Bay as the favorite in the NFC.
Rodgers promised to avoid a lengthy decision-making process, and now general manager Brian Gutekunst — once part of Rodgers’ dissatisfaction with the organization — can put together his plan to field another Super Bowl contender.
It means Jordan Love, who is entering his third NFL season, will have to wait at least another year before he gets a crack at the starting job. Rodgers sat for three seasons behind Brett Favre before he took over.
It was Gutekunst’s decision to draft Love in 2020 that put Rodgers’ future with the team into question. Shortly after the Love pick, Rodgers reiterated his desire to not only play into his 40s but to do it with the Packers. However, he said he realized that “may not be a reality at this point” and added, “I’m just not sure how that all works together at this point.”
Late in the 2020 season, Rodgers called his future a “beautiful mystery” and shortly after the NFC Championship Game loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers included himself in a group of players with uncertain futures.
What followed was an offseason-long boycott — he missed workouts, organized team activities and minicamp — during which ESPN reported that Rodgers was so disgruntled with the Packers that he told some in the organization that he would never play for them again.
Upon his return to the team on the eve of training camp, Rodgers signed a restructured contract that eliminated the last year of his deal, for the 2023 season, making it easier for a divorce after the 2021 season.
Over the summer, Rodgers detailed his list of grievances that essentially boiled down to this: “I just want to be involved in conversations that affect my ability to do my job.” Gutekunst brought wide receiver Randall Cobb back to Green Bay at Rodgers’ request, and it was the beginning of improved relations between the quarterback and the front office. In fact, throughout the season, Rodgers offered unprompted praise for moves Gutekunst made, including signing of veterans like cornerback Rasul Douglas and pass-rusher Whitney Mercilus.
After the season-ending loss to the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC divisional playoff round, the Packers maintained their desire for Rodgers to remain with the team until retirement. Coach Matt LaFleur said the team would “be crazy not to want him back here.”
A day later, LaFleur said that feeling extended to Gutekunst, team president Mark Murphy and director of football operations Russ Ball.
“We’re all on the same page there,” LaFleur said. “There’s no debate.”
When offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett was hired as the Denver Broncos‘ coach in January, it fueled speculation that Rodgers could end up there. The Broncos were one of the teams that expressed interest in trading for Rodgers last offseason.
Rodgers said he did not want to be part of a rebuilding process. Given the Packers’ salary-cap troubles — entering the offseason nearly $45 million over their projected salary cap and not having wide receiver Davante Adams under contract either — that could been the case. So Rodgers must have received assurances from Gutekunst that he would be able to put together another contender.
The Packers have won 13 games each of the past three seasons but, with their combined 39 wins, set the NFL record for most wins in a three-season stretch without reaching at least one Super Bowl.
Last season, Rodgers broke Favre’s franchise record of 442 career touchdown passes, finishing the season with 449. Depending on how much longer he plays, Rodgers has a chance to break several of Favre’s other records, including career passing yards.
Rodgers’ 2021 MVP season also was marked by COVID-19 controversy, when he was accused of misleading the public about his vaccination status by saying in August that had been “immunized.” Rodgers tested positive for COVID-19 on Nov. 3, at which point it became known that he had not received one of the three league-approved vaccinations but instead had appealed — and lost — his bid to be considered vaccinated against the coronavirus because of an alternate treatment he underwent.
Still, Rodgers had one of his most efficient seasons, with 37 touchdowns and only four interceptions. He missed one game, a loss at the Kansas City Chiefs, because of his mandatory quarantine as an unvaccinated player, but it did not prevent the Packers from earning the top seed for the NFC playoffs.
When Rodgers signed his then-record $134 million contract extension in August 2018, he said: “I don’t think this guarantees anything other than maybe the first three years of the deal.”
Four years later, he’s back for more.
ESPN’s David Purdum contributed to this report.