Green Bay with Super Bowl aspirations

An offseason of rumors and speculation are in the rear-view mirror and it’s finally time for the Green Bay Packers to step on the field and open the 2021 NFL season.

While the Packers again have aspirations of bringing the Lombardi Trophy back to Green Bay, it’s still hard not to wonder if this is the final ride with this particular core of players on the roster.

Two fan favorites — quarterback Aaron Rodgers and wide receiver Davante Adams — are at the center of the speculation.

Rodgers, of course, was at the heart of most of the offseason news after news broke on the first night of the 2021 NFL Draft that he was unhappy with the team and wanted out of Green Bay. When he finally was able to tell his side of the story, Rodgers expressed that he just wanted to be part of the team’s conversations involving players and things that impacted his job as quarterback, saying he’d earned that right after 16 seasons with the team.

Adams is set to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season but hadn’t received a new contract as of the week before the regular season opened.

One of the league’s best duos didn’t do much to quell the speculation, posting Instagram stories on July 23 with the same picture of Chicago Bulls legends Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, hinting this could be their last season together in Green Bay, or “The Last Dance,” like the popular documentary that aired in 2020.

Even with all the drama surrounding the team, the goal is still simple — win the Super Bowl.

“It’s Titletown. It’s championship or disappointment,” said Rodgers in an interview a couple weeks back.

The last two seasons has seen Green Bay fall one win short of the big game. Last year, the Packers were unable to rally late in a loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Lambeau Field.

With a lower salary cap than in 2020, all NFL teams were forced to make cuts to their rosters and restructure several contracts to make the numbers align with the cap for this season.

The Packers did what they could to bring back most of their 2020 team, re-signing players like running back Aaron Jones, wide receiver Allen Lazard, tight ends Marcedes Lewis and Robert Tonyan and cornerback Kevin King.

Players lost to free agency were mostly backups, aside from center Corey Linsley, who the team replaced by drafting Ohio State’s Josh Myers in the second round of the draft.

The team opened the draft by getting some defensive help in cornerback Eric Stokes, and then landed wide receiver Amari Rodgers in the third round.

In an effort to appease Rodgers, Packers General Manager Brian Gutekunst traded for beloved receiver Randall Cobb, so the offense should have plenty of weapons to work with.

With only three preseason games being played this year and the Packers choosing to hold out most of their starters on both sides of the ball, fans are still waiting to see what the arrival of new defensive coordinator Joe Barry can do for the unit that has had its ups and downs over the past couple seasons.

With a lot of familiar faces on the team, and with the success the team has had under coach Matt LaFleur, fans of the green and gold are eager to get the season started so the focus can shift to football instead of all the what-if scenarios that could arise after the season.

The team was scheduled to open the season in a tough road environment facing the New Orleans Saints. Instead, the game was moved to Jacksonville after Hurricane Ida ripped through New Orleans.

sports@newmedia-wi.com