Aaron Rodgers may have finally returned to the Pittsburgh Steelers, but ESPN’s Adam Schefter just revealed that the team actually had no idea his decision would arrive when it did.
According to Schefter, Rodgers didn’t inform the Steelers he was returning until this past weekend — days before he signed the new contract.
“The other thing that I don’t think can be discounted enough is, I know everybody expected that he would be back. He was back in Pittsburgh 10 days ago. But I’m just telling you that, talking to the organization over the weekend, until the weekend, they didn’t know officially,” Schefter said via ESPN’s Unsportsmanlike. “He had not informed them that he would be returning officially until this past weekend. He had not given them an answer. And so until you have an answer, you don’t really know. And I can just tell you that the organization truly did not know that he was coming back until this past weekend. They thought he would be back. They believed he would be back, but they did not know he would be back.”
On Saturday, May 16, Rodgers and the Steelers agreed to a one-year deal worth up to $25 million, which included $22 million guaranteed. Rodgers officially signed the contract on Monday and made his first Steelers appearance of the offseason at OTAs.
While it would be concerning if the Steelers really didn’t know that Rodgers would sign this past weekend, the silver lining is that the situation is officially over, and everyone can finally put this seemingly never-ending waiting game to bed.
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This article originally appeared on Steelers Wire: Steelers’ Aaron Rodgers signing gets surprising timeline update