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With Aaron Rodgers . . .
It’s easy to criticize him for the drama he’s caused the last few off-seasons in Green Bay.
“He’s not coming back. They’re disgusted with him and they’re done with him and they’re moving on,” said long-time Packers writer Bob McGinn of GoLongTD.com. “They have turned the page, just like they did to Favre in June and July, those months in the summer of 2008 and I don’t see it changing. This is everybody, I’m told. This is [team president Mark Murphy, this is [head coach Matt LaFleur], this is [general manager Brian Gutekunst]. This is the whole shooting match. They’ve turned the page.”
But honestly, Rodgers should be disgusted at them as well.
That organization has done plenty to waste some of his best years.
I will give you a few examples:
Two years ago, Rodgers led the Packers to NFL’s best record with 13 wins. Rodgers completed 68.9 percent of his passes for 4,115 yards with 37 touchdowns and a 111.9 passer rating. He had just four picks.
Yet, they lost to San Francisco in the playoffs due to a horrendous performance by their special teams, which were bad all year, and the head coach did nothing to fix it. Before the year, LaFleur fired the special team’s coach after the unit struggled in 2020, but he promoted the assistant special teams’ coach to replace him. Who fires a guy who heads a bad unit, and promotes his assistant to replace him? The replacement lasted one year and was the overlord of the 2021 special team’s disaster that led to their early playoff exit.
This year, with a 39-year-old QB, coming off an MVP season, they trade Davante Adams and go with a young receiving corps with two raw draft picks – Romeo Doubs and Christian Watson – in major roles.
If you have an older franchise QB, and you want to take advantage of him late in his career, why would you go young at receiver in such a pivotal year?
You can go back over the years and see plenty of things Rodgers should be pissed at.
Like the former GM, the late Ted Thompson, being philosophically against spending big money in free agency. That led to some wasted years.
Sometimes, when you have a superstar QB, you go out and spend on a few key pieces to help push you over the top. Thompson was against that.
And why the heck to Gutekunst pick QB Jordan Love in the 2020 first round when they had so many other needs?
Rodgers went on to win two MVPs after they picked Love.
Look, I’m not saying Rodgers is an angel, but they have done a lot of things to waste some of his great seasons.
Perhaps Rodgers looks at LaFleur and Gutekunst and thinks – “These guys are over their heads – I need to get out of here.”
Why would you hire a young, novice head coach and team him with Rodgers in the quarterback’s late 30s?
So you could see why Rodgers isn’t thrilled with the Packers.
And why it’s possible the Jets might have a chance to land him.
February 20, 2023
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