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Allen Lazard was practicing today, and could return on Sunday.
They opened his 21-day window to return from IR early this week, but they don’t have to wait that long. If they like what they see in practice this week, they would have to activate him before 4 pm on Saturday.
He was having a terrific season this year before suffering a chest injury at Pittsburgh on October 20.
Saw him having a catch on the practice field today with wide receiver’s coach Shawn Jefferson and also doing individual drills. We do not get to watch the scrimmage part of practices.
After having a rough season in 2023, in large part due to poor quarterbacking, the peanut gallery wanted him gone.
There was nothing about Lazard’s game that could not be fixed by having a good quarterback under center. In seven games this season, he had 30 catches and five touchdowns, including a 52-yard hail mary from Aaron Rodgers against Buffalo, and a sensational 14-yard TD catch from Rodgers at the end of the first half against Minnesota in London. Rodgers under pressure (as he has been most of the season), created time in the pocket, and fired a laser into the middle of the end zone to Lazard in traffic. Great play.
Very good player, and the Jets missed him. Jets are 1-4 with him out of the lineup the last five games.
While Davante Adams is obviously a very talented receiver, the starting combination of Garrett Wilson and Lazard might have worked a little better. First of all, they had played together last season, and had two off-season programs and training camps together. Also, it was clear cut – Wilson was the #1 and Lazard was the #2. With Wilson and Adams you have two #1 receivers, and sometimes, while that sounds great on paper, it can create challenges for the QB, who has to always been thinking – “which superstar receiver am I feeding on this play?” Having two #1’s can mess up the flow of the progressions at times.
And Adams and Rodgers were away from each other for over three years, while Lazard and Rodgers have been together non-stop from 2018-24. The Rodgers-Lazard chemistry is uncanny. Rodgers and Adams are still working on getting back to their old magic . . .
Rodgers made some news on Wednesday with his comments on ownership style.
“I think it’s an important part of ownership to hire the guys, set the vision, and support them when the outside world is trying to tear them down,” Rodgers said.
There are a couple of ways to look at this.
There is no doubt this is the best template. Hire guys, set the vision of the kind of team you want (like Philly’s Jeffrey Lurie wants to dominate in the trenches so there is a big focus on constantly adding dominating linemen with the Eagles), and then support the football people you hire and avoid reacting to Twitter and the media.
However, it should be pointed out that Woody did not hire Robert Saleh or Joe Douglas, and the record of those two guys, in their respective positions, wasn’t great.
So if you hire a GM/head coach tandem, and they put a plan in place, and the media and fans are destroying them in the first two or three years, that is when an owner should give them total support.
But these guys were past that.
The mistake Woody made this year, in my opinion, was making too many moves around the same time – firing Robert Saleh, demoting Nathaniel Hackett, trading for Adams, and getting independent contractor Reddick to finally show up (and he hasn’t had much of an impact) – it was too much change around the same time, especially in-season, and it created a strange vibe.
It would have been better to just move on from the head coach, and leave everything else alone, like the New Orleans Saints did when they fired Dennis Allen and promoted Darren Rizzi. They are 2-1 since making that decision.
But not sure if the theory that the owner should support the GM/coach, “when the outside world is trying to tear them down” applied to the former GM and head coach with the respective records of Saleh and Douglas.
But it should when they start the meter again with a new GM and head coach.
However, reading the tea leaves, the fact that the QB is commenting on ownership style, implies he prefers Christopher’s hands-off approach more than Woody’s hands-on approach.
Rodgers also is not a fan of the reports that some people in the building react to what they read on Twitter and in the newspapers and it impacts decision making. He doesn’t like that.
From what I hear, Rodgers is a huge fan of Christopher Johnson. Keep that in mind moving forward.
December 5, 2024
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