What Happened in Green Bay - Bleacher Report

[jhawk008]

I watched Undisputed when I really shouldn't have when they were talking about the whole thing this morning. I had to pause and shake my head every 5 seconds of listening. I know that Jennings is now a regular on that show and they are going to back up their guy, but it was ridiculous listening to that.

Wilbon had a good insight on this, basically said he's not surprised at all that Rodgers is that way. He's known countless athletes from both NBA/NFL/MLB that are precisely that way. I mean MJ's whole Hall of Fame retirement speech was on how he basically never forgot a slight EVER, and would carry that around with him his entire career... He even brought the guy who was picked ahead of him from his high school team to the ceremony and told him in front of that crowd that there was no way he was better than MJ..

James Jones, Kuhn, Peppers, Bostick, Hayward, Nelson, Cobb, Traymon have all verbally came out and said positives.

Think I need to stop listening and watching all these shows right about now.

 

[Stanger37]

Not to say the biggest obvious statement of this thus far, but this is so dependent on a handful of players that perhaps didn't like how much Rodgers expected of them.

For example, Lane Johnson of the Eagles say the Patriots play on fear rather than just having fun. So a guy that has never been apart of the Patriots system is criticizing a team that is all business.

For the people saying, "you are blind if you don't think Rodgers was part of the problem!"

I'd say you are blind to the fact that, some guys are drafted and make a good chunk of change and think life is going to be easy here on out. They are done putting their body at risk every play to win. Also, some guys are drafted and they still have the fire to go out there and win.

Finley took out a 10mil insurance policy to not play again in the NFL. Granted, he had a scare of being paralyzed and I probably make the same decision. But he was also cleared the next day and had interest from 3 different teams. 3 historical WINNING teams.

Greg Jennings was a receiver that was on the verge of being replaced and now works in the media business where creating buzzing headlines are his job.

Whoever else is talking without saying their name is a coward and take it all with a grain of salt.

Everyone talking is trying to keep their names relevant in my opinion. People don't want to hear their suspicions of Rodgers are wrong. They want to be right, it is confirmation bias and it is a nationwide issue right now. Not just a Packers issue.

Rodgers isn't a babysitter. He is there to perform at his best and if you are not performing at your best, he cannot perform at his best. Certainly he holds grudges and if the front office isn't going to involve him in big decisions, he doesn't feel the need to do their jobs on making players better.

 

[PackFan2]

https://m.cheeseheadtv.com/blog/rod...r-a-microscope-again-in-tyler-dunne-story-455
Just gonna leave this here, my exact thoughts on the whole thing and let it be. Time to move on. *heads on over to Dantés draft thread*

 

[Deleted member 6794]

Rodgers isn't a babysitter. He is there to perform at his best and if you are not performing at your best, he cannot perform at his best. Certainly he holds grudges and if the front office isn't going to involve him in big decisions, he doesn't feel the need to do their jobs on making players better.

The front office should definitely not involve Rodgers in any major decisions. He's paid to play quarterback.

 

[Stanger37]

The front office should definitely not involve Rodgers in any major decisions. He's paid to play quarterback.

By no means do I think he should be involved.

Rodgers on the other hand, it seems to appear he expects to be. And there are too many reports of coaches and players leaving that he has a passive aggressive response to.

So he holds that against SOMEONE.

 

[gbgary]

Hope Rodgers comes into this season with a massive chip on his shoulder.

that would be the worst thing that could happen. he needs to come into this season wide open and willing to absorb. if he can't do that you can forget about even having a winning season. being defiant, stubborn, petty, for whatever reason, would be a terrible mistake.

 

[Deleted member 6794]

that would be the worst thing that could happen. he needs to come into this season wide open and willing to absorb. if he can't do that you can forget about even having a winning season. being defiant, stubborn, petty, for whatever reason, would be a terrible mistake.

Rodgers has performed at an elite level while having a huge chip on his shoulder in the past as well. It wouldn't automatically be a bad thing entering this season.

 

[Pokerbrat2000]

I liked things better when everyone just blamed Olivia Munn or Aaron's Brother for everything.

 

[gbgary]

I liked things better when everyone just blamed Olivia Munn or Aaron's Brother for everything.

and jennings' sister.

 

[gbgary]

Rodgers has performed at an elite level while having a huge chip on his shoulder in the past as well. It wouldn't automatically be a bad thing entering this season.

maybe at first when there was just one or two chips. he's got too many to count now.

 

[HardRightEdge]

Then perhaps you could name the principal overcookings?

Theres some truth to what GJ and JFin said. As per unnamed sources, people got careers on the line, families to support- unethically to namedrop someone who wished to not be named unless they publically state their thoughts or want to be directly quoted like GH JFin.

While not the "principal overcooking" or omission of fact, Dunne failed to mention that it was widely reported the Packers offered Jennings an $8 mil per year extension in the off season of his contract year which he declined, opting instead to test the market and eventually getting a 5 year deal from Minnesota at $9 mil per year.

Fine. It's a business. But this fact puts a different color on that on-field exchange and Jennings (and Dunne's) implication that the Packers had no interest in retaining Jennings. By the time the season started he may have been a lame duck. But, again, it is a business where you are expected to perform while you are getting paid, and being that lame duck was Jennings own doing.

Frankly, if I were Jennings' QB and I heard that on-field exchange with an opposing player, I'd be more blunt, something along the lines of "shut the f**k up and play the d*mn game". Instead, Rodgers opted for sarcasm. I guess that's the "passive aggressive" tendency some quoted sources attribute to Rodgers. Sheesh.

In the midst of all this Jennings' sister provided an unseemly sideshow, with a string of "pay the man" tweets. So, let me amend what I would have said to Jennings on the field: "shut the f**k up, tell your sister to put a cork in it, and play the d*mn game".

In the final analysis, given that Jennings missed half the games in his final Packer season and was a bust in Minnesota, not the same player without an elite QB, the $8 mil offer was too generous. What we should say about Jennings declining the Packer offer is, "thanks Greg!"

When we consider Thompson cutting Sitton or Gutekunst trading Clinton-Dix or even Belichick trading Jamie Collins in the middle of the season, we have instances of guys expressing public dissatisfaction of being in contract years without an extension. At a certain point it taints the locker room. In retrospect, Thompson's mistake was not trying to trade Jennings; he was the disrupter in this picture.

As for Finley, perhaps the passing of time has dulled the memory of him being a prima donna, a guy who's public comments and tweets always bespoke, "it's about me!"

Aaron Rodgers was herding cats, in the room and on the field. That's OK, it comes with the territory. But we are talking about a couple of guys who are not exactly "team first". If there's a guy in this picture who is "all ball" that guy would be Rodgers.

 

[HardRightEdge]

Here's are couple of what I hope are final thoughts on this matter, in two posts for easier digestion.

It has been reported that Brees overrides the play calls in the huddle, going from run to pass, and nobody thinks much of that because nobody makes an issue of it. I suspect there's a lot more of this going on with vet QBs than is reported. Brees had a contentious contract situation running over a couple of years with serial franchise tags, eventually ending in Brees taking the Saints to arbitration over his 3rd. franchise tag.

The Saints struggled in the aftermath of "Bountygate" and while the Brees tag issues were going on. The team wandered in the wilderness for several seasons. Was Brees the problem? Nobody says that now while he's overriding calls in the huddle. How come? It probably has something to do with a couple of great drafts, winning, and getting bounced from the playoffs and a Super Bowl berth only by virtue of a fluke play and a fluke non-call.

Belichick-Brady tensions are widely reported, most recently the whole business of Brady wanting his personal trainer to be treated like a team employee. Belichick could not have been happy over "Deflategate". Belichick made no secret of his high opinion of Garoppolo, an opinion coming from a guy who is pretty sparse with his compliments. We have reports that Belichick did not want to trade Garoppolo but Kraft dictated that he do so. What does that imply? Belichick could not have paid both of them. He was ready to move on from Brady for the long term benefit of the football operation. Despite these tensions, once the season starts it is about winning, and win they did.

Roethlisberger, a guy with 3 Super Bowl appearances and 2 rings, is noted for calling out teammates. It's only an issue now because of the long dry spell. Is Roethlisberger "toxic"? Given the behaviors of Bell and Brown, we might want to consider the problem lies elsewhere.

 

[rmontro]

I do believe Rodgers never respected MM because of his lack of intelligence coupled with the perceived slight of passing him over in the draft.

McCarthy probably wasn't as intelligent as a Packers head coach should be. We saw him make many questionable decisions over the years. But I don't believe he was quite the knuckle dragging, lumbering brute he was portrayed to be in this article. If he was, how did he get to be offensive coordinator for NO and SF? I wouldn't doubt that Rodgers considers himself smarter though.

I heard the author on the radio this morning. He talked about the 2015 NFCCG, all the plays that had to go wrong for us to lose that game, and McCarthy's lack of killer instinct. A lot of Packer frustrations seem to trace back to that game. He said he thought Thompson was most responsible, for letting it go on so long.

 

[Do7]

Damn! I'm out of action for a few weeks nursing a broken arm and look what I miss! I'm not gonna spend much time on this because it's from the same people primarily and I've already addressed that before. (Plus I can't really type as much as I'd like with one hand. Lol)

This article reeks of bias. But the problem is that because The Packers have been losing so there's going to be a lot of validity as to what is the source of the problem. We're just gonna have to win.

 

[HardRightEdge]

At root, in retrospect, the McCarthy-Rodgers relationship was not a great match to start with and ended up festering once the losses piled up. It's not that McCarthy was a bad coach or low IQ guy. A poor but manageable fit grew into an unmanageable one.

The Rodgers resentment over McCarthy passing him over for Smith in the draft as some lingering resentment is wildly overcooked. The problem was a difference in the approach to the game. McCarthy was a "process" guy, methodical and at times plodding. We saw evidence of the process preoccupation in McCarthy making a big deal out of his tinkering with camp and in-season schedules. Smith, as a game manager, was the better McCarthy fit if less talented. If something wasn't working McCarthy was going to stick with it as part of the "process", develop a play through repeated application. If we seperate QBs into either "game manager" or "playground", Rodgers clearly falls into the playground mode which is antithetical to the process mode. Rodgers is about doing what can work "right now", and if that means overriding a play call or extending plays, so be it.

Years of tension over fundamental differences over how the game should be played on Sunday didn't prevent winning under a detente. Losing has a habit of undoing that. Experience tells us this kind of thing happens in all kinds of organizations. Disagreements reach compromise however uncomfortable, nobody is entirely happy, but if success follows there's no complaint. Failure ends up with finger pointing.

We saw the young Mahomes out there on the playground and I can hear the the "Oh, no! Oh, yes!" running through Reid's head not unlike Holmgren's verbal expressions with Favre. Wilson ad libs on something like a 1/3 of his throws. Cleveland will rise or fall on Mayfield's playground talents regardless of the cocky stuff that comes out of his mouth.

The difference is that Mahomes and Wilson are winning enough to be in contention and Cleveland is on the rise. Just wait for their dry spells and and all the revisionist history about what was wrong from the beginning. Thinking about Wilson in particular, he was "all that" when going to Super Bowls, not all that with a couple of years of slow decline in team performance, and now "all that" again after a very good season.

Losing = piling on, whether it is justified or not.

LaFleur's job is to let Rodgers be Rodgers and maximize it. This notion of "reigning him in" is, frankly, ludicrious. LaFleur's general approach of running the ball to set up the deep throw is a good start and he's new to head coaching so he's more likely to view the project as a partnership. That's a good thing.

 

[rmontro]

LaFleur's job is to let Rodgers be Rodgers and maximize it. This notion of "reigning him in" is, frankly, ludicrious. LaFleur's general approach of running the ball to set up the deep throw is a good start and he's new to head coaching so he's more likely to view the project as a partnership.

LaFleur needs to tell Rodgers he's the key to the offense, and we need him to be healthy. And for that reason (among others), we are going to start running the ball more. He needs to get Rodgers to buy into this idea. It doesn't do any good to play eight games and then have Rodgers get knocked out for the season, or seriously hampered.

 

[speakhands]

I watched Undisputed when I really shouldn't have when they were talking about the whole thing this morning. I had to pause and shake my head every 5 seconds of listening. I know that Jennings is now a regular on that show and they are going to back up their guy, but it was ridiculous listening to that.

Wilbon had a good insight on this, basically said he's not surprised at all that Rodgers is that way. He's known countless athletes from both NBA/NFL/MLB that are precisely that way. I mean MJ's whole Hall of Fame retirement speech was on how he basically never forgot a slight EVER, and would carry that around with him his entire career... He even brought the guy who was picked ahead of him from his high school team to the ceremony and told him in front of that crowd that there was no way he was better than MJ..

James Jones, Kuhn, Peppers, Bostick, Hayward, Nelson, Cobb, Traymon have all verbally came out and said positives.

Think I need to stop listening and watching all these shows right about now.

Good post. I completely agree.

Packers fans are being ninnies about this. High characters guys - guys that we all respect - like James Jones, Julius Peppers, Tramon Williams, TJ Lang, and Jordy Nelson have all attested to Aaron being a great guy. Meanwhile, who is on the opposite side? Jermichael Finley and Greg Jennings: probably the two most self-absorbed pieces of crap that have been on the team in recent memory.

 

[HardRightEdge]

LaFleur needs to tell Rodgers he's the key to the offense, and we need him to be healthy. And for that reason (among others), we are going to start running the ball more. He needs to get Rodgers to buy into this idea. It doesn't do any good to play eight games and then have Rodgers get knocked out for the season, or seriously hampered.

Telling Rodgers to stay in the pocket and protect himself is a mistake. You dance with the one who brung you, and you dance the steps he's comfortable with. Injury risk is part of the game. If you put injury risk mitgation as central to the scheme you will fail.

 

[Do7]

Telling Rodgers to stay in the pocket and protect himself is a mistake. You dance with the one who brung you, and you dance the steps he's comfortable with. Injury risk is part of the game. If you put injury risk mitgation as central to the scheme you will fail.

If I'm not mistaken didn't Rodgers sprain his knee while being inside the pocket?

 

[HardRightEdge]

If I'm not mistaken didn't Rodgers sprain his knee while being inside the pocket?

Yup.

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Inside, outside, injury risk is everywhere and sometimes right in front of you. It would behoove thinkers on the matter to turn attention to who is available to cover the backside if Bakhtiari misses 4 games as he did in 2017 (or worse) and who covers the front side if Bulaga goes down again.

Or how about just getting the blocking assignments straight as in the above clip? We've got a LG counting on a RB pickup inside as he leaves his block whereas the RB is chipping outside on his way into a route? To borrow a phrase from the QB, it was a dumb f*cking play or alternatively a lack of "accoutability" to use the phrase kicking around this offseason.

"Accountability" and "execution" are two sides of the same coin.

 

[HardRightEdge]

Wilbon had a good insight on this, basically said he's not surprised at all that Rodgers is that way. He's known countless athletes from both NBA/NFL/MLB that are precisely that way. I mean MJ's whole Hall of Fame retirement speech was on how he basically never forgot a slight EVER, and would carry that around with him his entire career... He even brought the guy who was picked ahead of him from his high school team to the ceremony and told him in front of that crowd that there was no way he was better than MJ.

James Jones, Kuhn, Peppers, Bostick, Hayward, Nelson, Cobb, Traymon have all verbally came out and said positives.

Add Ryan Grant to the list of Rodgers defenders. His quotes in the Dunne piece are to the point.

Funny thing about Jordan. People forget his merciless hounding of Cartwright and his resistance to Winter's triangle offense which took Jackson a couple of years to cajole Jordan's buy-in. Then there's the matter of his gambling. I remain suspect that his turn to baseball was an agreement in lieu of suspension, something both Stern and Jordon would have been lothe to see levied.

Jordan was not some easy guy to get along with, to say the least, and the chip on his shoulder was massive which, when winning, is translated by the talking heads into "competitiveness".

When dealing with a preeminent talent like Jordan or Rodgers a key function of the coach is as "horse whisperer" with the emphasis on the whisper. Jordan did have that winning smile and charisma in front of the interviewer's camera which deflected from the agitation behind the scenes. Maybe that's what Rodgers should work on.

 

[Do7]

Add Ryan Grant to the list of Rodgers defenders. His quotes in the Dunne piece are to the point.

Funny thing about Jordan. People forget his merciless hounding of Cartwright and his resistance to Winter's triangle offense which took Jackson a couple of years to cajole Jordan's buy-in. Then there's the matter of his gambling. I remain suspect that his turn to baseball was an agreement in lieu of suspension, something both Stern and Jordon would have been lothe to see levied.

Jordan was not some easy guy to get along with, to say the least, and the chip on his shoulder was massive which, when winning, is translated by the talking heads into "competitiveness".

When dealing with a preeminent talent like Jordan or Rodgers a key function of the coach is as "horse whisperer" with the emphasis on the whisper. Jordan did have that winning smile and charisma in front of the interviewer's camera which deflected from the agitation behind the scenes. Maybe that's what Rodgers should work on.

Hypocrisy: Humankind's greatest virtue.

 

[gbgary]

Damn! I'm out of action for a few weeks nursing a broken arm and look what I miss! I'm not gonna spend much time on this because it's from the same people primarily and I've already addressed that before. (Plus I can't really type as much as I'd like with one hand. Lol)

This article reeks of bias. But the problem is that because The Packers have been losing so there's going to be a lot of validity as to what is the source of the problem. We're just gonna have to win.

everything ever written has a bias (except maybe a repair manual). the bias/theme here is let some of it be known or keep it semi-swept under the rug (we already know quite a bit of the dirt had already worked it's way from under the rug). no one was spared. as i said a couple of months ago in another thread...someday it will all be in a book...mccarthy/rodgers/thompson/murphy/ball/wolf/gute. it's not just a recent thing either. the football's been pretty meh for a while. in rodgers last 22 starts they are 10-12-1 (10-10-1 if you take away the min loss, where he got hurt, and the det loss, when he came back too soon). 30-24-1 in his last 55 starts (33-32-1 over all).

 

[Ceodore]

Lotta guys, some without a dog in the fight, having ARs back today.

https://packerswire.usatoday.com/20...or-aaron-rodgers-in-aftermath-of-b-r-article/

 

[InGuteWeTrust]

Tyler Dunne works for BR. BR is the Buzzfeed of sports journalism. Basically they live off click bait articles and push narratives to fufill their agenda.

I knew everything in the article was pretty much bunk and I stopped reading when I read Dunne claim that Murphy told Rodgers "Don't be the problem" in a phone call. This was a complete fabrication by Dunne and I know that for a fact.