Zach Wilson would benefit from playing behind Aaron Rodgers
Stop me if you’ve heard this story before. Disgruntled Hall of Fame-bound quarterback for the Green Bay Packers can’t make up his mind if he wants to play for his old team again or retire.
“I think he’s super talented. I think a little humility is good for all of us at various times in our careers. I think the first year, they literally had no players.” — Aaron Rodgers on Zach Wilson
There’s a lot of drama and speculation. His team is on hold — the Packers can’t trade him, retire him or roster him until he makes up his mind. So everyone waits — fans, media, management, teammates (no hurry, take your time), all looking at their watches and drumming their fingers. It’s a nation held hostage. He’s Lebron-ing the sports world.
In the end, he decides he’d rather play for another team instead of the team that made him great.
Aaron Rodgers should’ve learned something after watching his predecessor, Brett Favre, drag out the fade to retirement and create a lot of controversy in his wake while trying to make up his mind; instead, he appears set to repeat the whole circus routine and go to the very same team as Favre did years ago.
“It’s my intention to play for the Jets, but I’m still under contract with the Packers,” Rodgers said on the Pat McAfee show.
The Jets?
It’s not a done deal yet, but it appears that Rodgers will suit up for the Jets next season, which will greatly impact the future of at least two quarterbacks, both from Utah schools — Zach Wilson and Jordan Love (more on this below).
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If all this was designed to court attention (it was), and/or hold the Packers hostage (it was), it worked. After the final game of the 2022 season, Rodgers told reporters, “I’m not going to hold them hostage,” he said. “I understand we’re still in January, March is free agency. Just need some time …”
It’s mid-March and nothing is settled yet.
When you think about it, it’s a lot of fuss for a 39-year-old diva who has won one Super Bowl in 18 years. Four MVP awards is nice, but four rings would be better. For the record, the last passes that Favre and Rodgers threw for the Packers were interceptions. If Rodgers joins the Jets and starts sending lewd photos, then this officially gets weird.
Rodgers went into a very dark place to figure all this out. Literally. He says he went to a “darkness retreat” (explanation for normal people to follow) — a sensory deprivation experience in which someone spends an extended period of time in darkness, supposedly to expand his mind.
Favre went fishing, Rodgers went to a cave.
And after all that, Rodgers chose the Jets, the team where quarterbacks go to die, the team to which Favre was banished, resulting in one of his worst seasons as a pro. The Packers essentially said, we want to move on from Favre/Rodgers, but we also don’t want him beating us, so we’ll send him to the AFC to a team that has drafted 12 quarterbacks in 16 years and signed a dozen or so free agents, none of whom panned out.
The Jets cleared the way by dumping offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur — the brother of Rodgers’ head coach in Green Bay, Matt LaFleur — and hiring one of Rodgers’ favorites to replace him — Nathaniel Hacket, the Packers/Rodgers’ OC from 2019-21 (but a total flop in Denver last season). How Rodgers fits in with his new teammates remains to be seen. We’ve all seen Rodgers’ condescension on the field — the eye roll, the exasperated head shake, the pointing at a teammate to make sure everyone knows who goofed up.
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Former Jet star Joe Klecko said weeks ago, “I don’t think Rodgers is a fit with the young guys … I’ve watched Rodgers over the years. … When he didn’t have the perfect arrangement with receivers and the line, his attitude was condescending somewhat to the players. … (Garrett) Wilson won Offensive Rookie of the Year. I can’t see him coming back to the huddle and Rodgers lambasting him for running the wrong route. It’s not gonna fit. I don’t see it.”
The signing of Rodgers by the Jets would send Wilson, the former BYU star and No. 2 overall pick in the 2021 draft, to the sideline in New York indefinitely, and put Love, the former Utah State star and controversial No. 26 overall in 2020, in the Packers’ starting lineup. They have taken opposite paths in the NFL.
Love has spent three years on the sideline behind Rodgers waiting to become the team’s starter (exactly as Rodgers did when he entered the league). Wilson was immediately made the Jets’ starter after he was drafted. Love has improved dramatically, as demonstrated by his play last season; Wilson has regressed. The Jets say they haven’t given up on Wilson. He will benefit greatly from playing behind Rodgers for a year or two.
In January, when he was asked what he would do if the Jets brought in a veteran quarterback, Wilson told reporters, “I’m going to make that dude’s life hell in practice every day.” With Rodgers seemingly bound for New York, Wilson’s comment has blown up on Twitter. Wilson and Rodgers are not strangers. They have talked on the phone and Rodgers has been complimentary of the young quarterback. Last January, while speaking on the “Pat McAfee Show,” he said this of Wilson:
“I think he’s super talented. I think a little humility is good for all of us at various times in our careers. I think the first year, they literally had no players. They came to practice against us and I was like, ‘the defense can play and the offense needs some more players.’ …
“For (Wilson), it’s going to be humility, just lean into that, and be consistently working on the fundamentals. I think he’s so talented, but the best in the business can make all the plays outside the pocket, can move around, but fundamentally inside the pocket … that’s where you beat teams. ... I hope that whoever they decide to go with at coordinator can work with him and kind of break down a lot of fundamentals for him and get him playing on time. I think he’s talented enough to have a long career in the league.”
With Rodgers as a teammate, Wilson can closely observe a four-time MVP.
