Aaron Rodgers' insinuations don't yet mirror Packers' 2018 drama, but stay tuned | Opinion
GREEN BAY, Wis. – If you think quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ suggestion Sunday that Matt LaFleur simplify the Green Bay Packers offense is a sign there are cracks in his relationship with the head coach, you’re getting ahead of yourself.
Yes, LaFleur responded the next day with an “I don’t know what that means,” which at the time seemed like a defensive volley back into his quarterback’s court.
But this is not 2018 and LaFleur is not Mike McCarthy.
Rodgers majors in insinuation, and all through the ’18 season, it was hard not to come away from some of his news conferences questioning whether he and McCarthy were working together at all. Rodgers seemed uninspired with what the Packers were doing on offense and the season went downhill fast. McCarthy got fired with a month to go.
There’s no reason to believe this latest episode is anything like that. It’s probably Rodgers being Rodgers and using his pulpit to express a strong opinion on something. He likes to provide more to the public than the average button-downed NFL head coach who must see the film before providing non-answers on Monday and sometimes more is read into it than should be.
It’s nothing right now. It’s just that you probably shouldn’t flip channels yet because who knows how things will play out if the Packers crash and miss out on the playoffs.
Anyone who has followed Rodgers’ career knows he has at times been able to leverage his exalted position as one of the best players in the NFL into influence on how the organization moves forward.
He can claim he had nothing to do with McCarthy’s firing, but team president Mark Murphy and general manager Brian Gutekunst were talking to veterans throughout the ’18 season to get their thoughts on where the team was headed, and it’s naïve to think Rodgers wasn’t one of the primary contributors. Even if he didn’t trash McCarthy, there’s no sign he did anything to support him.
Two years later, he nearly bailed on LaFleur, the coach he really did like and who had helped him win a second MVP award. He was upset Gutekunst didn’t inform him he was drafting quarterback Jordan Love over a wide receiver in the ’20 draft and then chose not to renegotiate his contract after the MVP season.
So, he severed his relationship with the organization until it started to see things his way.
Ultimately, he got the Packers to trade for his buddy Randall Cobb, to consult with him on personnel moves and to allow him to break the NFL’s COVID-19 masking rules at his news conferences. And while it took another MVP season for him to get paid, the Packers gave him the highest average salary in league history.
And they let him spend the offseason at home.
Everyone, LaFleur included, should be on guard for second-guessing of game plans, play-calling and in-game adjustments if the offense continues to tank. As much say as Rodgers has in the offensive operation – thanks in part to McCarthy, of all people, who kept building in mechanisms for Rodgers to call a game his way – it’s a problem if he’s framing things as a coaching issue.
He should be taking blame for the offense’s failures every bit as much as questioning whether LaFleur’s approach is on the mark.
Needing to raise his level of play “a tick,” which was the way he put it when asked about his performance after the Jets game, isn’t how a partner in the offense’s structure and execution should be evaluating himself. Asking LaFleur to simplify the offense lays the blame mostly at the coach’s feet.
At least Rodgers praised LaFleur for how hard he and his staff have worked to get the offense to a better place, something he almost never did in the latter years of his time with McCarthy. On his chummy radio chat with his boys, Pat McAfee and A.J. Hawk, Rodgers joked about the so-called “feud” with LaFleur and insisted there’s nothing to it.
And he’s telling the truth. There is no feud. Things aren’t about to blow up. Chances are this is nothing.
But if for some reason the back and forth over what’s necessary to get the offense running smoothly continues, Rodgers should consider how far he wants to go.
This isn’t 2018 when the Packers were counting on him playing another three or four years minimum
He’s about to turn 39 years old and, while he may be coming off back-to-back MVP seasons, his influence is waning. His contract is a huge albatross around the Packers’ neck and chances are they would move on without him if his relationship with LaFleur sours. If the Packers can’t win a Super Bowl this year with Rodgers, they aren’t going to win one next year and they will be happy to transition to Love.
This isn’t a case where Murphy is going to say my quarterback isn’t happy, so let’s fire the coach. Trying to win a power struggle with a coach who has the second-highest winning percentage in NFL history (minimum 50 games), isn’t advisable. Unless Rodgers just lights it up in the second half of the year, Murphy would have to be crazy to side with an aging quarterback over a young coach with LaFleur’s record (42-13).
The only reason any of this is worth discussing is that when Rodgers thinks he’s right, he doesn’t back down from anyone. He fought the Packers tooth and nail when he thought he should be part of the team-building discussion, and he fought legions of COVID-19 vaccine advocates who thought he was misleading people with his opinions on how to treat the virus.
If things continue to go bad this season, it’s worth watching to see how Rodgers handles questions about play-calling and offensive philosophy. He has plausible deniability down to a science and can send out a message that seems like a personal shot but isn’t direct enough to claim he said it outright.
Assuming Rodgers is communicating openly with LaFleur, which appears to be the case, there’s nothing wrong with him publicly suggesting changes on offense. The two can talk it out and move on. It’s probably healthy for them to do it.
Both men have a common interest in winning this season and they need each other.
But losing isn’t the norm in Green Bay and it can cause small cuts to become open wounds. For that reason, it’s worth staying tuned.