Jenny, Conor and Gary—again, and surely not for the last time—revisit Aaron Rodgers in light of his holdout from organized team activities. A discussion of the possible outcomes if the general manager isn’t going anywhere and what the Packers need to do to resolve this.
Then, the new game show that’s basically on the verge of sweeping the nation: Four blind items about NFL quarterbacks when they were young, and what people wrote about them. It’s Jenny vs. Conor, winner takes all. (All of what? We’re not sure yet.)
And, finally but most importantly, a discussion on the state of vaccinations around the league, and why it’s so disheartening.
The following transcript is an excerpt from The MMQB NFL Podcast. Listen to the full episode on podcast players everywhere or on SI.com.
Gary Gramling: We are starting with part seven of our 12,000-part series on Aaron Rodgers and his hold out in Green Bay. And look, this was not unexpected, it was not a huge development this week when he didn’t show up to OTAs. But I guess in a way, it just kind of made it a little more real.
Conor Orr: Yeah, we still don’t really understand what he wants. Because every time that you’re seeing a piece of information filter out, it’s like; he still loves his teammates, he still loves the fans, he still loves basically everything except for Brian Gutekunst the general manager. And so what are you hoping happens? Like do you need the Packers to fire Brian Gutekunst in order for you to walk across that threshold? And do you think that you’re going to be able to scare him to the point where he is really going to make him think that you’re willing to sit out for your age thirty-seven season? At the end of your athletic prime, and squander what could be one of the last great years of your career, just because you don’t like the general manager? Who if you try hard enough, you probably don’t have to see for an entire season if you don’t want to.
Jenny Vrentas: Yeah, and Mark Murphy in that Q&A on the Packers website made clear that he stands firmly behind Brian Gutekunst, that he has great confidence in him, and that he’s the right person to continue building the roster moving forward. So it doesn’t seem like the Packers are moving on that front. So to your point, Conor, if that’s not negotiable, then what else is it? Just the contract? Is there something else that he needs? What can repair things from this point on? Obviously, he has the support from his teammates. Davante Adams came out with a pretty strong statement for Rodgers while he’s away. And I would like to add … I don’t know if you guys happen to follow the fantastic gossip account on Instagram called deuxmoi. And it’s generally celeb gossip, but there is some crossover with athletes at times, and especially because Aaron Rodgers is engaged to Shailene Woodley. Deuxmoi reported that they have bought homes in not only Hawaii, but also Colorado. Just wanted to throw that out there and also give a little nod to this fantastic Instagram page.
Conor Orr: Nice little pop for deuxmoi.
Gary Gramling: Yeah. I guess the one thing that kind of holds me up is this whole thought that he wants to go play in the West Coast because it’s closer to Hollywood, etc.. If you’re Aaron Rodgers you can travel the country as freely as you like. I mean, you can take your private jet out to Los Angeles. And I guess it’s a slight hassle because it takes you three or four hours to get out there. But it’s not like one of us saying, wherever we work is where we are, we are going to be in our basement in that in that town or city, and that is our life. But he can be a little more mobile. And especially during the off-season, as we saw last year, he and Matt LaFleur can get this thing ironed out over Zoom calls like they did a year ago before his MVP season.
Conor Orr: It’s not like Aaron is like fumbling through the Milwaukee airport, trying to get a bag of combos at the CNBC store. He has a private jet, there’s somebody that’ll pick him up. If he gets the Jeopardy job, I’m sure that they can arrange for the corporate travel extravaganza. To me, that is the weakness in his case and has been all along. OK, what are you going to do about it if we don’t fire the general manager? What’s your plan? Is it to go host Jeopardy? That’s fine, so that’s forty of your next 365 days are accounted for and that’s ten of the forty million dollars that you’re making accounted for. What else are you doing with that time? Are you going to just keep going on Pat McAfee’s podcast and giving us the middle finger week after week? OK, I mean, if that’s your plan then that’s your plan. But otherwise, I don’t really see a whole lot of ammunition here. And what’s interesting to me is I’ve always kind of viewed it a little bit as. Cutting off your nose to spite your face, because regardless—and I’m not saying Jordan Love is replacing him at any point in time, but Jordan Love is getting all the reps. So he’s becoming a better quarterback. He’s closing the monumental gap between the two, to the point where you could probably get to the point where you could win with Jordan love like you could be like a ten-win team, that roster is that good. And you’re just allowing that to happen. You’re allowing him to develop a relationship with Amari Rodgers, who’s the highest-drafted receiver the Packers have had in six years. So I don’t understand a lot of this. Players have the right to stay away from voluntary workouts, I’m not saying that they need to be there. But if you’re Aaron Rodgers and your point is, ‘wait till you see what happens without me.’ You’re kind of allowing ‘without me’ to become a lot more attractive.
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