Rodgers Press Conference

[pbmax]

Rob Demovsky @RobDemovsky

Aaron Rodgers on a conference call with Packers media said "I like where we're at" in terms of the roster heading into this year.

Aaron Rodgers said his general reaction on the Jordan Love pick was: "Surprise, like many people.:
He added: "Not going to say I was thrilled by the pick necessarily but I understand the organization is thinking about the future and the present."

AR on Jordan Love: "He's not to blame at all ... I'm excited to work with him."

if he still thinks he'll finish his career with the Packers: "What it does is it reinforces the adage that you can only control what you can control.
"That obviously is something that's very important to me."

Aaron Rodgers on working with Jordan Love: "He didn't get asked to be drafted by the Packers. He's not to blame at all. ... Had a good conversation with him the day after the draft. I'm excited to work with him." https://es.pn/2Tad4oP

Rodgers, age 36: "The goal is to play into my 40s. That hasn't changed."

Rodgers on the conference call: "Someone needs to mute that."
He should've been on the call during the draft!

Aaron Rodgers on whether it's safe to play football: "Hope we can use some common sense and make decisions based on the best interests and hope that sports is a part of it." He said it's important to think about the state of the country and its people.

When asked about the returning Packers receivers on the roster and stepping up, Aaron Rodgers began with Allen Lazard. "He's a great teammate and an ascending player. Loved his approach every week."

He indicated he has a small group of SoCal-based players he's worked out with.
Aaron Rodgers said he feels "like a kid throwing the football at the park" during stay-at-home workouts.

[falco]

Sounds like a pretty thoughtful and pragmatic way to approach it. At least he's handling it professionally, regardless of his feelings behind the scenes.

[pbmax]

Matt Schneidman @mattschneidman
Aaron Rodgers: "I like what Brian has done. I obviously hope there's a season and hope we get a chance to get back together soon."

Rodgers on the Jordan Love pick: "The general reaction at first was surprised, like many people. I'm not gonna say I was thrilled with the pick."
Rodgers adds that he understands the pick and that Gutekunst has to plan for the present and future.

Rodgers on Love: "He didn't get asked to be drafted by the Packers. He's not to blame at all...I had a good conversation with him the day after the draft. I'm excited to work with him."

Rodgers says finishing his career with the Packers beyond his current contract is still "very important" to him but he understands that's now out of his control. He said he hopes to make a potential decision to move on from him in the future a very hard one for management to make

If he still thinks he'll finish his career with the Packers: "What it does is it reinforces the adage that you can only control what you can control.
"That obviously is something that's very important to me."

Does the Jordan Love pick motivate Aaron Rodgers?
"I've never really needed a ton of external motivation. You always look for one or two things over your career to fire you up."
Says his main motivation is to prove he can be consistent even as he gets older.

Aaron Rodgers, 36 years old: "The goal is obviously to play into my 40s. That hasn't changed."

Loud shrieking noise and someone getting text notifications on their phone during the call because somebody isn't on mute.
Rodgers: "Somebody needs to mute that."

Rodgers: "There's probably not gonna be sky-high expectations for us like last year. At the same time, I think we're gonna be in the mix."

Rodgers name-dropped Equanimeous St. Brown, Allen Lazard, Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Jake Kumerow as returning wide receivers who he expects big things from this coming season.

Rodgers says the Favre/Rodgers and Rodgers/Love situations aren't entirely similar because of "Favre's mindset in 03 and 04" (hinting at retirement) and Rodgers' insistence he wants to play for the Packers beyond his current contract, which has four years left on it.
Rodgers on not having physical workouts: "It's too early to be making any types of predictions in terms of who's gonna be playing where and in what roles."

Rodgers: "It would definitely be a weird situation to not have any fans in the stands and I hope that's not the reality."

Rodgers has said "that's a good question" after almost every question. See, he loves the media.

Aaron Rodgers says he feels like a "kid throwing the football at the park" working out during quarantine.

Aaron Rodgers says Michael Jordan, who has invited Rodgers to play golf in Vegas numerous times, is the GOAT:
"I'd love to debate anybody on that."

Rodgers, after this, added he still feels confident and capable of playing into his 40s for the Packers but that "may not be a reality at this point" after the Jordan Love pick. Says the future is now less in his control than it was before, but he still wants to finish in GB.

Rodgers clarifies why he wasn't "thrilled" with the Jordan Love pick:
"It was more the surprise of the pick based on my own feelings of wanting to play into my 40s and then really the realization that it does change the controlables a little bit."

Main takeaways from 40 minutes with Aaron Rodgers:
-He wasn't "thrilled" with the Love pick but he understands it
-He still wants to finish his career with GB in his early 40s but realizes likelihood of that is less now after the pick
-He will not treat Love like Favre did him
Most honest Aaron Rodgers answer just now, in response to being asked why he wasn't thrilled with the Love pick.
"My sincere desire to start and finish with the same organization, just as it has with many other players over the years, may not be a reality at this point."

[pbmax]

Longer quote:

[GB-Brandon]

He said what everybody expected him to say. We will have to wait and see the attitude’s and communication levels when some adversity hits which does every NFL season. Despite what people think about my views I like POWER FOOTBALL. If the running game works “All Gas No Fucking Brake” then great but at some point these guys are gonna have to win on the perimeter. They will be helped out with a productive run game no doubt but I still wish we had another weapon and believe it might cost us at some point. My fear is other then Adams they won’t win outside consistently and then we will all have too see those smug looks from Mr. Rodgers after plays where he just launches the ball out of bounds and appears frustrated. If that starts to become a problem resentments could start to surface. If I was a Gute I would be working to get another weapon in here. To me we’re putting all our eggs in a basket that’s kinda a long shot.

https://www.facebook.com/Packers/videos/537961136893533/?vh=e&d=n

[falco]

He said what everybody expected him to say. We will have to wait and see the attitude’s and communication levels when some adversity hits which does every NFL season. Despite what people think about my views I like POWER FOOTBALL. If the running game works “All Gas No Fucking Brake” then great but at some point these guys are gonna have to win on the perimeter. They will be helped out with a productive run game no doubt but I still wish we had another weapon and believe it might cost us at some point. My fear is other then Adams they won’t win outside consistently and then we will all have too see those smug looks from Mr. Rodgers after plays where he just launches the ball out of bounds and appears frustrated. If that starts to become a problem resentments could start to surface. If I was a Gute I would be working to get another weapon in here. To me we’re putting all our eggs in a basket that’s kinda a long shot.

https://www.facebook.com/Packers/vid...3533/?vh=e&d=n

I wonder who will be our slot receiver this year. I don't even know who played the role last year, if I'm being honest.

[Joemailman]

I wonder who will be our slot receiver this year. I don't even know who played the role last year, if I'm being honest.

I think it was Allison quite a bit of the time. Shouldn't be too difficult to improve on his production. Not sure how much Lazard lined up there. I think ESB played some slot in 2018. Adams has been very effective when lining up there.

[GB-Brandon]

I wonder who will be our slot receiver this year. I don't even know who played the role last year, if I'm being honest.

This is what I’m hoping for at this point. Faster and a more polished receiver then Ervin. Got lost in Chicago with Trubisky which is easy to do. If he is a go I believe could help us big time.

[texaspackerbacker]

He may have said what he was expected to say, but it kinda depends on whose expectations we're talking about. To me, this press conference, if you can call it that, kinda shot down the alarmists who are whining about Rodgers only being with the Packers for another year or two. If he continues his GOAT-level excellence for one, two, three, or all four years of his contract - entirely possible considering Brady's quality of play into his 40s, then it will be a tough decision, to let him go either at the end of his contract or a year or two or three sooner. If he is still at or near the top of his game, I could see the Packers signing him for a couple more years at less money than now but still a lot - maybe something like Brady got from Tampa. Taking Rodgers at his word, it's likely he would stay with the Packers for the same or even a little less money than another team would offer.

And what of Jordan Love? Honestly, I was beginning to get psyched up for the possibility that he would be Rodgers successor - a guy with all the tools who would observe and learn to play the position the way Aaron Rodgers plays it. Now, I'm not so sure. I expect the Packers to train him and showcase him to the extent that he maybe is tradeable for a decent amount at some point.

[GB-Brandon]

He may have said what he was expected to say, but it kinda depends on whose expectations we're talking about. To me, this press conference, if you can call it that, kinda shot down the alarmists who are whining about Rodgers only being with the Packers for another year or two. If he continues his GOAT-level excellence for one, two, three, or all four years of his contract - entirely possible considering Brady's quality of play into his 40s, then it will be a tough decision, to let him go either at the end of his contract or a year or two or three sooner. If he is still at or near the top of his game, I could see the Packers signing him for a couple more years at less money than now but still a lot - maybe something like Brady got from Tampa. Taking Rodgers at his word, it's likely he would stay with the Packers for the same or even a little less money than another team would offer.

And what of Jordan Love? Honestly, I was beginning to get psyched up for the possibility that he would be Rodgers successor - a guy with all the tools who would observe and learn to play the position the way Aaron Rodgers plays it. Now, I'm not so sure. I expect the Packers to train him and showcase him to the extent that he maybe is tradeable for a decent amount at some point.

I understand being positive but com’on. They haven’t even put the pads on yet. He is getting ready to get paid 30 plus million dollars this year so he can do another year in Green Bay. The fact is we simply don’t know how this is gonna work or play out. Let’s see what happens “in-season” and how things go.

[GB-Brandon]

BTW, the Alarmist was the guy “that made the move” and I don’t think anyone here is Gute.

[RashanGary]

He's handling it well. Really likes Lazard. He's embracing his game manager role.

[GB-Brandon]

He's handling it well. Really likes Lazard. He's embracing his game manager role.

Of course he is handling it well. Aaron is very smart. He probably kept quiet for so long because he wanted the immediate anger to become manageable. All we really know is he still plans on playing into his 40’s and he is gonna do the best he can with what he has to work with. We don’t know what’s Gute plan is.

Yeah, he liked Lazard from the beginning. Not sure that alone will create another Jordy Nelson. We can love these guys to death but we’re facing some “physical realities” that might be too much to overcome. Rodgers didn’t sound overly excited about our receivers. To me it felt kinda ho hum. Training Camp will be very telling.

[GB-Brandon]

I also hate to burst anyone’s bubble but I really don’t believe Gute is gonna wanna pay Rodgers 30 plus million a year to hand the ball off with an occasional shot down field in a cookie cutter offense.

The Love pick makes perfect sense. We’re in a step too “A New Era” like it or not.

[GB-Brandon]

The positive is the Packers are stacked at RB. I even like Dexter Williams and think he can still be something. They are literally 4 deep right now with NFL caliber backs. I wish they were stacked at receiver like they are with RB’s. What a difference from how it used to be.