The Green Bay Packers finally made the decision to move on from Aaron Rodgers after last season and all of the drama that comes with the quarterback’s greatness is suddenly gone.
For years, while Rodgers thrived on the field at Lambeau there were constant stories of his frustrations with the front office, desire to leave, issues with teammates and the list goes on and on.
Aaron Rodgers may very well be one of the best quarterbacks to play the game, but it’s become a fact that if he’s on any NFL team’s roster, he’s going to be the story 24/7, and in this year’s case with the New York Jets, even when he’s injured for the season with an Achilles injury.
Former GM Shreds Jets Treatment Of Former Green Bay Packers Star
Mike Lombardi worked in the NFL from 1984 to 2016 where he held various personnel roles including the vernal manager and vice president for the Cleveland Browns. He was part of building three Super Bowl Champions and clearly has a firm pulse of how an NFL organization should operate.
Earlier this week, Lombardi joined the Pat McAfee show and slammed the Jets front office and coaching staff with how they have handle the Aaron Rodgers situation since he got injured in Week 1.
“Woody Johnson should just give the charter of this franchise to Aaron Rodgers,” Lombardi said.
He then noted that the team has done nothing to adapt since the former Green Bay Packers QB was injured and continue to use his absence as an excuse to lose.
“It’s just what he should do. Because everything is under the umbrella of ‘oh Aaron’s not here.’ Everything like the incompetence in the coaching, the poor game planning, the decision making. I mean, you can’t get any worse offensively.”
Lombardi didn’t stop there.
“Adam Gase was not good and they couldn’t wait to run him out of town, but Saleh, it’s like you know it’s okay. I mean Bill Belichick is on the hot seat, he has six Super Bowls, he doesn’t deserve to come back, he’s a horrible coach. But Robert Saleh, we just lost Aaron Rodgers, he’ll be back, it’s good. He’s really good, he’s a defensive specialist. They’ve been out scored by Miami 64-13.”
McAfee then acknowledged Lombardo’s take and asked what the plan will be next season once the former Green Bay Packers star returns.
LombardI referred to a book written by Bill Walsh and his philosophy about righting the ship when you’re losing in the NFL.
“Ultimately when you’re on a losing streak, there’s no magic formula there’s no singular formula why you lose. And so what the Jets have done, they’ve violated that code of contact. Because when you say ‘we most lost Aaron,” you away discipline and responsibility from the organization. And I think that’s unfair to Aaron. Because even if Aaron were playing they wouldn’t be very good. We aren’t the NBA, it takes three groups, offense, defense and special teams working in Harmony.
Look at Kevin Stefanski, he’s doing one of the best coaching jobs in the league, he’s got nine wins, he’s lost how many quarterbacks with backup offensive linemen, guys we’ve never heard of, and meanwhile in New York it’s like ‘oh we lost Aaron it’s okay. We are going to get blown out. When they lost Aaron, there should have been an adjustment in the game plan and all I heard was, ‘oh we are running Aaron’s offense.’ No, we need to run the offense that helps us win games, Like whatever happened to that? Where is the accountability? And everyone just pushes it under the rug.”
Are The Jets Doing Aaron Rodgers A Disservice?
Ultimately, Lombardi believes the Jets are doing the former Packers QB a massive disservice.
“And it’s unfair to him because when Rodgers comes back and it doesn’t work, everyone is going to blame Aaron. Everyone is going to say well Aaron screwed it up, and now it’s all on him.”
The longtime NFL exec then took a shot at the Jets defense.
”Like they are terrible they couldn’t stop Miami last week. Meanwhile Cleveland stops people. All I heard about is the Jets are the greatest defense in the history of football,, but they can’t stop anybody in the run game, they give up plays. And if you’re Woody Johnson, and you want to run it back, great. But we got to sit in a room and say what else went wrong guys? What else do we got to fix?”
Lombardi certainly makes several valid points.
While the Green Bay Packers have had their ups and downs this season — and while most are grateful for Rodgers’ contributions to the franchise — it’s refreshing this kind of drama is no longer part of the daily news cycle.
