Rodgers’ displeasure with personnel moves reminiscent of Favre and Thompson
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Over the years, I've watched franchises do exactly what's being done here. They bring in someone as a hatchet man. Gutey is the hatchet man. His job is to usher out players like Nelson, and eventually Rodgers. He's also there to send McCarthy packing. He's the "hit man" who will eventually start the rebuilding program, but probably never be allowed to carry it through. He'll be the guy who makes a hell of a lot of money being the guy who does the dismantling. Someone will step in, replacing him, and rebuild everything from the ground up, and everyone will say it was a great idea, moving on like they did.
At times, I actually wonder if that wasn't exactly why Thompson was brought in, and the fact that Thompson grabbed Rodgers and continued team success followed, kept them both employed. Is it possible they simply overcame what was supposed to be a total rebuild?
You can disagree with this philosophy, but if you look at the history of teams, and how they were built, this is a scenario that plays out over and over. It even looks like it will play out in New England, where Kraft might have to choose between Brady and Belichek. Either way, the team falls, people are fired, cut from the team, and they start rebuilding from scratch.
I don't remember who it was who said it, but to paraphrase what they said; "Coaches are hired so they can be fired." That pretty much sums up the whole story of the NFL.
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I can see his frustration. Arod is expected to be the face of the franchise. He's expected to make up for a defense that has been subpar for years. MMs role in the offense is basically to call a formation, it's up to Arod to do everything else and make up for the fact MM is past his expiration date. Arod basically runs the offense, and is the guy who is supposed to ride in on his flame spitting white unicorn that has lasers coming out of it's eyes to save the Packers every week.
But when the organization makes a move he doesn't like then all of a sudden it's "sit down and be quiet?"
I would trust Arod way more than MM/TT/Gutey on some of these moves. The Nelson move looks great on paper. But I think it backfires, and Arod IMHO knows GB doesn't have anyone to provide the leadership Nelson did (no, Cobb and Adams are not leaders).
But when the organization makes a move he doesn't like then all of a sudden it's "sit down and be quiet?"
I would trust Arod way more than MM/TT/Gutey on some of these moves. The Nelson move looks great on paper. But I think it backfires, and Arod IMHO knows GB doesn't have anyone to provide the leadership Nelson did (no, Cobb and Adams are not leaders).
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Nelson has been sulky and morose on the field for the past two seasons, even during "run the table." I didn't see a ton of leadership there. He's one of AR's best friends, and they got robbed of another season together by Rodgers' injury - what is he expected to say and feel about it? IMO they lost a hell of a lot more leadership when they let Lang walk out the door.
It's a tough situation because yes, AR has been the face of the franchise and has been forced to carry that shit D on his back, but the fact of the matter is the role does not suit Aaron. He's not Brady or Brees in that way. He's much better when the leadership is elsewhere and he can just kinda do his own thing and rack up numbers. So as part of the necessary overhaul of the team and locker room, yeah, Aaron needs to take a bit more of a back seat. That's going to be very difficult to pull off because in the absence of an alpha in the locker room, the guy with the biggest Q rating and biggest paycheck is naturally going to have to fill the void.