Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
The Packers turned heads when they traded up from pick 30 to pick 26 to select Utah State quarterback Jordan Love in the 2020 NFL Draft. How does Aaron Rodgers feel about his team drafting his potential replacement?
The Green Bay Packers hadn’t selected a position player in the first round of the NFL Draft since 2005 when they grabbed Aaron Rodgers with the 24th pick. At the time of Rodgers being drafted, Brett Favre was still quarterbacking the Packers and doing a pretty darn good job too.
That led to Favre continuing to start for Green Bay while Rodgers sat on the bench for his first three seasons. Rodgers finally got the keys to the car in 2008 after Favre was sent to the New York Jets and later finished his career in Minnesota.
15 years after the Packers took Rodgers in the first round, the Packers repeated history when they moved up to draft Utah State quarterback Jordan Love which came as a surprise to Rodgers as well as many watching the draft from their home.
“It was more the surprise of the pick based on my own feelings of wanting to play into my 40s and really the realization that it does change the controllables a little bit because as much as I feel confident in my abilities and what I can accomplish and what we can accomplish, there are some new factors that are out of my control,” Rodgers explained.
The shock and surprise have waned in the weeks since the draft and Rodgers is committed to being the best teammate he can be but admits he may not play his entire career with the Packers.
“So 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 and as much as I understand the organization’s future outlook and wanting to make sure they’re thinking about the team now and down the line, and I respect that, at the same time I still believe in myself and I’ve shown that I can play into my 40s. I’m just not sure how that all works together at this point.”
Immediately, the consensus with Twitter GMs was that Rodgers would be angry. Over the years, reports had come out making it sound like he wasn’t exactly a team guy and more about himself. How was it going to sit with him that his team – who had gone to the NFC title game just three months prior to the draft – had spent a first round pick on his possible replacement?
Well, Rodgers has finally spoken up about his feelings on the Packers taking Love. Apparently, the Packers quarterback is “excited” to help his newest backup and understands this situation is very similar to the one he faced with Favre earlier in his career. He also mentioned not being angry at Love because he didn’t ask Green Bay to take him.
“He didn’t get asked to be drafted by the Packers,” Rodgers said of Love. “There’s nothing… He’s not to blame at all. He’s just coming in excited about his opportunity. We had a great conversation the day after the draft. I’m excited to work with him. He seems like a really good kid with a good head on his shoulders and a similar story.”
It’s good to see Rodgers share these kinds of sentiments. It’d have been easy for him to treat Love poorly and not want him to learn anything, but instead, he’s taking the high road and being a good teammate.
While the drafting of Love probably means Rodgers, who is 36 years old, probably won’t spend the rest of his career as a Packer, the way he chooses to handle this can go a long way with determining how he’s looked at when his playing days are over.