Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers reportedly will exercise his prerogative to stay away from the team’s offseason program, but for the three-day mandatory minicamp he skipped in 2021. That’s his right, but it comes at a time when the Green Bay receiver position is unsettled, to say the least.
Davante Adams is gone. Marquez Valdes-Scantling is gone. Allen Lazard, a restricted free agent, remains unsigned. The top receiver on the team is Randall Cobb, who is only back on the team because Rodgers Veruca-Salted it into existence.
In the coming weeks, they’ll sign a free agent or two (Julio Jones, Jarvis Landry, Odell Beckham Jr. remain available), trade for a player who is on the cusp of getting paid (DK Metcalf, for example), trade for player who is at least a year away from getting paid (Chase Claypool continues to make a lot of sense), or use one or more draft picks on brand-new receivers.
Whatever the approach, the Packers need one or more new receivers. And the new-look receiving corps would be in a better position to thrive if Rodgers were there to work with them during offseason practices.
Sure, there’s training camp. But if the Packers go the rookie route, the more reps the first-year pass-catchers get with Rodgers, the better. He needs to know how they run routes. He needs to know that he can trust them. He needs to get to know them, and they need to get to know him.
We’ve said on PFT Live that it would be wise for the Packers to include Rodgers in the scouting, if they plan on drafting one or more receivers. Let him watch film. Get his input on players he does and doesn’t like. Draft the guys he’s ultimately comfortable with. With that kind of buy in, things could work very well.
It could go the other way if Rodgers is frozen out of the decision-making process. Isn’t that what he was so upset about in the past? The “you just work here” vibe he’d often get from management?
Although he supposedly knew Adams would be leaving when Rodgers decided to stay, Rodgers at some level has to wonder whether Adams would have happily signed an extension if the team had simply made months earlier the offer that supposedly exceeded the dollars in his new deal. The Packers dragged their feet, let his contract expire, tagged him, and then traded away the best player on the team not named Aaron Rodgers.
If one or more early picks in 2022 will be used to replace Adams, it’s critical that Rodgers be on board with it. It becomes even more critical if Rodgers won’t be there to personally work with the rookie receivers until training camp, but for a cameo appearance at mandatory minicamp.
