Things aren’t going well this year for the Packers, and it’s creating frustration. Which is leading to guys saying things that maybe they shouldn’t be saying.
The latest guy to let his frustration become verbalized is tight end Jermichael Finley. Amid yet another disappointing season for the player who has plenty of potential, Finley blames his lack of production on an absence of chemistry with the team’s quarterback.
“It’s OK,” Finley said earlier this week, via Paul Imig of FOXSportsWisconsin.com. “Not good enough at all. Something to be worked on, and try to work on it as much as I can, try to talk to him as much as I can, but like I said, it takes two people. . . . I need the quarterback on my side, and I need to catch the ball when he throws it to me. So it takes two things to get that going, the chemistry. I feel we need to get that going.”
Imig notes that Finley used the “C” word during the offseason. “I’m not blaming it on my offseason, but me and the QB didn’t have chemistry,” Finley said in June, after a minicamp practice. “The routes were off sometimes, and that’ll mess with your head when the ball comes. . . . I couldn’t get the chemistry with the QB.”
Imig also points out that, in August, Finley suggested that his numbers are a direct result of not being thrown the ball enough. “With my ability and what I think I can do, I’d say top two, that’s my goal,” Finley said. “Those guys [Rob Gronkowski and Jimmy Graham] did have that one hit this year when they were rolling and hot, and they had the chemistry going and their quarterback’s trust. . . . [Tom Brady and Drew Brees] threw them the ball 20 times a game. You get the ball 20 times and you catch 10 of them, you should be doing something.”
(Jermichael, if you get the ball 20 times and you catch only 10 of them, your butt will be on the bench, with someone who can catch more than half the passes thrown his way playing instead.)
In an apparent effort to build that chemistry with Rodgers, Finley clumsily threw a bouquet to Rogers on Wednesday, after Rodgers admitted he isn’t playing as well as last year. “I would say, first of all, that’s a leader taking the blame on himself,” Finley said. “That’s what you’re supposed to do as a player, like I would say it’s on me. So you’ve got to check yourself. I think that’s leadership.”
And that’s where Finley should have stopped.
“I think he’s playing good, but like I said, this is a team sport, and it’s going to take all 11 of us on the field when he’s on the field with us. I don’t put it all on him. It’s his receiving corps, we’re dropping balls; it’s his linemen not blocking for him. He’s got a lot to think about. I would be scared, too, if I was getting hit like that.”
So, yeah, Finley ultimately said Rodgers isn’t playing as well in part because Rodgers is scared.
And Finley wonders why he doesn’t have chemistry with Rodgers.