Aaron Rodgers defends his recent criticism of young Packers receivers
Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was extremely frustrated at practice last week, called the effort from a group of young receivers at training camp “piss poor.”
Rodgers defended those comments on Monday, though not out of hate or anger toward the new receiving corps.
He said he’s simply trying to do what it takes to win.
“I hope we’re not that soft,” Rodgers said, via 247Sports. “I hope we can hear comments or read comments and not get offended by things. This is a professional environment, It’s not a personal environment. The things I’m saying, I don’t have some vendetta against any player. I care about winning No. 1. I’m going to say and do the things I feel like can advance us.
“It’s going to be tough at some point. It’s not a popularity contest all the time. Obviously as a human, you like being liked and appreciated, but I’m trying to win games because that’s my job.”
Rodgers initially called out most of the scout receivers by name, except for Geronimo Allison, Jake Kumerow and DeAngelo Yancey after the practice on Tuesday. Players in the card session — where each player sees his assignment on a card in the huddle before the play — were running plays against the first-team defense, and apparently weren’t running the right routes.
“It was one of the worst card sessions we’ve had,” Rodgers said last week. “I don’t know how you can make it any simpler. You literally have what the play would be in our terminology on the card, and the effort level was very low. Especially with what I’m accustomed to. I’ve been running that period for a number of years.
“So it’s not a good start for us on the card period for the young guys.”
And while some may not have appreciated his choice of words when speaking about the rough day at practice, Rodgers doesn’t care.
In his eyes, he’s done his job for the Packers well. He’s not going to change things up anytime soon.
“My job is to play quarterback,” Rodgers said, via 247Sports. “That’s what they’re paying me to do, and I feel like I’ve made them pretty happy. So I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing.”
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