Martellus Bennett: Aaron Rodgers has better arm, but Tom Brady easier to play with
Recently retired tight end Martellus Bennett, who played in the NFL for a decade, spent his final season as teammates with the two best quarterbacks currently playing: Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers.
During a Thursday appearance on Fox Sports Radio’s Doug Gottleib Show, Bennett compared the two.
‘Aaron can do pretty much anything with the ball’
In terms of pure ability, Bennett backed Rodgers. But for more intangible stuff, he went with Brady.
“I think that no one has more arm talent than Aaron,” Bennett said. “Aaron can do pretty much anything with the ball. I feel like Tom is really precise, easier to play with. I’d say [it was] easier to play with Tom than anybody else.”
Drafted by Dallas with the 61st overall pick in 2008, Bennett spent the first four seasons of his career with the Cowboys, then played for the Giants, Bears (where he was a Pro Bowler in 2014), Patriots and Packers. In all, he dealt with 11 different starting quarterbacks.
He signed a three-year free-agent deal with the Packers in 2017, but was cut just weeks into his first season there, with the team using the “failure to disclose injury” designation. He was inactive for one game due to a shoulder injury and then was released; Bennett said he had multiple doctors advise surgery and claimed that the Packers’ medical staff was forcing him to play.
The Patriots, with whom Bennett had played in 2016 and won a Super Bowl ring with, claimed him off waivers, but after two games he was shut down, placed on IR. The Packers filed a grievance against Bennett to try to recoup some of the bonus money they’d given him but lost.
Tom Brady ‘communicates the best’
Bennett explained why Brady is so easy to play with.
“He just makes the game easy, like what he expects, where he wants you to be, and where he’s putting the ball. It’s just repetition. He does so many repetitions with you, whether it’s mental reps, physical reps, or walk-through, he’s always letting you know,” he said. “He communicates the best of what he expects.
“The communication between him and the receiver is probably on the highest level of what you like to do, what he likes to throw. If he sees something, if you ask him to do something, he’ll try it, and he’s like, ‘Oh yeah, let’s go with that’.”
The 31-year-old also spoke highly of his time with New England.
“I had the most fun in my NFL career playing for the Patriots … because they didn’t worry about anything else but football,” Bennett said. “In some of the other workplaces, they worry about how you dress, what you look like, all this other stuff. You come to work to play football, the only thing coaches should be talking to you about is football. Everything else is ridiculous.”
New projects
Bennett has kept quite busy since retiring from the NFL. His multimedia company, The Imagination Agency (he calls himself Director of Awesomeness), allows him to develop lots of things that pique his interest. He has started a podcast, “Revenge of the Jocks,” writes a children’s book series, “The Fantastical Adventures of A.J.,” and produces animated stories.
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