Long-Time Packers Beat Writer Slams Aaron Rodgers for 'Playing it Safe'

This Packers journalist vented his spleen at Aaron Rodgers' expense.

Even if superstar quarterback Aaron Rodgers decides to returns in 2022 to polish off his Hall-of-Fame career in Green Bay, it’s pretty clear his marriage with the Packers is far from idyllic. In the high-profile world of professional sports, the early stages of divorce tends to find peripheral third parties venting pent-up frustrations.

As if to pile the pain on top of Rodgers's recent split from his ex-fiance Shailene Woodley, even some of the most familiar faces on the Packers beat are now taking aim at the four-time NFL MVP. Long-time Packers writer Bob McGinn of golongtd.com unexpectedly rounded on Rodgers, accusing the quarterback of making mistakes that would compromise his passing rating.

“Rodgers, for years, has played a careful calculating game understanding that number of interceptions plays a disproportionate, nonsensical role in the passing-rating formula,” McGinn said. “Bad interceptions are, well, bad. Then there are interceptions that are the cost of doing business for unselfish, competitive, stats-immune quarterbacks battling to make plays and lead comebacks until the bitter end. When a quarterback, especially one with a powerful, usually accurate arm like Rodgers, deliberately minimizes chances to deliver a big play for fear of an interception… that’s just hurting his team.”

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Meanwhile, Nathaniel Hackett and the Denver Broncos are circling the wagons, hoping for a sliver of daylight that might hint at Rodgers not only returning to the playing field in 2022 but forcing his way West to do so. 

Focusing on Rodgers' disdain for coughing up picks is the low-hanging fruit for any analyst, especially because every QB at any level invariably breaks out in a cold sweat at the mere mention of them. Such in-depth personal stinging criticism is unlikely to hit at the heart of Rodgers, who famously has an ego to match his stat-line, but it serves to illustrate the extent to which his bastion of support is slowly disintegrating in Green Bay.

It could be as simple as media types picking their side before the Rodgers-Packers split goes down in order to steel themselves against the incoming tidal wave of hurt feelings and recriminations. Pair that with a massively disappointing early playoff exit during which Rodgers failed to ignite his team, and the storm is brewing.

McGinn went further when he gave his specific opinion on where it all went wrong against the San Francisco 49ers in the Divisional Round.

“In the playoff game, a modest talent like Jimmy Garoppolo was under every bit as much pass-rush pressure as Rodgers but drilled more tight-window completions down the field largely because he wasn’t afraid of the pick and the moment.” McGinn insisted.

In any relationship which has lasted for multiple years, there tends to come a point when one side simply feels it is not appreciated anymore. Rodgers has always been fairly forthright when faced by dissenting journalists and fans, so just how a preserved slight might alter his future plans is anybody’s guess.

But, at the end of the day, after all that Rodgers has given the Packers for so long, he's very likely to feel undervalued, misrepresented, and perhaps ticked off, at the very least.

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Follow Keith on Twitter @KeithC_NFL.

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