After Hype, Amari Rodgers Played Zero Snaps

Amari Rodgers generated a lot of buzz during the offseason and training camp. On Sunday, he was stuck on the bench, as was the case for most of his rookie season.

Bill Huber | Sep 14, 2022

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Green Bay Packers

GREEN BAY, Wis. – In June, Amari Rodgers spoke of his leaner and meaner body, and the confidence to put it to use during his second season with the Green Bay Packers.

In August, general manager Brian Gutekunst predicted Rodgers’ “real talent’s going to start to show.”

On Sunday, in the Packers’ season-opening loss to the Minnesota Vikings, Rodgers didn’t play a single snap on offense.

Ultimately, actions speak louder than words. Unless they’re these words.

“Yeah, he’s returning [kicks] for us now. That’s all I got on it,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said on Wednesday.

Last year, Amari Rodgers’ chances of contributing as a rookie died the moment the Packers acquired Randall Cobb at the urging of Aaron Rodgers at the start of training camp. Amari Rodgers wound up catching four passes for 45 yards and played more than five offensive snaps in only six games. After some adventures simply catching punts, Cobb even replaced him in that phase at one point.

Rodgers admitted it all took a toll on his confidence. By going from 218 pounds to 202 pounds thanks to workouts with an Olympic gold medalist and with a year of NFL experience, that confidence had returned.

“I’m definitely Amari Rodgers now,” Rodgers said in June. “I was probably Amari Rodg last year or Amari Rodger, for sure.”

In the 2021 draft, Gutekunst traded third- and fourth-round picks to move up to select Rodgers in the middle of Round 3. It broke the team’s long-standing history of not drafting short receivers. Short, not small, Gutekunst said at the time.

Entering this season, Gutekunst was excited to see Rodgers take a big Year 2 step.

“He did a great job this offseason getting into a different kind of shape,” Gutekunst said in August. “I never thought he was not in shape, but he had more weight on him last year. With Amari, I just think it’s opportunity. The more opportunities he gets, the more you’re going to see him come out of his shell and really produce. Like a lot of these guys, the more comfortable they are in the offense and they get in their comfort zone, the more their real talent’s going to start to show.”

New weight. Fresh start. High expectations.

So far, it’s a lot of empty words. For Sunday’s game at the Vikings, with Allen Lazard inactive with an ankle injury, the Packers elevated Juwann Winfree from the practice squad. Even with the passing game sputtering, coach Matt LaFleur leaned on veterans Cobb and Sammy Watkins and rookies Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs.

Rodgers, meanwhile, played 11 snaps on special teams. He didn’t get any action on offense – not at receiver and not at running back, where he worked a bit during camp and broke off a few nice runs in the preseason.

LaFleur on Wednesday said Rodgers’ role would vary from “week to week.”

“When he gets those opportunities,” he said, “he’s going to have to maximize them in order to get more.”

It’s too soon to give up on Rodgers and to deem him the latest in a long line of third-round picks who’ve ranged from OK (Josiah Deguara in 2020, Kyler Fackrell in 2016 and Ty Montgomery in 2015) to bad (Jace Sternberger in 2019, Oren Burks in 2018, Montravius Adams in 2017 and Khyri Thornton in 2014). In fact, the Packers haven’t hit it with a third-round pick since Morgan Burnett in 2010.

Who knows, maybe Amari Rodgers will seize his opportunity whenever it comes.

“I’ve always felt middle of Year 2, end of Year 3, is when you see most players get to that point where they really know what they’re doing and they’re not thinking anymore, they just let their talents show,” Gutekunst said in continuing his answer on Rodgers.

“Some guys get it faster, and that’s great, but I think that’s usually the norm. As they go and they grow, when they really get that down and they do hit that, as an evaluator you kind of see it and then you know that they’re there and off they go.”

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.

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