Green Bay Packers can’t blame Aaron Rodgers for everything

The media has pegged Aaron Rodgers as the problem in Green Bay, but that is just a smokescreen. The Green Bay Packers have major roster holes and can’t expect Rodgers to save them any longer.

The Green Bay Packers are in turmoil. They fired longtime head coach Mike McCarthy. They saw an exposé article released on Bleacher Report that eviscerated their locker room and the relationship between Aaron Rodgers and his superiors.

At the same time, they are seeing a reset of their talent that has become as ubiquitous with Green Bay as Rodgers. Jordy Nelson retired after playing in Oakland. Randall Cobb departed. Clay Matthews left. These aren’t the Packers of the 2010s anymore. New coach Matt LaFleur certainly has his work cut out for him. Green Bay must stop trying to blame Rodgers and distract us from the real problem. The team has too many holes to fill in one offseason.

Two brothers from New York, Dan Salem and Todd Salem, debate the Green Bay Packers in today’s NFL Sports Debate.

Todd Salem:

If the roster turnover and turmoil wasn’t bad enough, the Green Bay Packers haven’t been the kings of the NFC North for some time now. The Chicago Bears took the division by storm, and everyone expects some level of positive return to the mean for the Minnesota Vikings in 2019. The latter could be said of Green Bay as well, but there is much more work to do to get there.

While the offense remained potent, if uneven, last year, the defense dropped to terrible depths. It ranked 29th in the NFL in Football Outsiders’ DVOA. Special teams were also an area of major weakness. The return games, specifically, left the team trailing far behind the competition.

There are obviously a number of pieces still left to build around, though mostly on offense. The grouping of Rodgers, Aaron Jones and Davante Adams looks to be one of the best in the sport. If they avoid injuries, the two tackles are also among the very best in the league.

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The Packers will hope pass rush additions in free agency make up for the loss of Matthews, who wasn’t all that impactful last year anyway. He set career lows in sacks, tackles for loss and passes defended. And those hold true even when including his 2016 season where he started just nine games.

Every year, prior to every season, we say that this team will go as far as Rodgers can take them. We always criticized ownership for not supplying him with enough help. As the front office resets, that help seems to be dwindling rather than improving. That puts more pressure on Rodgers himself, but also on the coaching staff.

LaFleur is an offensive guy who may butt heads with Rodgers. Mike Pettine is the defensive coordinator who has an even taller task. Shawn Mennenga is the new special teams coordinator, who comes back to the NFL after a year in college, and his job could be the most challenging of all. If a starting roster is lean on talent, and the special teams were atrocious a season ago, we know this group is going to have all kinds of struggles.

The sheen is wearing off of Aaron Rodgers, not in terms of talent, but in a widespread belief that he can cover up other issues on the roster. No one rightly believes 16 games of Rodgers by himself is worth a playoff berth anymore.

Dan Salem:

Perhaps this is simply a case of “old age” finally showing itself for Rodgers and his Packers. Every player stops being as dominant as they once were at some point in their career. Only a special few manage to play through it and adapt, with a coaching staff that alters game plans to help the “old” player succeed, rather than continuing to do what is getting progressively worse with age. That is what hampered Rodgers and McCarthy, a refusal to alter course in the face of obvious adversity.

It’s unclear whether Rodgers refused to admit that age was taking its toll, injuries included, or if McCarthy refused to alter his coaching to adjust for an aging player. Perhaps both were true, but the only way that Green Bay is successful this season is if the new coaching staff and Rodgers do both.

LaFleur must protect Rodgers’ weaknesses as an aging veteran and Rodgers must admit he now has some. He cannot carry the Packers on his own any longer. Frankly, I’m amazed this is still a topic of conversation. No one can carry an NFL team on their own for more than a five year window. Something always intervenes.

There have been very few examples of when offense won a championship in the NFL. Defense wins in the end, even if offense can win enough games to get your team to the playoffs. This was the Green Bay Packers for many years: A great offense that got them into the playoffs, but a defense that fell short.

Last year was rock bottom and I’m not enthusiastic about their chances this season. Chicago and Minnesota have excellent defenses and complementary offenses. The Packers feel more like the Lions than either of their other two division rivals. Matthew Stafford is very good and he routinely wins several regular season games for his team, but he has never been enough to get Detroit anywhere near a championship.

Where does this leave Green Bay? Rodgers has several more seasons of top level play left in him, but this situation feels like deja vu, reminding me of the Brett Favre breakup all those years ago. At the time, the Packers had Rodgers waiting in the wings. As far as we know, there is no great quarterback learning behind Rodgers right now.

It’s painful to say, but acquiring assets for Rodgers and actually rebuilding might be the best course of action. If the defense isn’t at least league average, the 2019 Packers will not make the playoffs. No amount of Rodgers can win 10 games this season.