Jordan Love and Aaron Rodgers as Green Bay Packers teammates. Sep 12, 2021; Jacksonville, Florida, USA; Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (12) speaks with quarterback Jordan Love (10) during the game against the New Orleans Saints at TIAA Bank Field. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

It’s been an interesting start to the season for Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers. Following an offseason that included tons of drama and lots of internal strife that went public, the hope was that cooler heads would prevail and the team would start the season strong to put those issues behind that.

That was not the case in Week 1 as the Packers got completely throttled by the New Orleans Saints, 38-3. Afterward, Rodgers tried to calm concerns about the season going off the rails after one week, but there are certainly a lot of eyes on Green Bay’s Monday night contest against the Detroit Lions to see if they’ve righted the ship. If not, the drumbeat about what’s wrong in Green Bay is only going to get louder.

In the meantime, lots of people have opinions about what’s wrong with Aaron Rodgers. Former teammate Jermichael Finley had no problem saying that Rodgers’ work ethic seems to be lacking. Now, The Athletic’s Mike Sando spoke with anonymous NFL executives about the state of the NFL and one of them had some pretty strong words about what’s going wrong for Rodgers.

“Think about what Rodgers spends his time in the offseason doing,” the exec said. “Parties at the Kentucky Derby, floating stuff to the media via his agent, sending subliminal messages through the (Pat) McAfee podcast, working on his Zen mindfulness and retirement plan, creating State Farm commercials, and hosting Jeopardy. The way he looked last Sunday, that looked like a product of all those efforts. Compare that to Brady, who spends all spring texting teammates to make sure they all show up on time for voluntary workouts.”

That’s some harsh feedback for Rodgers, who may or may not even be the biggest problem for the Packers right now. It also feels like a very strong “Football Guy” response to the situation, comparing Brady and his perceived work ethic to the assumption that Rodgers doesn’t have a good one because he also did non-football-related activities in the offseason.

Also, not really sure how “working on his Zen mindfulness” would end up hurting him. Clearly, it’s something that works for Kyler Murray, so why not Aaron? That just feels like a textbook “Football Guy” idea and not something to take seriously. It almost sounds like the kind of frustrated ideas that you might think a Green Bay Packers executive has been dying to say, but perhaps that’s wishful thinking from a conspiracy theory perspective.

Still, perception is the reality in the NFL and if the Packers continue to struggle, the spotlight on Rodgers is only going to get brighter. And if personally struggles, a lot of people are probably going to blame what happened in the offseason for it, right or wrong.

[The Athletic]

About Sean Keeley

Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Editorial Strategy Director for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.