PHOENIX -- Aaron Rodgers, he is not. And Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur did his best to remind everyone of that when it comes to Rodgers' replacement, Jordan Love.
Let the transition from Rodgers to Love begin, but LaFleur did so with toned-down expectations for the 2020 first-round pick, who has waited three years to get his shot.
"Certainly, I think we're fooling ourselves if we think he's going to go out there and perform at a level to the likes of an Aaron Rodgers," LaFleur said Tuesday at the NFL's annual meeting. "This guy is a once-in-a-lifetime generational talent, and I don't think it necessarily started that way when he first started. But he progressed into that.
"It's going to be a progression."
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I've read some people saying how can you be running a future Hall of Famer out the door if you don't have massively high expectations for the guy replacing him?!!
Aaron Rodgers told Aubrey Marcus that everyone thought he was done in 2019 and said "so did I", so pretty safe to conclude Aaron Rodgers thought he was done. Then Packers drafted his eventual replacement. Ron Wolf said you draft for QB before you need one, right? Many were saying the Packers should have told Rodgers about the drafting of Jordan Love before the pick was made. It's like people forgot we were in the middle of a pandemic at the time. Even with that said, a month or two earlier Brian Gutekunst said if they were was a QB they wanted in round one, they'd take him. I don't know the logistics of their zoom call or whatever they had going on, but I do think the QB coach or OC could have reached out to give Aaron Rodgers a heads up. Would that have made a difference? Probably not, but I do agree it would have been a courtesy that I do think Rodgers deserved.
Rodgers went on a helluva campaign of sorts to disparage the Packers as a franchise. He went on ESPN saying bunch of not nice things. He went unleashed during press conference. And recently Rodgers kept saying he didn't think Packers wanted him back.
TL;DR → Rodgers is wanting to leave Packers more than the Packers are wanting to oust Rodgers.
That out of the way, it's absolutely the right thing to say here. Brett Favre wasn't going to be reincarnated in Aaron Rodgers and we can't expect Jordan Love to be Aaron Rodgers. We have to give Jordan time to show us who he is. And after two Super Bowl wins, we'll all forget about that mucky 2023 off-season.