GREEN BAY — Another of Aaron Rodgers' former wide receivers has voiced his opinion on the Green Bay Packers quarterback.
And like Greg Jennings, Donald Driver, the franchise's all-time leading receiver, wasn't exactly complimentary of Rodgers.
Appearing on ESPN Radio's Mike & Mike on Thursday morning, Driver was asked about what Jennings, now with the Minnesota Vikings this offseason, meant when he said Rodgers wasn't holding himself accountable.
"We've always said that the quarterback is the one that needs to take the pressure off everyone else. If a guy runs the wrong route, it's easy for the quarterback to say, 'Hey, I told him to run that route' than for the guy to be like, 'Well, I ran the wrong route,'" Driver said. "Sometimes you ask Aaron to take the pressure off the guys so we won't look bad, but he didn't want to do that. He felt like if you did something bad, you do it. But I think that's the difference. You want that leadership, and I think sometimes you may not feel like you got it. You have to earn that respect at the end of the day, and I think that's what Greg was probably referring to."
As for Jennings' relationship with Rodgers, Driver said: "No one knows exactly what happened between those two. I didn't see anything during the season; I didn't see anything after the season. But you just never know, you never know what types of things happen between them."
Driver, who retired after the 2012 season in which he caught just eight passes for 77 yards and played only 153 snaps, also said that he has no plans of playing again.
Driver was also asked if Rodgers is a nice guy.
"He's a nice guy. I think that's what you have to respect," Driver replied. "I played with him five years so I was able to experience everything he went through. I saw when he first got drafted, he came in with a chip on his shoulder in that draft, and it shouldn't have been Alex Smith [taken No. 1 overall]. That's the way the guy is. I've always told Aaron, 'Don't forget where you come from because the people are the ones who put you on that pedestal. You didn't put yourself there.' I think that's what we learning now. I'm not saying he's a bad guy, I think Aaron's a great guy. I'm friends with Aaron."
Roughly around the same time Driver was speaking on ESPN Radio, Sports Illustrated's Peter King posted an interview with Rodgers on his new website theMMQB.com . The initial lead quote was this: "I've gotten to learn what's important in life and what's not important, and what to spend energy on and what not to. I don't have a family like some of my teammates, but I have a lot of things pulling at me that I have to put my energy into. I love my charity work. I love my privacy. I love my offseason. I don't have time to really worry or think about things that are just negatively based and negatively energized. They're draining. It's just not what I want to do. So, instead I try to focus on things that are uplifting and give me energy and give me life."
Asked about Jennings specifically by King, Rodgers said: "People taking shots at me who aren't relevant to this team and to this locker room doesn't mean a whole lot to me. Those comments do wash over with me without a reaction, because they don't matter."
Jason Wilde wrote: