Aaron Rodgers continues to provide unusual insights about the New York Jets
We all know about New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ polarizing personality. What is less talked about is the wealth of fascinating insights he provides in his press conferences.
After his first training camp presser, all anyone could talk about was his “excuses” for missing the Jets’ mandatory minicamp. His Egyptian cat shirt was an expert troll job to counter the haters. But no one paid much attention to the level of detail in his answers about coaching up Garrett Wilson and Malachi Corley.
Rodgers’ second training camp media session was much like his first. He provided a wealth of information about his thought process, his relationship with Garrett Wilson and many other Jets players, the accountability standards he sets, and many other topics.
Perhaps this will garner more attention without the distraction of his missing minicamp — although his responses about his animated conversations with Wilson may once again overshadow everything else.
On coaching up players and accountability
The buried highlight of the press conference was Rodgers’ comments about holding players accountable.
“I think I’m a little more tempered than I was when I was a younger player, fuse is a little bit longer. You can’t coach everybody the same way,” he said. “Certain guys you can get on them, certain guys you got to pull aside and talk to, certain guys want to have it out on the field, some guys will pull you aside in the locker room. Just depends on the guys. You’ve got to set a standard and hold guys accountable to that standard.”
Rodgers then went on to specifically address Joe Tippmann’s snapping issues.
“Joe Tippmann is a real easygoing guy who can take some hard coaching. If you watch [offensive line coach] Keith [Carter] and the way he gets after those guys, Joe always responds well to that,” Rodgers remarked. “He responds well to me, he still loves me, he hugs me before practice so we’re still on good terms. The snap thing, it’s something we’ve been working on, just need to be a little more consistent with it.”
Although reporters would need to ask Tippmann to corroborate Rodgers’ story, it seems like he’s calculated in how he approaches improvements for different players.
On playing in the preseason
You’d think Rodgers would give a short and sweet answer about playing in the preseason. Instead, he gave a detailed response about the general consensus on preseason games.
“There’s a lot of thoughts about whether there’s any particular gain from it. We used to play all the time, it wasn’t even a question,” Rodgers stated. “We’d play 10-15 [plays] in the first one, then a quarter-and-a-half in the second one, the end of the third quarter in the third one. Then sometimes, Tennessee would always play their guys… sometimes through the third quarter, we would play maybe a series or two.”
Conversely, “Now, nobody wants to play, they don’t want to play their guys, it’s different. To combat that, now we’re doing all these practices with other teams, we have three of those. I’m assuming those will be like our super heavy days, that’ll be like the preseason for us.”
Rodgers said he and Robert Saleh have not discussed playing in the preseason, but he’ll do whatever Saleh wants. If Saleh wants him to play against the Giants, he’ll look forward to it. But he added that it was “news to me” that he wouldn’t be playing in the first two preseason games.
Asked if his injury makes the decision different, though, Rodgers quickly replied, “No, I don’t think so. No, I don’t have any restrictions, I’m doing keepers, rollouts.”
On his Davante Adams comments
One reporter questioned Rodgers over his comments that he looks forward to playing with Davante Adams again.
Rodgers answered wryly, “I do love Davante for sure. That particular guy was a tad bit irritating, I have to say. It’s one of those things where it’s like, when somebody’s asking the same question over and over again, I was just trying to give him something and get rid of him. I think I was talking about golf.”
Rarely will you hear anyone be so blunt in their replies, NFL player or otherwise. Rodgers tells it like it is, sometimes to his detriment.
On Breece Hall
Rodgers’ take on Breece Hall was also enlightening. He asserted that Hall, as much as any of the 2022 draft picks, really owns the details of the game.
Rodgers praised Hall’s intelligence and instincts repeatedly. One particular observation stood out:
“I’m more impressed by a play in the walkthrough two nights ago where we’re running a brand-new play that got installed, and I make a check, and he immediately tells the right tackle the coaching point, it was like, ‘check-boom,’ I kind of gave him a look like, ‘man, that was sweet.'”
You won’t hear this kind of detail anywhere else.
There’s some irony in Rodgers’ comments about Hall, too. The quarterback said that when he first came to the Jets, the scouting report on Hall was that he was a physical runner who’s faster than he looks but is not necessarily a three-down back.
Rodgers continued, “But Breece is now a legitimate three-down back, which I think is as big a compliment as you can give a running back, especially as much as running backs have been disrespected in the past few years.”
Why the Jets’ scouting report on Hall was that he’s not a three-down back defies comprehension. He certainly showed that ability as a rookie, averaging 5.8 yards per carry, posting 2.00 yards per route run, and allowing just one pressure on 22 pass-blocking snaps.
This again begs the question of how the Jets scout their own players. Nathaniel Hackett already showed a startling lack of awareness when he said he wasn’t aware of how good Hall is out of the backfield until Week 8.
Rodgers lauded Hall for his abilities as a pass-catcher. “What he’s shown talent-wise out of the backfield is pretty impressive,” he asserted. “If you look at some of the plays we ran today, it says a lot when your bell-cow running back is No. 1 in the progression on red zone routes.”
He concluded, “His skill set speaks for itself, but the mental preparation is obviously matching the physical ability, which is when you can start to take off.”
On his conversations with Garrett Wilson
This is all anyone will want to talk about from Rodgers’ presser, but it confirms what was obvious from the outset. Much was made of the heated conversations between Rodgers and Garrett Wilson in two Jets training camp practices.
Garrett Wilson on the videos of him and Aaron Rodgers getting animated: “We’re both passionate guys … it’s just a conversation. We’re both like minded. We’re trying to figure out how to attack the defense.
Said he’s not worried about the perception on social media.
“We’re…
— Zack Rosenblatt (@ZackBlatt) July 31, 2024
Rodgers downplayed the idea that he and Wilson were angry at each other, calling it appearance vs. reality. He added of Wilson’s candidness with him, “The best ones have always done that.”
Overall, Rodgers has always provided a wealth of insight into the inner workings of his process and the team’s. It’s worth listening to his press conferences in full rather than relying on the truncated snippets posted on social media.
