Getty Jordan Love #10 and Aaron Rodgers #12 of the Green Bay Packers work out during training camp at Ray Nitschke Field on July 29, 2021 in Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin.
Aaron Rodgers spent a majority of the past offseason thinking about his future with the Green Bay Packers, even contemplating whether he wanted to return at all in 2021. Through it all, though, the reigning NFL MVP never kept Jordan Love in the dark about his thought processes.
As Rodgers explained during his post-practice interview on Wednesday, he and his presumptive replacement stayed in touch during the offseason months while Rodgers was busy weighing his options about returning to Green Bay. Love, meanwhile, was preparing like the Packers’ starting quarterback and taking first-team reps through their entire offseason program, including mandatory minicamp in early June.
Rodgers himself had spent a couple of summers in his young career standing in as Green Bay’s top quarterback only to have Brett Favre — who numerous times considered retirement — return and take the reins once again. Not only did those experiences change him as a player and person, but they also regularly reminded him to consider Love’s place in everything ahead of 2021.
Here’s what Rodgers told reporters on Wednesday:
How can you not be changed by those experiences? That definitely shaped the direction of my career, I think both professionally and personally. I think that was an important time of growth for me, so I definitely harkened back to that summer various times this year and thought about putting myself in (Love’s) shoes: What’s he got to be feeling? What are his emotions? How is this for him? And then I just reached out. I reached out a number of times (to) check on him (and) see how he’s doing.
I didn’t hold things from him. I let him know where I was at mentally and what I was thinking about. And hopefully, he appreciated that. I just felt that’s what I would want in that situation, just to hear from the guy. And also, there’s a love and an appreciation and a friendship there, just like it was with me and Brett. So I wanted to make sure I checked in with him and let him know I was thinking about him. That was important for me, and that’s not going to change. I have a lot of respect and love for Jordan and I understand it’s gotta be tough what he went through. I went through it two years in the offseason. Going into ’06 and ’07, I was the guy the entire offseason, going through quarterback school and going through most of the OTAs, taking all the reps. And then here comes Farvey coming back and obviously I’m back on the bench. So thankfully, I went through that and I can understand a little bit about what he’s going through, so I just tried to keep that in mind the whole time.
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Rodgers Chatting With Packers GM at Practice
Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst has said a number of times he would like to improve communication between him and the organization’s star quarterback, even if they still don’t quite see eye-to-eye on everything. He has publicly lamented his mistake of not looping in Rodgers about their decision to trade up and draft Love at No. 26 overall in 2020. He traded for one of Rodgers’ buddies, veteran wide receiver Randall Cobb, in hopes of making him happier.
Now, Gutekunst is even making his way out to practice for on-field chats with Rodgers as he did during Wednesday’s session. But as with any relationship, Rodgers recognizes improvement isn’t going to happen overnight and takes dedication from both sides.
Aaron Rodgers and GM Brian Gutekunst chatting during practice. Tell me what they are talking about. Wrong answers only.
“I think it’s a work-in-progress,” Rodgers said of his talk with Gutekunst and their relationship. “Relationships aren’t formed in a matter of a couple of days. There’s time where the respect grows and the communication follows. I think the greatest relationships you have with your friends and loved ones involve conversations that flow. You can not talk to a close friend for a few months and pick up right where you left off. There’s no break in communication, there’s no forced conversations or you’ve gotta hit this person up because it’s on your to-do list today. It’s all about wanting to those conversations and wanting to be in conversation like that. We’ve had a couple of conversations, they’ve been positive conversations.”