Getty Micah Hyde #23 of the Buffalo Bills psyches himself for the game against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium on October 25, 2020 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
Aaron Rodgers name-dropped quite a few former Green Bay Packers players during his revelatory press conference on Wednesday, bringing to attention a handful of guys who he feels the organization wronged on their way out the door. And for at least one of them, hearing Rodgers defend his name in the public eye was simply “a blessing.”
Bills safety Micah Hyde was profusely appreciative of Rodgers while speaking with Buffalo media on Thursday after training-camp practice, telling reporters that his phone blew up earlier in the week after Rodgers mentioned him as one of the “exceptional players” who the Packers had mistakenly allowed to leave their team.
Hyde, a 2013 fifth-round pick for the Packers, started 33 games over his first four seasons in Green Bay and tallied a combined eight interceptions and 22 pass deflections in his final three years alone. When it came time for Hyde to hit free agency in 2017, though, the Packers neglected to even make him a contract offer and allowed him to sign a five-year, $30.5 million deal with the Bills, who saw him break out into Pro Bowl player almost immediately.
“To hear him say that, as a Hall of Fame player and one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time … after leaving that place, I remember him really reaching out to me and letting me know how frustrated he was,” Hyde said of Rodgers on Thursday. “I think his little presser (Wednesday) was a well-thought-out conversation that he had with the media, and I feel like he was speaking a lot of facts. But at the end of the day, hearing him say my name was a blessing. If a guy like that thinks that highly of myself, then I know I’m doing something right.”
While Rodgers mentioned plenty of names who the Packers would probably argue were not worth re-signing at the time, Hyde has never been one of them. The late Ted Thompson, the Packers’ general manager from 2005 until 2017 when he stepped down due to health issues, regretted in hindsight not being able to work out a new deal with Hyde and later even apologized for the mistake.
As for Hyde, there are no regrets about where his NFL career ended up.
“That was an amazing organization, a great place to spend my younger years, but I wouldn’t change Buffalo for the world,” Hyde said definitively.
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Rodgers Aims to Help Packers ‘Learn’ From Mistakes
Rodgers didn’t hold much back during his 32-minute interview with reporters following the Packers’ first day of training camp. He talked about his own situation and expectations for the future while also laying out what motivated him to put pressure on the Packers this offseason. While his reasons were multi-faceted, one key aspect that bothered Rodgers was the manner in which his former teammates — and, in many cases, his friends — were treated when it came to be decision time about their respective future.
“I also wanted to help the organization learn from some of the mistakes in the past about how some of the outgoing veterans were treated and just the fact that we didn’t retain a number of players who I felt were core players to our foundation, our locker room; high-characters guys,” Rodgers said. “I’m talking about Charles Woodson, Jordy Nelson, Julius Peppers, Clay Matthews, Randall Cobb, James Jones, John Kuhn, Brett Goode, TJ Lang, Bryan Bulaga, Casey Hayward, Micah Hyde — guys who were exceptional players for us but (also) great locker-room guys.”
Hyde Still Feels ‘Scar’ of Packers’ Rejection
Hyde is unquestionably happy to be in Buffalo now, especially after putting pen to paper on a two-year extension back in March that keeps him with the Bills secondary through the end of the 2023 season. Thinking back on his time with the Packers, however, reminds him of the scar it left when the team showed absolutely no interest in keeping him around past his rookie contract.
The Packers were so certain, in fact, that they would be moving on from Hyde in unrestricted free agency that they told him with six weeks remaining in the 2016 season to expect not to be re-signed once the year was over.
“It’s an amazing situation to be in,” Hyde said in March of signing his extension with the Bills. “Like you talked about with Green Bay — you know me. I mean, we have conversations all the time. I talk about how I’m so into this football stuff and trying to make my team better and all that. And then, after the four years I was in Green Bay, they said, ‘Ehh, you know, just go ahead and walk. We’re not going to offer you anything.’ It kind of left a scar, man. I’m not gonna lie, but I think it was a pivotal point in my career to where I really looked at myself in the mirror and said, ‘We’ve got to really change this thing and get better. I think with the opportunity I got in Buffalo, it just came hand in hand.”