Aaron Rodgers doesn't realize how good he had it in Green Bay. He'll soon find out with Jets.
Aaron Rodgers no doubt thinks he won.
He was traded to his team of choice, the New York Jets, on Monday, allowing him to continue playing and prove Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst and all his other doubters wrong. Because the Jets have been so sorry the last decade – let’s be honest, much of the four decades prior to it, too – any success will be cause for celebration.
Even Rodgers’ eccentricities will be embraced, his conspiracy theories and willful ignorance excused as quirkiness.
Initially.
But the first game Rodgers throws multiple interceptions, blames his receivers or offensive line for a mistake that was clearly his, or makes a snide comment he thinks is too clever for the masses to get, he’ll learn very quickly that he’s lost his Packers security blanket.
His relationship with the Jets, and their fans, is transactional. They expect the four-time MVP to make them contenders in the AFC East and beyond, and if he can’t deliver – at 39, it’s really more of a when – they will turn on him in a way Rodgers can’t even fathom after spending his entire career in the cocoon that is Green Bay.
He won’t be given the deference he was in Green Bay when it comes to the coaching staff and the roster. There’ll be little tolerance for throwing other people under the bus. He won’t have the unconditional affection of fans with whom he’s bonded through 18 years of shared experiences.
Rodgers will be just another quarterback bust, one that cost the Jets dearly, at that, and fans and the New York media will respond with their trademark nastiness and snark.
And Rodgers, who is as thin-skinned and passive-aggressive as they come, won’t have a clue how to deal with it.
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Oh, he’ll think he can control the narrative. But what he's too arrogant to realize is that the Packers allowed him to call the shots because of the goodwill he’d built up over two wildly successful decades in Green Bay, and he doesn’t have that same history in New York. Nowhere close.
Rodgers has convinced himself the Green Bay organization gave up on him, that Gutekunst and team president Mark Murphy didn’t show the proper appreciation for all Rodgers has done for the franchise. Why, they even had the audacity to draft his replacement!
He conveniently overlooks the fact Gutekunst and his staff went out of their way these last few years to cater to Rodgers’ whims and wishes. They brought back one of his closest friends, Randall Cobb, and one of his favorite coaches, Tom Clements, in hopes of keeping the peace with Rodgers. They gave him the space to decide his future even when the timing didn’t work in their favor.
The coaching staff covered for Rodgers when he screwed up. The entire franchise and its fanbase had his back even when his dangerous denials about COVID-19 and the vaccines for it jeopardized the entire team.
And bringing in his replacement? Like it or not, the NFL is a business. Rodgers couldn’t really expect the Packers to sit idly by, waiting for the late 30-something's skills to decline. Teams that don’t have a succession plan for their most important position are doomed to mediocrity. Or worse.
If the Packers had any doubts about that, all they had to do was look down I-94.
Rodgers had a dream existence in Green Bay, adored by fans and accommodated by the front office and the coaching staff. He gave them plenty in return -- even if there's an argument to be made it should have been more than one Super Bowl title -- but he was privileged in a way few star athletes are these days.
Rodgers' greatest flaw is that he's certain he knows best and the Packers, by and large, went along with it. That won't be the case in New York, and only then will Rodgers realize just how good he had it in Green Bay.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Aaron Rodgers had dream job with Packers, was too aggrieved to see it
