Frustrating practices vs. Saints has Aaron Rodgers criticizing his receivers
This may be a shocker, but the team that stunned Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers by a margin of 38-3 last year just spent a couple of days frustrating them again in practice. The New Orleans Saints defense is the real deal, and proof of that can be found in the criticism that Rodgers leveled on his receiving corps this week.
“The young guys, especially young receivers, we’ve got to be way more consistent,” Rodgers told ESPN’s Rob Demovsky after Tuesday’s joint practice session with the Saints. “A lot of drops, a lot of bad route decisions, running the wrong route. We’ve got to get better in that area.”
Green Bay moved on from Rodgers’ favorite receiver this offseason, trading Davante Adams to the Las Vegas Raiders, and they didn’t adequately replace him. Plenty of ink has been spilled about his lack of first-round help at receiver over the years, so it’s gratifying to see him, say, chatting up Chris Olave between drills all week. Surrounding an aging quarterback who talks like he’s already got a foot out the door with past-their-prime receivers like Sammy Watkins and Randall Cobb is certainly a choice.
Rodgers spoke “extensively” in an early-morning meeting before Wednesday’s second practice session, sharing input on what rookies like Romeo Doubs and Samori Toure can do better, and it led to a few nice moments like a long touchdown reception and an end-of-day two-point conversion. But Rodgers still struggled on the whole — he completed just two more passes on Wednesday than he did during Tuesday’s practice. NewOrleans.Football’s Nick Underhill charted the back-to-back league MVP with 26 completions against 54 pass attempts in team drills over two days. That’s a completion percentage of just 48.1%, well beneath his career rate of 65.3% and the impressive 68.9% and 70.7% numbers he posted the last two years.
Obviously these practices are not the same thing as a real game. Both teams are going to be scheming up differently and planning for each other as opposed to running basic plays and rotating starters in and out of the lineup. The stakes will be higher. But it’s really hard to not feel encouraged about this. Seeing all of the investments the Saints have made in their secondary pay off — big money deals with Marshon Lattimore, Tyrann Mathieu, and Marcus Maye, and premium draft picks spent on Paulson Adebo, Alontae Taylor, and C.J. Gardner-Johnson — is exciting. New Orleans is counting on its secondary to carry the defense this year, and while it’s early (it’s still August!), these results are exciting. Expectations are high as the regular season approaches.
List
Every game on the New Orleans Saints' 2022 schedule
