This week, New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers made an in-person appearance for his weekly chat on The Pat McAfee Show. One of the many topics that the former Green Bay Packers passer discussed was the green and gold’s new signal-caller, Jordan Love, who has been red hot over the last five or so weeks.
“As well as he’s playing, can we not crown him right now,” said Rodgers. “For his own sake, because we shouldn’t do that to kids. We shouldn’t crown them and we shouldn’t cancel them.”
It’s hard not to think that Rodgers is talking to both Packers fans and Jets fans at the same time with that statement. New York, famously, is dealing with their own set of expectations at the quarterback position. Former second-overall pick Zach Wilson, whom Rodgers has said he’s a big fan of several times, has gone from starter to backup to starter to inactive and to back to starter over the last calendar year.
“I love Jordan. I think he’s going to be a great player in the league for a long time,” Rodgers continued. “Am I surprised by the way Jordan’s played? No. Am I happy for him? Hell yeah.”
I understand what Rodgers is doing here, trying to tamper down expectations for Love so he doesn’t have to ride the rollercoaster ride of NFL narratives, but it is also funny to in one sentence say that we shouldn’t crown players so early and in the next mention that Love will be a “great player in the league for a long time.”
Rodgers also brought up that he is rooting not only for Love but also for his former team while he’s been rehabbing his Achilles tear. “There’s some people that are probably like this, some people probably thinking that I was rooting against the Packers this year or rooting against Jordan. Couldn’t be further from the truth. I’m not a bitter person about that.”
