When the Packers were scuffling early in the 2014 season, quarterback Aaron Rodgers said that everyone should R-E-L-A-X because the team would find its way.
That’s not the message from Rodgers anymore. His team was crushed by the Titans on Sunday for their third straight loss and fourth loss in the last five games, leaving them with a 4-5 record and Rodgers with the opposite opinion from the one he expressed a couple of years ago.
“There has to be that healthy fear as a player that if you don’t do your job they’ll get rid of you,” Rodgers said, via Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “I think we’ve all got to go back and the urgency’s got to pick up, the focus has got to pick up … we’ve all got to play better, and that starts with me.”
Rodgers’ job is almost certainly safe even if the Packers should fail to make their way back to the playoffs, but plenty of other people will be on the line if the team continues to put up such disappointing performances. That group could include coach Mike McCarthy and General Manager Ted Thompson because a failure to reach high standards has consequences even for a franchise that prizes stability the way the Packers have over the years.