Last week, a couple of former Aaron Rodgers teammates seemed to be laying the foundation for the disgruntled quarterback to become re-gruntled at some point before the start of training camp. Now, a current Rodgers teammates addresses the situation in a way that seems far less than optimistic.
Receiver Davante Adams, appearing on the Peter King Podcast, addressed the Rodgers situation. And although Adams: (1) says he has spoken to Rodgers; and (2) says he can’t share what they discussed, Adams’ comments confirm that a very real problem exists -- and that it entails the very real possibility of Rodgers moving on.
“It’s been tough, man,” Adams told King. “I’ve obviously spoke to [Rodgers] a little bit. Can’t really share too much of what we talked about but it’s just something that part of the business is you’ve got to keep people happy. And it’s tough because you have so much time invested in one place and you’ve done so much for one place you just hope to see that respect reciprocated, I guess you could say. And when it doesn’t work out exactly how you want, you have issues like this. But we’re just being positive and I’m just sticking to my training, doing what I have to do to put myself in a position to be ready, whoever my quarterback is come season. Hoping and praying that it’s still Aaron, just so we can continue what we’ve had going this whole time. But, yeah, just going to continue working to see how it plays out.”
Although Adams didn’t share any of the specific things Rodgers said, Adams paints a fairly vivid picture of his quarterback’s mindset. Talking about the need to “keep people happy” means that Rodgers isn’t. Talking about seeing “respect reciprocated” means Rodgers believes it isn’t. Talking about “whoever my quarterback is” means there’s a good chance it won’t be Rodgers. Talking about “hoping and praying” Rodgers stays means he currently isn’t inclined to, and that Adams knows it.
King then asked Adams if he has a gut feeling on whether Rodgers will return to the Packers.
“I don’t, man,” Adams said. “Just trying to be positive, just keep my mind on it, I don’t even want to bring anything else into this universe. I just want to think good thoughts and kind of downplay it in my head and just hope that as some point it just goes back to normal and we show up to camp and everybody’s ready to rock.”
Talking about a hope that “it just goes back to normal” means that it’s anything but normal. Talking about “downplay[ing] it in my head” means that Adams knows in his heart that it could still end badly for Rodgers and the Packers.
Time will tell how it turns out. But in not officially sharing much of what Adams and Rodgers discussed, Adams said plenty. And that will make it even harder for Rodgers to show up at some point and chastise the media for making a big deal out of nothing.