It’s one thing for Aaron Rodgers to be criticized by idiots like me. It’s quite another for him to be criticized by a member of the exclusive club of Super Bowl MVPs.
Former Patriots receiver Julian Edelman, who has won exactly as many Super Bowl MVPs as Rodgers, called Rodgers out for skipping the Jets’ recent mandatory minicamp.
“I think it’s a bad look for your leader, for whatever reason, to go and miss [a mandatory minicamp],” Edelman told Colin Cowherd on Friday. “I was with Tom Brady in his 25th year or 23rd year, and he started missing OTAs here and there, but he never missed a mandatory minicamp. I just thought it was a bad look.”
The Jets regarded the absence as unexcused. That prompted some in the media to make it a big deal, and others in the media to make a big deal of the fact that others made it a big deal. Edelman brings a much different perspective, one rooted in the Patriot Way and Super Bowl wins.
“I’m a big Aaron Rodgers fan, but if I was in that locker room, and Aaron Rodgers wasn’t there for three days on the mandatory minicamp, having played four snaps off of an injury when we have two new receivers, a bunch of new linemen that we added to the team, with a CBA that doesn’t allow us to practice a lot, I guarantee there’s four or five guys — six, seven, eight, nine guys in that locker room — sitting there like, ‘Where’s he at?’” Edelman said.
If the Jets start the season strong, it will be forgotten. If they don’t, some will point to Rodgers skipping the mandatory minicamp.
“God forbid the New York Jets start 1-3 at the beginning of the season, which they start with the Niners, Tennessee, Patriots and someone else regardless [the Broncos],” Edelman said. “We all know the Patriots are no good, but that defense is still the same defense, and that’s who Aaron goes against. If they go 1-3, this is going to be such a big distraction for that locker room. Because everyone is going to be talking about it.”
While it will be difficult after training camp and the preseason to draw a line back to the middle of June if the Jets go 1-3 or worse to start the season, the Rodgers absence invites scrutiny as to whether he is truly committed to the 2024 Jets. (Remember, he actually considered quitting as QB of the NYJ to run for VP of the USA.)
It’s fair to argue that, if he were truly committed to the 2024 Jets, he wouldn’t have missed the mandatory minicamp.
And that’s not just a moron like me saying it. A Super Bowl MVP said it, too.