The Jake Kumerow-Rodgers Story Needs More Context
In the latest news around Aaron Rodgers, a story was brought up about how Aaron Rodgers did not like Green Bay cutting Jake Kumerow. Rodgers spoke highly of Kumerow after a Training Camp practice only to have Kumerow cut the next day. At first, I reacted like many of you probably did ‘ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?! We are concerned about an undrafted nobody who had his own limitations.’ Then I fired into one of my group chats and my buddy Eric pointed out that Rodgers probably got annoyed that he looked like an asshole after Kumerow was cut. This is entirely fair. And this likely one of the many little things that are bothering Aaron Rodgers. Here’s the clip from the NFL Network.
From NFL Now: Summing up the #Packers situation with QB Aaron Rodgers, who also wanted more input in personnel decisions… and how the Jake Kumerow release (!!) played into it. pic.twitter.com/EOGG9aQg3R
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) May 3, 2021
If you missed it on the podcast yesterday, I talked about how Brian Gutekunst isn’t a people person. That is not in his DNA. Because he used to be a scout, there was not a ton of time interacting with players and people around the organization. Gutekunst probably thought nothing of cutting Kumerow as it was a smart roster decision. He needed Malik Taylor on special teams and didn’t think Kumerow could fill the same roles as him.
Here’s my one question the personnel stuff with Rodgers, would he understand? Would he be aligned with what the organization wanted to do? If they told him ‘Hey we’re cutting Kumerow and keeping Taylor’ would he have been down with that? Like I get informing him to not make him look silly in a press conference but Rodgers seems like the type to push back. If he knew everything, wouldn’t it make it harder to navigate these kinds of problems? Some of the lack of communication with Rodgers likely happened because the Packers didn’t want to deal with explaining everything to him.
But at the end of the day, he’s your star quarterback. This isn’t 2001 anymore. They rule the world and the NFL is feeling that more than ever before.
Charlie.