Poor Aaron Rodgers. The New York Jets quarterback is apparently struggling with his head coach. And the Broncos seemed to beat Rodgers up quite a bit Sunday. And now he’s on blast by Shannon Sharpe, who sent a warning with an Antonio Brown comparison. Ouch.
Sharpe said the NFL means Not For Long for a reason, according to his comments on Nightcap’s YouTube page.
“It happens to everybody, they’ll tolerate you until they can replace you,” Sharpe said.
Is Jets QB Aaron Rodgers frustrated?
Sharpe referred Rodgers’ disagreeingment with head coach Robert Saleh about Jets’ penalties. Saleh said some of the blame goes to Rodgers because his cadence is too difficult for the offensive line. The Jets had five false-start penatlies in the 10-9 loss to the Broncos.
Jets running back Breece Hall and left guard John Simpson each picked up two while Tyron Smith jumped early for the fifth penalty. Saleh said the issue needs to be addressed, according to yahoo.com.
“We gotta figure it out, whether or not we’re good enough or ready to handle all of the cadence,” Saleh said. “Cadence had not been an issue all camp. Felt like our operation had been operating pretty good. Obviously, today took a major step back.”
Rodgers fired back with, “That's one way to do it. The other way is to hold them accountable. I mean, we haven't had an issue. We've had one false start. Morgan (Moses) had one false start, I believe, until this. It’s been a weapon. We use it every day in practice. We rarely have a false start. And to have five today. Yeah, it seems like an outlier. I don’t know if we need to make mass changes based on kind of an outlier game.”
How did Antonio Brown get into this mix?
The comparison by Sharpe to Brown refers to the diva nature that caused Brown to alienate himself from teams. And it doesn’t even have to be that dramatic, Sharpe said.
“Did you not see what happened to the quarterback in Green Bay before Aaron Rodgers?” Sharpe said. “Did you not see what happened to Aaron Rodgers? They will tolerate you. Go back and look at (Antonio Brown’s) situation in Pittsburgh. They will tolerate you until they can replace you, and once they replace you, they’re done.”
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Another problem with this narrative is the controversy-hungry New York Jets media. If they sense a rift between Rodgers and Saleh, they won’t hesitate to pounce. And it could last all season.
Perhaps fortunately, the Jets head coach appeared to back away from the direct nature of his comments.
“We're always going to push the envelope with cadence,” Saleh said. “Always. But with regards to operation, getting in and out of the huddle, getting to the line of scrimmage, the communication that's being had, those are all things that we can continue to look at and clean up.”
Still, the issue bears watching. Sharpe said Rodgers seems to operate as if he’s the superior to the head coach.
“When has Rodgers ever been on the same page?” Sharpe said. “He marches to the beat of his own drum, you know that. He’s always done it. See that’s what happens when you’re great like that. You’ve won MVP’s. You got a Super Bowl ain’t nobody going to say anything.”
