Michael Irvin. Blowhard. Former Dallas Cowboy. Loves to hear himself talk. In other words, there isn’t much to like about Michael Irvin. However… he made a good point today, which is probably the first time he’s done something of that nature.
He was asked if the balance of power has changed in the NFC North. He believes it has and the reason that it has shifted away from the Green Bay Packers is because of Aaron Rodgers.
Specifically, Aaron Rodgers and all of his greenbacks.
“When we were praising Aaron Rodgers when he was moving around and making plays and we said he was the No. 1 quarterback in the league, he really had some tools around him. Here’s what happens when we have to take money from everybody to make sure the quarterback has $100-something-million contract, now, we have to give you less players to work with, and you have to make it look good. That’s where they’re falling off.
“They lost Greg Jennings and James Jones. Now you have Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb. And people are doing things to try to take those guys out. Yes, the powers in that division have shifted and they’ve shifted to the team that Green Bay plays coming up this week.”
We’ve long said paying Rodgers — and to a lesser degree, Clay Matthews — so much would hurt the Packers’ ability to sign other guys.
You certainly could argue, on the surface, that it hasn’t had any affect. The Packers currently and seemingly always have cap room to work with.
Still, they were outbid by the (desperate) Minnesota Vikings for Jennings two summers ago and they didn’t even make a move on Jones, who they obviously sorely miss right now, this past summer.
The Packers really couldn’t afford the stupid money the Vikings gave Jennings ($9 million per) and probably let Jones walk because they wanted to extend Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb.
Now, if Rodgers made a little less every year, you’d have to think the Packers would do both of those extensions and would have kept either Jones or Jennings around as well.
Certainly, I think we can all agree that Rodgers looked a hell of a lot better when he had more top-tier receivers. Right now, he has one and he’s regressed to consistently trying to force the ball to that guy.
As we’ve seen, when the opposition takes Jordy Nelson away, the Packers are fucked.
This isn’t to suggest the Packers were wrong for paying Rodgers what they did. The market dictated that price. They didn’t really have a choice.
But does Rodgers look like a $100 million quarterback right now?
Sure as shit not.