Aaron Rodgers has heard a fair share of criticism from former teammates recently, with Greg Jennings takings his shots through the Minneapolis Tribune and Donald Driver on "Mike and Mike.'
But former Packers defensive back Charles Woodson came to the quarterback's defense in an interview with ESPNWisconsin.com.
"I would say this: There's been times throughout my career there when defensively we put a piss-poor product on the field, and we've been in games and won ballgames solely on the arm of Aaron Rodgers and the legs of Aaron Rodgers and what he's been able to do throwing a ball to a Greg, a Donald, a Jermichael [Finley]," said Woodson, who was released by the Packers in the offseason and signed with the Oakland Raiders.
"A couple years ago, we were 15-1, and if we have any other quarterback other than Aaron Rodgers, we're 7-9.
"Aaron's job is a tough job. You've got a stud wide receiver in Greg Jennings — and make no mistake, Greg is a great wide receiver — but you have to keep him happy. You have Donald Driver, you have to keep him happy. You have Jermichael Finley, you have to keep him happy. You have running backs on the team, and you're trying to find where they can get carries and keep them happy. You have an offensive line, they don't just want to pass set all the time; they want to run downhill and run block, and you have to keep them happy. You have to keep James Jones, who wants to be on the field, you have to keep him happy. And we haven't even talked about a Jordy Nelson, or a young Randall Cobb. And who does all that fall on? It falls on the quarterback."
The knock on Rodgers is that he'd become tone deaf after becoming an MVP quarterback with a Super Bowl to his name. Jennings said the guy didn't listen enough, and Driver said Rodgers didn't like taking pressure off his receivers. Obviously Woodson has a different view on it.
An interesting point on this is, we never knew much at the time about what the relationships were like from that Green Bay Super Bowl run. Now we're getting some real insight, for better and worse.
