Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - ESPN Wisconsin's Jason Wilde has a LOT of questions about this year's Packers team

Episode Date: September 10, 2022

ESPN Wisconsin's Jason Wilde joins the show to talk about what's going on with Aaron Rodgers and why he thinks the Green Bay Packers are facing the most uncertainty they've had in a long time. Should we believe Rodgers can be the same without Davante Adams? Is Green Bay's defense a house of cards? Will the Packers take time to get things together, meaning a rough start on Sunday afternoon? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm welcome into the show, a legend really on this show, I think. Jason Wilde, ESPN Wisconsin, along with wherever he's writing, Wisconsin Journal of Something, The Athletic, who knows. What's going on, Jason? How are you? Well, after an introduction like that, first of all, I was expecting you to announce that it was Judd Zolgat or something when you said a legend, or Patrick Royce, but you'll have to settle for me because it's Packers week. I think, yeah, I was going to say, I think the name Jason Wildey equals legend on this show. Um, not to the level of, of a Zolgad that's, that's totally next level, but, uh, whenever it's Packers week, you and I have to get together. And you know what I was thinking about earlier, uh, when we were texting about when we're going to record and all that stuff was like every episode we do together leading into Vikings Packers kind of comes down to, yo, what's up with Rogers? So why don't you answer that to start us off? Yo, what's up with Rogers? The the ayahuasca journey and the punch of karma cleanse and spending three hours with Aubrey Marcus, which I don't have that much time for you or three hours with Joe Rogan.

You know, that stuff has gotten a lot of attention. And, you know, he's still apparently he needed to take what he would consider a victory lap about COVID and all that stuff. But to me, this may be the most fascinating season that we have had with him as the quarterback, perhaps since he took over and we had the summer of Favre and later him ending up with the Vikings and the two of them going head-to-head. Like, you know, for all the other stuff that's happened, including the Super Bowl season, including the meltdown in Seattle when they should have gone to another Super Bowl,

including last year's off-season of discontent, this year where they trade Devontae Adams, they have all these young wide receivers that are – Rodgers doesn't really want them to play. They're going to have to play them. They've got young interior offensive linemen. They're going to rely on the run and their defense, which may be overhyped. We'll have to wait and see how it goes on Sunday.

I'm just so fascinated. I had a sit-down with Matt LaFleur last week, and he flat-out admitted that this is the most uncertainty that he's had with a team. And I know it's only year four with him, but I think there's actually more uncertainty than there was when he took over as the head coach in 2019 so i i just think i don't know if there's been a season and this is

year 27 for me uh since i started when i was 13 that i i don't know if i've ever gone into a season where i've been more intrigued and fascinated as to what this football team will actually ultimately be. Okay. So, so I I'm going to need follow-ups here. Uh, why is that? Is it just because of Devante Adams? I mean, I pretty important piece. I was looking back at the 2020 opener and Fred forgotten that he had 14 catches on that day, but I guess that's not completely unusual for Rodgers and Devante Adams but like is it other stuff beyond just hey will Devante Adams be able to bail them out every time they don't have a great defensive performance or don't run the ball well or Rodgers gets pressured or whatever else it's just always the answer is Devante Adams and now that that's not there

things are significantly different like is that the main reason? Well, I think it's one of the main reasons, but I think there's plenty more to it. And I think, you know, at the top of the list is Adams. Then they did allow Marquez Valdez Scantling to depart free agency as well, who I mean, he is not Randy Moss, but he was a take-the-top-off-the-defense-experienced guy. A little inconsistent, but certainly not as inconsistent as, say, a Christian Watson surely is going to be as a rookie. Rodgers has been, I don't want to say anti-rookie, but I'm not sure how else to describe it, historically. And while there have been all these great receivers that have come through green bay going back to greg jennings and then uh james jones and then jordy nelson and then randall cobb and then davante adams they all have something in common they all came to the packers

and were rookies when there were established number one receivers or even number one and number two receivers already on the roster. And that is certainly not the case here. So, you know, Alan Lazard, who is their nominal number one wide receiver, who is listed as doubtful but is not going to play against the Vikings on Sunday. I mean, he is not a number one NFL wide receiver. Aaron Rodgers can say he is repeatedly but the Packers don't even want him to be their number one receiver they want you know Romeo Dobbs and Christian Watson to mature but Rodgers doesn't like uncertainty we hear about his

legendary demands on the specifics and the details of routes and everything else, those guys aren't going to have that. And he's going to get frustrated. And he's probably going to throw more interceptions than he's accustomed to because a guy's going to have an 18-yard route, and he's going to run it at 16, or he's going to run it at 18 but turn the wrong way, or he's going to run it at 20. He's going to get a pick. And so that's the starting point.

But their two best offensive linemen are both coming off of acls we know that the david bakhtiari saga elton jenkins is coming off of one as well they've got two really good running backs but are they really going to be a take the air out of the ball run the ball 40 times in a game team with Aaron Rodgers at quarterback? I'm not sure about that. They've got a bunch of young interior offensive linemen, which Vikings fans know that there are growing pains for internal, you know, interior young offensive linemen.

So they've got what appears to be a terrific defense. But, again, is it going to be – we've heard about good defenses in Green Bay before, and they usually disappoint. Will that be different? I just think it's a year where, on top of all that personnel-wise, they also have to fix god-awful special teams. And they lost their offensive coordinator and their quarterbacks coach slash pass game coordinator

off of their offensive staff to other jobs nathaniel hackett's the head coach in denver luke gets he's now the offensive play caller and coordinator in chicago so now on top of all the other seat change matt lafleur's lost his two right hand men and so it is going to be uh a year of growth and we'll see if they can be good at the end of the season but i i'm still flabbergasted matt lafleur i don't know how much he's used this with his team but his line to me last thursday when we sat down together was uh no expectations means no limitations that That's weird. Is that not weird? That's a little weird.

That's not the same as Super Bowl or bust, if you ask me. No, yeah, what? Yeah, okay. I can't say, and I've heard a lot of football cliches in my day. I haven't been doing it quite as long as you, but I've heard a lot of football cliches. I have never heard that one. Like in Titletown, there's never no expectations.

The expectation is to go to the Super Bowl or you had a horrible season there. If it ends with a blocked punt against the San Francisco 49ers in a game where Aaron Rodgers can't find his receivers and you get beaten by a totally broken Jimmy Garoppolo, that is a fail. Even if you have Garoppolo that is a fail even if you have 13 wins that is a strange way to frame a season is that is that like just hedging sort of sounds like hedging I think I if if Matt LaFleur is being honest I think he's looking at his team saying all right we're gonna try and ride our defense if it's as good as I'm hoping it is. And we're going to ride our running backs if they're as capable of carrying the load as he's hoping they are.

And we're going to have a lot of growing pains. And we're going to lose a bunch of games during the first two-thirds of the season. And then I think his hope is, hey, gonna get it figured out we've got a buy with four games left in the season we're gonna take that bye week and then we're gonna come back and we're gonna run the table and we're gonna be the team that nobody wants to face in the postseason so i don't know if that's how it'll play out i know this i remember the 2005 team they had uh as many vikings fans recall a thoroughly disappointing playoff loss to the fake mooning randy moss led vikings yeah and they they returned with brett farvin 05 and a bunch of guys back that you thought, well, there's still a playoff

team. And I'm not saying this is 2005 all over again, but I do a daily radio show with Mark Tauscher, who was the right tackle on that team. And that team went four and 12 and Brett Favre. I got into a big argument with him in the locker room. He was bitching out guys on the field, which he was very rarely doing most of his career. I mean, we had a conversation toward the end of the year where I said, you seem to me like a guy who is lost driving around. He doesn't have a map. He doesn't have GPS. The sky is cloudy.

You can't even use the stars to guide you. He had no idea he just had never experienced the season like that yeah and that's exactly what it was and i'm not saying that's what's going to happen this year but it could well you just got a lot of vikings fans really excited man i did not necessarily expect that yeah Yeah. I was going to say, I didn't necessarily expect that. Although you made me feel better about my Vikings pick for Sunday, because you know, when you pick the Vikings against the Packers, you always go like Rogers. But now, now, I mean,

that's the thing though, right? Like I get that Brett Favre may not in that year have been able to paint over all the deficiencies. But in the year 2022 of our football lords, quarterbacks can do anything, right? Like, the quarterback is even more valuable. The throwing of the football is what everyone's doing. Like, isn't it enough to just have Rodgers to get yourself to 10 or 11 wins yeah i think it probably is i mean i think this i think i picked them to go 11 and 6 um they don't have the hardest schedule in the world but i think they're going to lose some games that we're going to be looking going

that's not a game they should lost they should have lost now one of the things that you and i do whenever we talk is and and i i've been fascinated by this, and it's something I really believe in, is that the team you cover, you always think is worse than it actually is because you know all of its flaws. And then you look at a team that you know better than peripherally. Like, I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of the Vikings. I don't know them the way you do because I don't cover them every day. It's like you don't cover the Packers every day. But I'm sitting here looking at this Vikings team going, all right, you've got a former Rams offensive coordinator,

a Sean McVay apostle. You've got a Vic Fangio apostle running the defense, which is supposed to stop this offense that is now taking over the league. It's got all these different acolytes running it. And you've got

a team that fired its coach who had run its course. His who had run its course. His tenure had run its course. And you're coming off of a losing season. What's going to happen? Well, all those things that I just used to describe the Vikings and Kevin O'Connell and my old buddy Ed Donatel and Mike Zimmer, they also described the 2019 Green Bay Packers with Matt LaFleur.

They had Mike Patton for that first two years as a defensive coordinator, and now they have Joe Barry. But they were 6-9-1 under a coach who got fired and whose tenure had run its course in Mike McCarthy. I don't think a lot of people thought the green bay packers were going to go 13 and 3 in 2019 and play for a trip to the super bowl and again i'm not here i'm not the guy uh like packers fans who are making their vikings super bowl trophy case jokes all the time and really want to see the vikings struggle i'm not that guy and i'm not trying to bring up like outside unrealistic hopes because you know your team better than I do,

but I've seen a team that people did not think was going to be all that good turn out to be pretty damn good because they got a big charge of new blood and everything else. And I see some similarities between what the Packers did in 19 and what Kevin O'Connell's team could do this year tell me I'm wrong okay well I I don't know if you're wrong I mean you're making the case that all Vikings fans are making to themselves it's funny because on the show we have a game called talk me into and we're playing talk me out of like talk me out of thinking your

team will miss the playoffs or be mediocre uh the difference between the 2019 green bay packers and what we have here in minnesota is that gentleman who wears number 12 that's the difference that aaron rogers throughout his career won mvps won the super bowl had 122 quarterback rating. Like there was a lot of evidence to suggest that the high end of Aaron Rogers is exactly what it's been the last couple of years. There is not that evidence to suggest that about Kirk cousins, right? That Kirk cousins, Kirk cousins has had, he has had lots of good offensive coordinators, a good offensive system, good statistics, and the results overall in the win loss record have been about the same. And if you look at what you just said about like last year, all the same things about like changing the offensive mind and, you know,

you've rebuilt the defense with, you know, some players that they brought in from free agency. They did all the same stuff last year. And Clint Kubiak was the guy that was supposed to like update and modernize the offense. And they were supposed to get a different Kirk and through, you know, a few weeks it was, and then it kind of became the same thing where it's like convincing me that Kirk cousins will be a different person because they're running the Rams offense that worked last year with Matt Stafford. Who's, you know, more physically gifted. I just can't get like all the way around to that. Could you convince me? I picked 10 and seven. So can you convince me of

playoffs? Absolutely. Update the culture, update the offense, maybe don't punt as often on fourth down and you might have yourself, you know, a competitive season for the division going any farther than that though. I am not, I am not willing to go until I see the quarterback actually do it. And by the way, he's 34. So that's not like he's, he's like, Oh, what, what can they get next out of Kirk? Like if he even with his physical talent, if he even continues to play well, he'll actually be an outlier for guys like him, like Rogers, Brady, that's different. Manning, that's different. But guys of his ilk, the mid-pack quarterback, a lot of times they're not at this level at 34 years old. So I'm curious if he even continues to keep up the high level

he's set the last couple years. Yeah, I will not try to convince you that Kirk Cousins is capable of doing an Aaron Rodgers imitation this season but I will add that the 2018 Aaron Rodgers is not very good and frankly the 2019 Aaron Rodgers was good but certainly not 2020 and 2021 vintage Aaron Rodgers so I just think in Roger's case, he needed a new coach. He and McCarthy had had lots of ups and downs, although he tried to add Mike McCarthy, which I wanted to say to him this week. Dude, I was at a game where you beat Buffalo 22 to nothing,

and instead of celebrating the defense, you came in and crapped on the game plan from your head coach and emasculated him in a postgame press conference after a game that you won 22 to nothing. And he was never the same. And he was fired like 10 games later. Like, you would run your course with him. And while I know that it was different than what Kirk Cousins and Mike Zimmer had, like, let's be honest, from what I can tell, Mike Zimmer hated Kirk Cousins. So just having a coach who doesn't hate him should probably help Kirk Cousins be better. OK, though, but like, let's let's think about what he's done.

I mean, the numbers on Kirk Cous cousins last three years have been pretty good. And now we're arguing that they're going to be even better than that because, because Mike Zimmer didn't like him. And here's one thing about Kirk cousins also that I don't know how much that ever impacted cousins. Like you would think logically speaking it did, but he, I mean, Kirk cousins is the most blind, put the blinders on, do the read and throw the ball guy that I think I've ever been around. Right? Like that's true. I see that. He just kind of like, he, he will even tell you himself that he's just like a play to play type of person. And I don't know if something like that, I mean, maybe,

I'm sure it was uncomfortable, but I think that even what you and I consider uncomfortable, I'm not sure it impacts him the same way. But the point just being that, like, if you were to tell me that Aaron Rodgers, one of the great human beings to ever pick up a pigskin and huck it somewhere was going to have a resurgence in his career, I'd be like, okay, like, sure. Why not? Right. Right. If you're telling me that a

player who is consistently ranked by everybody who looks at quarterbacks between 12th and 16th was going to suddenly be like fifth at his age with a new offense and a, you know, a coach who likes him more, like, I don't know. And also there's a chicken and egg to liking a quarterback is there not like do you like quarterbacks who win big games and take you to the playoffs i would well that's not what kirk cousins has done so it's like it was like mike zimmer didn't pick him at random he wanted him to win the big games and it didn't happen uh that is certainly fair although even when he won games that were just sort of big uh he still didn't like him so which ones would those be though like okay i don't know it wasn't their one game where they won it really late and there was all

kinds of excitement and he he looked like he was he was disappointed that they won can i tell you can i tell you crazy stat tell you a crazy stat? Here's a crazy stat. Oh, are you talking about the Detroit one? Maybe. The Vikings, since Cousins got here, have fewer wins against winning teams in the regular season than the New York Jets. That is a great stat.

Isn't it, though? That's an outstanding stat. All right, so your team's going to suck. That's a little different than Aaron Rodgers. I'll go back to, what is it, Drew Magary who writes Why Your Team Sucks or whatever it's called? Yes, friend of the show. Yeah, he's a Vikings fan, right? Yes, huge Vikings fan, yep.

And he still writes Why They Suck. And, well, he's usually right. Well, I think not to, yeah, you put me in the Debbie Downer role, so I tried my best. You did a great job of it. You definitely talked me out of my high opinion of their potential. Well, but I think that what we have here, in conclusion, my friends, what we have here is teams that might be closer than usual, though,

because I do think that they can do stuff better including managing player health that just keeps guys on the field as they have done really well throughout this offseason and is a big advantage for this first game i just i feel like everything we've laid out says that if both of these teams were hovering around 10 wins it would not be a surprise if we are going into that last game at Lambeau and you and I are doing this podcast and freezing our butts off doing it, that we're talking about the biggest game of the year and playoffs on the line for both teams and the division and everything else.

I mean, I feel like that is a reasonable thing to expect from both teams. Yeah. I, I personally think it is too. Now obviously there's a long way between today and then and injuries and the bad bounces and whatever else will factor in but to go back to that 2005 team that i covered they of their 16 games 13 of them were decided by seven points or fewer and they ended up four and 12 now i'm not again i'm not saying that 20 22 packers are going to be four and 12 but the margin for error in this league is as we all know a lot thinner than you think and aaron rogers i love to call him the great deodorant because he covers up all the other things about you that stink.

But I think he will be more challenged, much like Favre was that year, than he has been with youth around him, inexperience around him. I mean, on Sunday, he's going to have to count on Sammy Watkins, who has never taken an in-game snap with him. So it doesn't matter that Sammy Watkins is a veteran. I'm sure his learning curve of the offense was much quicker than the rookie draft picks. But he still has no experience beyond practice with Aaron Rodgers. And without Alan Lazard on the field, he's going to have to be the guy that the Buffalo Bills thought they were getting with the fourth overall pick. And in his career, he has rarely been that guy.

And Sammy Watkins, I give him this. I have not come across many players who were more self-aware and self-critical and owned the fact that their careers have been disappointing to the degree that he did when he got to town. Like he basically said, look, I've not done enough to keep myself healthy. And that's been the biggest knock on me. And I just, I haven't worked hard as I needed to, to be the kind of player that everyone was expecting me to be when I was the fourth overall pick. And this is basically his last stop. If he, if he can revitalize his career with Aaron Rodgers, then people look at him differently. But if he fails here, he is going to be, as he put it, fat and sitting on the couch. That does sound like Sammy Watkins. And yet, Sammy, if you didn't know what the Bills gave up for him at the time and you didn't know what type of prospect coming out,

you would look at him and be like, yeah yeah this guy had a pretty good career so far right some good seasons because he is really gifted and man did he roast Richard Sherman in the Super Bowl and basically won that thing for Kansas City but as a number one wide receiver he has not had that role because even in Los Angeles he was behind like Robert Woods at the time and I think Cooper Cup was just coming up at that time. But he was he was like just a deep threat for them. And I remember even early in Buffalo where there was like the kind of thing like early on, like, oh, no, we just we just gave up our franchise for something that's just OK. And I remember them trying to say like oh he runs clear outs that really help the other receivers oh okay that's that's what they generally do with guys who are

fourth overall uh but I think I think he's good it's the thing is that if you were adding him next to Devante Adams you'd be like oh that's that's concerning but if you're putting it all on him that is pretty tough but let me talk you back into it though a little bit with the Packers on the defensive side the ability to create pressure for this team should be pretty darn good shouldn't it I mean Kenny Clark still got it Rashawn Gary's like a rising superstar in the league and and having Jair Alexander back they were able to have a reasonable defense last year without him at all i mean a couple of good safeties it's like hard to find where the weakness is on that defense devondre campbell people here in minnesota very familiar with him like you go position by position

you would match that up with just about anybody in the league yeah they're on paper defense i understand why there's a lot of hype about it. There are a few things lurking below the surface, though, that I think are. I don't want to say that they're going to be deal breakers because I think it's more of a question of can certain players replicate what they did last year? And can certain players elevate their games? And then can certain players simply stay healthy so a couple of things first of all they're outside linebackers uh preston smith you know he and i kind of joked about it this offseason uh but he won't give me any for why he thinks this will be different the guy has been very good in odd numbered years and really crummy in even-numbered years.

And I'm no expert on the calendar, but 22 is an even number. Is that analytics? He is aware. Yeah, Pro Football Focus broke down which years are odd-numbered years for me and which ones were even numbers. I was told there would be no math. So he claims that this will be different, and perhaps it will be. You mentioned Rashawn Gary. I think he is knocking on the door of being an elite pass rusher,

but he hasn't had a double-digit sack season. He had a ton of pressures last year, which are terrific. But you look at what happened last year, and Zedarius Smith was a malcontent. There were obviously questions about the veracity of his back injury for a period of time uh he was clearly unhappy with his contract he wasn't voted a captain my one of my favorite stories in my career was a guy doesn't get voted captain and then he releases on social media an artist's rendering of the diamond encencrusted captain's patch pendants that he's going to have made for himself to proclaim himself a captain. But even though they got 18 snaps out of him in the opener

and 19 snaps out of him in the playoff loss, in between they got nothing from him, but Rashawn Gary was there ready to step in. They don't have that guy waiting in the wings. So while Gary and Preston Smith have been durable during their careers, if they lose one of them, it is going to be Joe Blow. Nobody knows this guy having to play. They have a bunch of no-name backups at that position.

Secondly, you mentioned Devondre Campbell, and I am not here to tell Minnesotans that he's going to be a one-hit wonder flash in the pan but it is rare for a player to have had his career to the point that he got to Green Bay last year in June and then as a first team all pro inside linebacker yeah that does not normally happen yep and he insists that he was always miscast and now he's in the right defense and he's able to be the player that he is and we'll see they went out and drafted quay walker so they can have two of those type inside linebackers having been beaten by teams like san francisco and tampa bay who had two really good inside linebackers. So they're using that blueprint.

But besides Devondre Campbell, the other player that seemed to catch lightning in a bottle last year is Razul Douglas, who had the most interceptions on the roster, went from the Arizona practice squad and being on six teams' rosters in a two-year span, including the Packers, to now having a three-year $27 million deal or $21 million deal and the expectations of him being a field-tilting player. I really like him. It's the first time I've been around him since, obviously, last year we were all on Zooms with him and such.

But is it realistic to think that a guy who has been a journeyman like that has now unlocked the secret and he's going to play at the level he played at last year if he does hey if those two guys are who they were last year not to quote denny green but if they are who they hope they were uh they're going to be really good but if they are who everyone thought they were previously they're going to be really good. But if they are who everyone thought they were previously, then you have to look at their defense through a little bit different prism. Yeah. Well, you know, what you just described, I think, is like all defenses with expectations almost.

I'm sure that there are some teams that have drafted some depth and that have the classic situational rushers, which the Vikings have just totally avoided in recent years. And apparently the Packers did too this off season. Um, but every defense kind of hinges on your schedule, your health players, repeating the things that we did before. And it's, it's really fun. fun like isn't i was miscast like one of the the all-time classic football off-season pre-season narratives i mean good for devon devondre campbell for proving it and having a great last year but it's one of the like you know if they just the vikings got jalen rager well if they just use jalen rager right then he'll just be the next great. Like, no, probably not though. And, uh, regression

do not try to tell most football fans, not listeners of this show who do understand it, but a lot of football fans about regression. They do not like that concept at all. But to your point, Rasul Douglas will probably not lead the team in interceptions again. It is an interesting conundrum because I just see a lot of talent there, but I guess you could even look at the Vikings defense of which I'm a little skeptical and talk yourself into a lot of the things going right. If Zedarius is healthy the whole season, if Daniil Hunter is healthy the whole season. And boy, this is the most Spider-Man meme I think these two teams have had in a while where they're kind of looking in the

mirror being like well if your defense stays healthy you're good well if your defense stays healthy you're good uh that's i mean it's a it's a really interesting thing about these two teams is that they might both be hinging so that means detroit is just going to win the division well it won't be the bears it definitely won't be the definitely could be number one overall pick bad yeah i i mean to go back to your previous point though and i think this is the reality is that only one has aaron rogers though yeah so that that's a pretty big hinge that could swing the door open now again and i'm not saying that you know anthony bar is going to come back uh for the game on sunday and uh grab grab his old jersey and i still can't believe that the vikings put his uh hit on rogers which was not i mean i guess

it was a pressure uh but it was not it didn't result in an interception it didn't result in a sack all the plays that that guy made in his vikings career i can't believe that made the montage of thank you anthony uh when he's not aware of that i was not aware of that yeah i was blown away i was just like wow um hey and he broke aaron rogers collarbone was awesome um but aaron rogers has been very durable of late right i mean he had the broken collarbones at 13 and 17 uh he played through in 18 at a tibial plateau fracture in his knee so he has played through some injuries before he's had some you know seasons that were derailed by injuries they were going to be really good in 17 i think before the anthony bar hit So, you know, if he's going to be 39 years old,

I'm not saying that I would be worried if I was a Packers fan that he's suddenly become frail because I don't think he has. He has his regimen, but he's no spring chicken. And just because he has been durable does not mean that he will remain that so if if something happens to him um all bets are off because i do a radio show with a guy who is convinced he might be a little bit of a homer when he says it that the packers still win this division even if jordan love is the quarterback and i just don't agree no i i would have to see that to believe that i because what we saw from jordan love last year and uh pre-season not worth paying attention to it was great in the pre-season it was like matt hasselbeck except with way worse numbers

dude i mean didn't you see me in the pre- out there? I tossed a couple of TDs. I mean, like everyone, they were picking up people off the street. Gentlemen, would you like to come play offensive guard during the preseason? Who cares? We're going to cut you all anyway. Like the NFL has made it so useless that people getting excited about Kenny Pickett or Jordan Love or Desmond Ritter, you're like, you might just want to take a deep breath with all of that from the preseason. But yeah, I'm not convinced that if Aaron Rodgers were to get hurt, that they would have any chance under the sun to win the division. But how about this game that we have

Sunday, 325, US Bank Stadium. It'll be pretty fun. Are you thinking that the packers will not be enough on the same page yet to win this game against the vikings yeah i look they i thought they had you know they were coming off of a 2020 where their offense was star spangled awesome and i went into the opener where, uh, the new Orleans saints had been displaced by hurricane Ida. They're having to, they're having to play their home opener in Jacksonville and they wiped the floor with Packers last year, 38 to three. Uh, that is not an outcome that I saw coming. So I can, I can fully admit that my prognostication skills are not always on point. And so maybe the Packers go in there and Aaron Rodgers tears the Vikings defense up.

It doesn't matter who he's throwing to. There are two running backs who are both studs, are productive both on the ground and through the air, which I think will be part of their game plan um and they go in there and they they win this game handily i don't see it that way um i'm not putting my money where my viewpoint is but like i see their offense struggling for a while including on sunday. And I also see us having a great opportunity, in terms of people who cover the Packers, of finding out right away if this defense that has been hyped all offseason is as good as advertised.

I mean, say whatever you want about Kirk Cousins and his shortcomings, but he's good enough to get the ball to Adam Thielen and this Justin Jefferson fellow who I think looks like he's going to be pretty good. I know he has acknowledged that Devontae Adams is the best wide receiver in football, but I believe he followed that up by saying, but I'm coming for him and I'm going to have that title sooner rather than later. I agree with him. And oh, by the way, Dalvin Cook can run the football pretty damn effectively, especially against a defense that on Christmas Day, I watched Nick Chubb and the Cleveland Browns come in to Lambeau Field and why they allowed Baker Mayfield to pass the ball ever,

certainly enough to throw four interceptions in a game yes is beyond me so i you know and devondre campbell was on the field for that so as great as he was and you know they had some stinker performances defensively so i am eager to see if the hype uh if the production matches the hype on that side of the ball. Exciting times, though, eh? It is, you know, again, like, you know, I'm not some bad teams good teams some you know the minneapolis miracle team you wrote a book about that didn't you i did uh i i i have covered just a lot of winning winning teams like 27 years and i think 22 playoff appearances.

Like that's what they do here. But what they also do most of the time, it appears, is lose the playoffs. And usually in heartbreaking fashion. Could this year be different? No expectations means no limitations? Perhaps. But I think these are two teams, to go back to what I said at the very beginning, that I know the team's flaws that I cover best.

You know the flaws of the team that you cover best. I think they're both flawed. I think they both have potential to be good teams, but I don't see either of them being great teams where one is so much better than the other, other than the fact that one's got Aaron Rodgers and one doesn't. What was that, 22 of 27? Is that what it was? I think so. It's 21 or 22 of 27 years that have come to the playoffs. Yeah. I just want to understand the people who say QB wins aren't a stat when the Packers have been to the playoffs 22 of 27 with a couple of QBs. I don't know if they had anything to do with it

over the 30-year stretch or not. Probably not. It was probably all the left guards. So anyway, I just wanted to toss that in at the end. I will say this too, though, about it, and the flip side is also applicable here, which is I don't really know. I would like to be able to say things for certain

but like how good of a coach is matt lafleur how good of a coach was mike mccarthy like when you have brett farb and you have aaron rogers chances are you're probably going to win a bunch of games and people are going to think more highly of you than if you have Jordan Love having to play quarterback. So I just, those two players have won a lot of games. They, one of them got Lambeau Field redeveloped and renovated. The other one got tied, the Titletown District built. But again, for those, and i understand two is still more than zero but i understand why bears fans and vikings fans look at the last 30 years and look at what the packers have had at quarterback and i think they can even though their teams don't have titles, they can look and say, if I was a Packers fan and I had those guys, I would be pissed that my team has not won

more titles. I don't know, man. I don't know that you could say anything with zero, but I, but no, to your point, there've been so many close calls. It's almost remarkable statistically that you could have that many seasons of like 12 or more wins and not get maybe one or two more but uh yeah the the position over here to the uh west cannot be a snarky about what green bay has in terms of rings but um to to your point though it's it's remarkable how long it's gone on but it's also like getting toward the end of that

and so this is kind of it though and it's like when you have a coach who's saying those things like no expectations or whatever it's like okay well you brought back rogers you didn't trade him you took a shot you got 13 wins and to me anytime win 13, like you're on the doorstep of being a Super Bowl team. So you get 13 wins, three seasons in a row with no hardware to show for it. And now you're looking like, OK, we might not have a Super Bowl caliber team. But the NFC pretty man, after what we saw from the Rams yesterday as well. Like, I don't know. I mean, it feels like like one it feels like one of those like did you miss your bus or are you still right there because of the landscape where otherwise this might not have been

great but i don't even know what tom brady's gonna be this year like does he want to play or does it you know what i mean like it's he does i don't think his wife wants right yeah that could be it so it's it's such a it's such an interesting situation for them to be in where it's gotta be all in to win, but he takes up a lot of the cap space and you know, they, yeah, they have some weaknesses, but certainly I would never, I would never underestimate his ability to make, how do you say it? Is it Dobbs Romeo Dobbs? Dobbs. Yes. Dobbs.

Yeah. That's the guy that catches four touchdowns on Sunday like just that's how it is right so we'll see well Aaron Rodgers will have to put some faith in him which is not his strength with young players but to that point since I know I've taken up more of podcast time than we

were anticipating oh that's a wonderful conversation I am really eager to see not only how this season unfolds for Rodgers, but what his endgame ends up being. Because no expectations means no limitations notwithstanding. I do think that if they go through a year of growing pains and they still make the playoffs and maybe they're not the number one seed and they lose the second round or whatever,

it's him. And I certainly do not, with the lifestyle he's living these days, I do not have any insight into telling him what to do. But from a football perspective, if he is able to endure the growing pains this year of those young receivers uh and some other changes that have gone on um i would think that you'd want to be here in 2023 because that would seem to me to be an opportunity to be really really good as your kind of last hurrah so we'll have to wait and see what it would be well i suggested in my mailbag which you're a subscriber by the way to the sub stack i am

today money well spent oh we'll appreciate that uh well i slid the line in there that maybe uh rogers will just retire to eat tree bark and live in a van by the river you never really do know what uh could go on with him but uh anyway you should be following, despite his Packers reporting, Jason Wildey on Twitter at Jason J. Wildey. And I mean, if there was a show Hall of Fame, which there isn't and there will never be, you would be in it. You would have a whatever, whatever the official it's got to be purple, but maybe like a like a magenta or whatever, like a light purple, you know, something to make it shine. I'm a lavender guy. Lavender? Yeah.

Yeah. Well, you would get the jacket even though you cover the Packers. Jason, great, great, great, great to have you on. Great to talk again. And look, I mean, if you want to talk again before week whatever it is, 17, we can. We can do a little check-in mid-season if you if you like but if not that's when we will definitely talk again no you can uh you can put that out on the calendar uh any friend of brad lane

is a friend of mine and any friend of judd solgatz which uh but i'm a friend of his too so no we we love judd with an appendix or not we think the world of him we certainly do thanks jason