Aaron Rodgers is the latest quarterback to weigh in on whether veteran quarterbacks have a responsibility to mentor their potential heir apparent.
Rodgers, who has been backed up by long-term project Jordan Love for the last two seasons, said he is open to helping younger quarterbacks. In his mind, however, the quarterback has to want help before he’ll put in the effort.
“If they want it,” Rodgers said during a roundtable discussion at “The Match,” via Bryan DeArdo of CBS Sports. “If they want that help.”
Rodgers alluded to how he shadowed Brett Favre as a young player in Green Bay, a decision Rodgers made on his own.
“I was in his hip pocket all the time,” Rodgers said. “I was standing behind him in the huddle sometimes, listening to what he was saying before the start of a period. I was sitting in meetings with him, [taking] a ton of notes. I was watching hours of film on Mondays and Tuesdays trying to give him a little advantage for the week if I saw something that might help him in a game.”
The question of mentoring has been a hot topic around the NFL ever since Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill made strong comments on the subject. Rodgers is a good person to answer on the subject. He disliked the Packers’ decision to draft Love, but that had more to do with the lack of immediate help, and he has forged a solid relationship with his young backup. That is a setup other quarterbacks could model.
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