Former Packers VP revisits decision to draft Aaron Rodgers

While the football world awaits Aaron Rodgers' next move, former Green Bay Packers vice president Andrew Brandt recently revisited the team's surprising decision to select him in the 2005 NFL Draft, smack dab in the middle of the Brett Favre era. 

A guest of JAKIB Sports on Friday, Brandt said taking Rodgers came down to answering two not-so-simple questions. 

"How much do you hold onto the past, and how much do you move to the future?" Brandt said. 

Now a columnist for Sports Illustrated, Brandt said he talks a lot about "the moment" during speaking engagements with corporations because the issue is relevant, even outside of sports. 

At the time, Favre had already won a Super Bowl and three MVP awards in Green Bay. At 36 years old, Favre was also at the back end of his career, meaning the Packers had to begin thinking about life without him. Despite the need for Favre's eventual heir apparent, selecting his backup in the opening round did not go over well in ever corner of the Packers' organization.  

"We were making a decision with the most durable quarterback in the sport's history," Brandt said. "The face of the franchise, still playing at a high level, that we were going to bring in a first-round quarterback. There was combustion in that draft room. The coaches were so against it."

Packers coaches were not the only ones upset with the pick. After hearing Rodgers' name called at No. 24, Brandt said boos from the Lambeau Field draft party shook their seats in the Green Bay war room. 

Front office dissent and fan disapproval were only the beginning of the mess for the Packers. Brandt pointed out that the human side of these monumental moves sometimes gets lost in all the pomp and circumstance. 

"The hardest part of that was Brett and his agent saying to me over the next three years, 'Andrew, do you know what it's like to come into work every day and sit with your replacement?'" Brandt said. "That's not fun. We don't think about that enough in sports." 

Nearly two decades later, Rodgers is the old guard in Packers' green staring into an uncertain future. Rodgers, heavily linked to the New York Jets this offseason, remains in Green Bay. For now. Recent reports suggest a deal may be farther along than once believed.