Davante Adams becomes latest Packer to defend Aaron Rodgers

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Davante Adams becomes latest Packer to defend Aaron Rodgers after controversial story

On one hand, what is Green Bay Packers receiver Davante Adams really supposed to say when he’s asked about the controversy surrounding Aaron Rodgers?

Adams can’t rip his quarterback, for every reason you can figure out. That also doesn’t mean his defense of Rodgers on Wednesday isn’t believable.

Rodgers suddenly was in the NFL news cycle last week, when a long story from Bleacher Report’s Ty Dunne about the relationship between Rodgers and former Packers coach Mike McCarthy painted Rodgers as petty, a less-than-ideal leader and a tough teammate to play with.

Adams is still Rodgers’ teammate, and said he disagreed with how Rodgers was portrayed in the story.

Davante Adams on Aaron Rodgers: ‘Great leader’
Adams spoke with the media at the Packers facility on Wednesday, and his main message was that Rodgers’ current teammates and many of his recent teammates would defend him.

“I think you’ve heard from all the people who are relevant at this point, and actually matter, which are the people who play with him and have played with him recently and had those good relationships with him,” Adams said, via Stacey Dales of NFL Media. “I think it’s been pretty uniform as to how we feel about him. Great leader, guy that — all the negative things I’ve heard, I share none of those feelings with those guys.

“Nobody reached out to me, nobody reached out to James Jones, nobody reached out to Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb, any of these guys that obviously had a good relationship with him. I think if those people were interviewed about him, the story would have been a lot different.”

Many former teammates have defended Rodgers since the article, including Jones.

“The crazy thing about it is I’m getting a bunch of texts from my former teammates and they’re like, ‘Where was I at when all this stuff was going on? Because I don’t remember any of this stuff going on,’” Jones said on NFL Network, where he’s an analyst.

“Me and Aaron’s relationship is unbelievable. I can call him, I can talk to him. When I read this article it makes me sick, because that’s not the guy I know.”

Rodgers and Adams’ relationship
It’s probably safe to say that Rodgers isn’t entirely easy to play with. Neither was Dan Fouts. Or Dan Marino. Or Peyton Manning. Or many other quarterbacks who demand a lot because the NFL is a competitive league and they want the most from their teammates.

Rodgers is portrayed as riding young players hard in the story, and predictably not all of them reacted well to that style. It’s also reasonable to assume Rodgers is tough on every receiver he plays with, and without Rodgers pushing him to be great, Adams might not have become one of the best receivers in the NFL. Maybe Adams doesn’t have a four-year, $58 million deal without Rodgers being hard on him.

There’s probably some middle ground. Maybe Rodgers’ leadership style isn’t ideal, at least not for everyone. But as Adams and others attest, Rodgers might not be as bad of a teammate as he has been portrayed lately.