John Kuhn is perfect as a talking head. He doesn’t buy into the national dramatics but isn’t scared to speak the what he believes is the truth about his favorite team. The former Green Bay legend and host of the popular Nine 2 Noon radio program laid out an interesting belief when reacting to the comments out of this week’s owners meetings.
“If you could go back in time and do this trade, and I have maintained this, I think that the Davante Adams trade last year threw both the Packers Aaron Rodgers for a loop. The Packers may have made the trade last year for Aaron Rodgers. They may have made that trade if Davante Adams was not a part of the team when they did the deal with Aaron Rodgers.
I think that was the card that caused this whole house of cards to fall apart last year.”
He’s absolutely correct. One less year of Aaron Rodgers waffling over retirement would’ve, at the very least, added to Green Bay’s leverage. Had Rodgers been traded last off-season it’s easy to believe the Packers would have received the Russell Wilson type haul so many fans are yearning for.
It’s not surprising that Devante catching both sides off guard was a recipe for disaster. Truth be told it was likely the icing on the cake as opposed to a key ingredient. Mark Tauscher recently went on record stating he believes things fell apart when Rodgers saw the way the organization treated Jordy Nelson on the way out the door.
“How the Jordy Nelson release was handled completely changed Aaron’s outlook on the organization and drafting Jordan Love was the dagger to the relationship that never ever recovered and [led] to the ‘lost’ season of 2022.”
Rodgers was famously disappointed in the move. It would be the first of many that would make the future Hall of Famer feel that way. A pattern that would lead Rodgers to become outspoken about his involvement in personnel. Tauscher might not be too far off base given Jordy’s original comments at the time.
“I met with Brian and had a discussion because I had to get a feel for not just the pay cut but what their plans were going forward,” Nelson said. “After that meeting, there wasn’t, I don’t think, much desire there. I think the hurt part was, to be honest, was the unwillingness to try to make it work”
Earlier in the week while reacting to the Brian Gutekunst’s comments Kuhn weighed in on leverage and the Packers timeline for a deal.
“It is going to be wild to see exactly when this trade takes place and for what assets. Because I feel the Jets have the leverage pre-draft. I feel, now this is just the way I feel, if the Packers make a trade before this year’s draft, they’re going to get less in compensation for Aaron Rodgers. It will be a tell-tale sign that they just want this whole saga to be behind them
“If they make this trade after the draft and before June 1, it tells me ‘Hey, they were ready to put this whole thing behind them, but they wanted still to get the best assets that they possibly could.’ And if they let this thing play out into the summer months, that means Brian Gutekunst was playing absolute hardball with the Jets, trying to put them between a rock and a hard place.”
