Week 2 in the NFL dealt some brutal blows, namely to the Green Bay Packers and their former quarterback, Aaron Rodgers. The Packers are 1-1 just barely after coming back to defeat the New York Jets in overtime, leading to questions about Matt LaFleur's leadership and whether he is still the right head coach for a Packers group with postseason aspirations. As for Rodgers, he remains the captain of a sinking ship in Pittsburgh, reunited with Mike McCarthy. The Steelers fell to a real contender in the New England Patriots, popping whatever bubble the Rooney family lives in these days to call itself a likely playoff team.
There are more storylines where those came from, but we start in Green Bay, where LaFleur is under fire.
Should Matt LaFleur be worried about this Packers team?
While the Packers just narrowly avoided an 0-2 start, something is undeniably wrong with their offense, and it starts with quarterback Jordan Love. Through two games, Love has completed just a shade over 52 percent of his passes, and Green Bay struggled to score points against the Vikings and Jets, respectively. Considering LaFleur is supposed to be an offensive mastermind and a fruit off the McVay coaching tree, he and Love need to be better.
"The Packers I just feel are broken," one exec told Mike Sando of The Athletic. "There is something wrong there. I feel like when it's tight, the quarterback struggles. You just feel it. He throws off his back foot. And then of course they are missing Micah Parsons. When they get him back, that can give them some juice."
Parsons is said to be targeting a Week 6 return, when the Packers play his former team, the Dallas Cowboys. While having Parsons back in the fold should help Green Bay's pass rush, it won't provide much of a boost to Love, minus better field position. That, it would seem, is something he needs to figure out on his own.
Will the Browns still bench Deshaun Watson?
You could (and we did) argue the Browns should still bench Deshaun Watson despite his solid play on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the QB he replaced in Baker Mayfield. Yet, the Browns organization is so desperate for a winning quarterback they'll more than likely pretend Watson turned a corner, which should buy him a couple more weeks under center. When asked whether Watson will start next week postgame, Todd Monken sounded personally offended, mocking the reporter's question.
"Really? Really?," Monken asked. “I’m gonna enjoy this win and I thought he played his ass off. … I’m gonna leave it at that. I’m so happy for him.”
So there you have it. Watson will still likely receive plenty of boos when he takes the field in Cleveland for the first time this season. That was the case in the preseason, and it shouldn't change after one decent game. Eventually, Shedeur Sanders and Dillon Gabriel will receive their due.
Steelers should've seen Aaron Rodgers decline coming
I mean, truly, who didn't see this coming? Rodgers is in his final season, 42 years old going on 43, and still plays like he's a decade younger. Unfortunately, many of the same attributes that once made him a perennial NFL MVP candidate are long gone. Against the Patriots, Rodgers was often flushed from the pocket or forced to throw on the run due to poor offensive line play. In the past, perhaps Rodgers would've been able to extend some of those plays, a trait McCarthy's entire playbook is relying upon this season. So far it's looked really bad, and I'm being generous.
"What did you expect?" an NFL exec told The Athletic's Mike Sando. "He's 42, can't do it anymore. Never thought that would work, anyway."
It doesn't help that Rodgers was just shy of calling out McCarthy in his postgame press conference, claiming that the best teams in the NFL are led by players, not coaches, and that McCarthy needed to be alerted to what's working, and what's not. At 60-plus, one would hope McCarthy is able to do that part on his own, but it's not a good sign Rodgers considers that part of his own responsibilities.
It could be a long season in Pittsburgh.
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