Alexander Mattison: Aaron Rodgers out of NFC North is 'breath of fresh air'
No disrespect from Alexander Mattison to Jordan Love, but the Minnesota Vikings running back is much happier that Love is quarterbacking the Green Bay Packers instead of Aaron Rodgers.
I'm pretty happy, to say the least. He definitely is one of those guys that can just terrorize a division. To see him gone, for us, is kind of like a breath of fresh air," Mattison said in an interview with Sports Illustrated.
"You don't want to say that the other quarterback is not good or anything like that, but you just understand what you're getting with such a great player with Aaron Rodgers. It just makes a whole team play better. For him to have gone to another team outside of our division, it definitely helps us understand that at least we can say he's gone. He's out of there."
Rodgers is 59-24-1 in his career against NFC North opponents, including a ridiculously dominant 24-5 against the Bears, 18-8 against the Lions and 17-11-1 against the Vikings.
Mattison and the Vikings report to training camp next week, with the first official practice set for 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 29. Mattison is the No. 1 running back in Minnesota, taking the place of Dalvin Cook, who remains unsigned since being released by the Vikings in early June.
"I'm hoping to make as much of an impact as he did, if not strive to do even more. I think that I definitely am prepared for this opportunity in front of me," Mattison told SI.
The running back position will be one of the position battles to monitor during camp. Not the No. 1 job, but the backup role appears to be up for grabs between Ty Chandler, Kene Nwangwu and DeWayne McBride.
