Former Packers WR Jones ‘Wouldn’t Be Surprised’ if Rodgers Wins MVP
GREEN BAY, Wis. – James Jones was as surprised as anyone when the Green Bay Packers used their first-round pick on a quarterback rather than bolster a roster that was good enough to reach the NFC Championship Game but not good enough to be competitive in a blowout loss to the 49ers.
There’s something else that wouldn’t surprise the former Packers receiver.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if Aaron Rodgers wins MVP this year,” Jones said on Thursday’s episode of the “Pat McAfee Show.”
“He’s a guy who’s always going to accept a challenge. He’s going to always rise to the occasion, and now you have a guy in the first round who eventually is going to have to play. We don’t know if it’s going to four years; we don’t know if it’s going to be two years; we don’t know if it’s going to be 10. But we know when you take a guy in the first round, they are going to want to see him play before his contract is up. And Aaron Rodgers knows that, he was one of those guys that was drafted in the first round and had those opportunities.
“So he knows, to push that back, you have to play at a high level. And I believe Aaron Rodgers is going to come out and he will win MVP this year. He’s going to have a chip on his shoulder; he already has. He’s a perfectionist. I’ve been around the guy for a very long time and he’s a competitor. He’s going to want to show the world that this is my team, this is my job for a very long time, man.”
In Year 2 in the scheme and with Matt LaFleur as his quarterbacks coach, Matt Ryan won MVP and the Falcons led the NFL in scoring and reached the Super Bowl. Can Rodgers – the MVP in 2011 and 2014 – make similar Year 1-to-Year 2 strides under LaFleur? The assumption of a Year 2 leap is more fiction than fact. Still, with a top-shelf running game to support the Rodgers- and Davante Adams-led passing attack, the potential is there. And if Jones is right, Rodgers will be primed for a big year after three consecutive so-so seasons.
