Rodgers Preaches Patience (Again) With Rookie Receivers
GREEN BAY, Wis. – This could be one of those copy-and-paste stories when it comes to the evolution of rookie receivers Christian Watson and Romeo Doubs and their connection with Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
In time, Rodgers believes he’ll be throwing passes to two high-quality receivers. That time is not now. It probably won’t be next week or the week after, either.
“Just the same thing I said after the game: We’ve got to be patient. We’ve got to be patient with them,” Rodgers said at his locker on Wednesday, four days before the Packers face the rival Chicago Bears on Sunday night.
“The most important thing we’re going to be harping on is the preparation and the fundamentals and the little things. The jump happens when you don’t become a robot anymore. You understand the ‘why’ and the ‘what’ – why are we doing what we’re doing and what are we trying to accomplish? And it takes a while for anybody.”
For Watson and Doubs, every day and every game will mean new lessons. Rodgers, who hasn’t always been enthusiastic about throwing passes to rookies, understands the situation. As much as he’d like to focus on throwing passes to Allen Lazard, Randall Cobb and Robert Tonyan, the offense won’t hit peak efficiency unless and until Watson and Doubs become productive receivers rather than just rookie receivers.
“There’s going to be mistakes,” Rodgers said. “So, hold them accountable and prepare and communicate as well as we can, but it’s not throwing to older guys out there. It’s young guys who are very talented who are going to make some great plays by not actually knowing what they’re doing sometimes, and there’s going to be times when they don’t make the right reaction and just having patience with that because, I think, by the end of the year, they’ll have it figured out.”
Week 1, a 23-7 loss to the rival Vikings, required a lot of patience. Watson dropped a first-play bomb that would have resulted in a 75-yard touchdown and also wasn’t quite right on a third-and-1 incompletion that almost was intercepted. Doubs, who had some drops during the preseason, wasn’t perfect, either.
But their talent is undeniable. For the Packers to make some noise in the playoffs, the development of Watson and Doubs will be vital.
“The guys know I’m going to hold them accountable because I believe in them,” Rodgers said. “As I’ve said in camp, if I’m not talking to you, you might be pretty far out on a limb and need to start reeling in a little bit. But there’s a standard I’m going to hold these guys to because I believe in them, but also there’s a patience that comes with the inexperience. I think I’ve learned how to balance that, but the direct conversations are the best way. These are good kids. They really are. They want to please, they want to do the right thing, they care about it.”
It’s those intangibles, in concert with their talent, that has Rodgers preaching patience rather than just stomping on the gas and leaving the rookies to fight their way to the dust until they find their way to OTAs in the spring.
Watson’s drop wound up being a huge moment in an ugly loss. But Rodgers sees the forest through the trees. Watson won’t catch the next one if Rodgers doesn’t throw it to him.
“We don’t want to put them in a situation where they haven’t done something or they might not feel confident – 100 percent confident – doing things, so we’re going to be really wary of some of those,” Rodgers said. “At the same time, that has to be balanced by, we’ve got to let these guys play and we’ve got to see what they’ve got.
“We’ve got to let them open the game and run a go route and see if he can come down with it, and then come back to him and see if he can run another one and come back to it. It’s a balance there. We don’t want to put them in a position where there’s a high likelihood of maybe not getting it right, but we also want to let them, in the moment, feel the pressure and anxiety and the expectation of being in that moment and see how they respond because that’s how we’re going to know what kind of guys we’ve got.”
