It is December and the Packers are 6–8, five games out of first place in the NFC North. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers is struggling by his lofty standards, with 23 touchdowns against 10 interceptions through 14 games—already his most interceptions in a season since 2010.
Last week, amid the struggles Rodgers and the team has faced this season, a story from Kalyn Kahler of The Athletic detailed the future Hall of Famer's exacting standards for his wide receivers.
“Aaron Rodgers expects his offense to know somewhere around 30 hand signals,” Kahler tweeted last week, summarizing the report. “Every [Saturday] players are tested on them, but the tricky part is the signals aren’t officially taught, there’s no real record of them, [and] Rodgers often revives signal from [years] before.”
The initial report was met with some scorn around the NFL world. Some of the harshest criticism came from longtime offensive tackle Mitchell Schwartz, who called Rodgers’s system “so beyond stupid but it’s in character for him thinking it’s genius.”
“You know what you can do? Create new signals,” Schwartz tweeted.
On Tuesday, both Rodgers and Kahler offered further opinions on the report. Rodgers pronounced it a “nothing burger,” “exaggerated nothingness” and “by far the dumbest article of the season” on The Pat McAfee Show.
Kahler, meanwhile, condemned McAfee and Rodgers for their comments.
“All I have to say is all the sources were on the record,” she tweeted. “You could, you know, read it to find that out.”
Green Bay, which beat the Rams 24–12 Monday night, will turn its attention to a battle with the Dolphins on Christmas Day. A loss would give the Packers their first losing season since 2018.
