Aaron Rodgers Sees No Issue With His Public Criticism Of Teammates: ‘I’m Calling Things The Way I See It’

Aaron Rodgers defended the public comments he has made about his current teammates and the poor play of the Green Bay Packers after their (3-4) start.

Rodgers did his weekly guest spot with the Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday afternoon and roasted his teammates’ play after the Packers lost to the Washington Commanders 23-21.

“Guys who are making too many mistakes shouldn’t be playing,” Rodgers told McAfee. “Gotta start cutting some reps. Maybe guys who aren’t playing, maybe give them a chance.”

Rodgers met with the media at his locker after Wednesday’s practice and was asked about his comments.

“Do you think being public about your criticism about those guys yesterday with Pat, is that good leadership? If it is, can you explain to me why that’s good when you could have done the same types of things privately?” the reporter asked Rodgers.

Rodgers quickly defended himself, saying he believed he showed outstanding leadership with his comments.

“I did do it privately,” Rodgers said. “I’m not saying anything out to Pat that I’m not saying to those guys. So maybe that’s talking about a conversation that’s behind closed doors in public, but the level of accountability is the standard here. Again, I don’t think it should be a problem to any of those guys to hear criticism. We all hear criticism in our own ways, and we’ve all got to be okay with it and take it in and process it. And if it doesn’t fit, then it doesn’t fit. But if it fits, then we’ve got to wear it and improve on those certain things.”

Rodgers added he did not understand why the media and public had an issue with his public scrutiny of his teammates and did not care what outsiders had to say.

“I’m not going to be a robot up here,” Rodgers added. “I don’t understand why people have a problem with things that are truthful. You know, I’m calling things the way I see it. If people don’t think I need to air that stuff out, that’s their opinion. But I’m doing what I think is the best interests of our guys, and I’ve tried a lot of different things from a leadership standpoint this year. And I was relating my personal feelings on the situation. I didn’t call anyone out by name.”

Rodgers did take accountability for his own performance and acknowledged he should not be left out of public criticism.

“I think we all need to be on the details,” Rodgers continued. “And that includes me. If I need to have, you know, one-on-one extra conversations with those guys during the week, then I’m going to do that.”

Watch above via the Green Bay Packers.