Almost immediately after making Blake Bortles the No. 3 overall pick, the Jacksonville Jaguarsannounced plans to stash the quarterback behind veteran Chad Henne to start his rookie season.
Questions abound about the merits of keeping a talent like Bortles on the bench behind an ineffectual veteran. However, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers believes the Jags are taking the prudent route.
"What they are doing has a lot of merit," Rodgers told Dan Pompei, writing for SportsonEarth.com. "Some of these guys who are going to bad teams are expected to play well right away. It's hard to do that. I've seen a couple guys able to do it. (Ben) Roethlisberger was able to do it. He had a team kind of around him. (Joe) Flacco had some success early but he had a team kind of in place. You go to a place that has some pieces and you can have some success early. But if you go to a team that doesn't have the pieces ... it can really mess with your confidence."
Rodgers famously sat behind Brett Favre for three seasons after being a first-round pick. Of course, the Packers, coming off a 10-6 season, had the luxury of a franchise stalwart in front of the rookie.
Rodgers believes his education behind Favre gave him an opportunity to grow into the NFL.
The 30-year-old, now one of the league's premier passers, hopes other teams allow their young quarterbacks to take a route similar to the one he's experienced.
"You look at a guy like (Jimmy) Garoppolo," Rodgers said. "He's in a good spot with the Patriots. If he can wait two, three, four years that will make him more ready to play right away. ... When you see other quarterbacks who might have to play quickly like (Teddy) Bridgewater potentially in Minnesota and Johnny (Manziel) in Cleveland, who knows if their teams are ready enough to complement their skills?"
Every quarterback's situation isn't created equal, however, and it's likely that several of these young signal-callers will be thrown into the fire early in their careers, for better or worse.
In the latest episode of the "Around The League Podcast," the guys discuss Rob Gronkowski's expected return to action and Cordarrelle Patterson's potential rise this season.
