How is that Martellus Bennett, the Green Bay Packers' starting tight end for the bulk of this season, landed back in New England all of a sudden?
The answer, according to the team, is that Bennett failed to disclose an injury -- which NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported was a torn rotator cuff -- an offense that warranted his waiving.
The answer, according to Bennett, is that he was very transparent about the injury, which got worse as the year went on, but was told to play through it by Packers doctors. When he chose to have surgery instead of play through the shoulder tear, Green Bay decided to cut him. Packers veterans, for what it's worth, have come out in defense of their doctors.
Either way, Bennett was picked up by New England soon after his release and is now back on the same team with which he won his only Super Bowl last season. If you can believe it, he might even forego surgery and play this Sunday night -- he's listed as questionable against the Broncos.
While there's a lot of he-said, she-said being thrown around by both parties, and the truth is being muddled by different perspectives, NFL Network analyst Michael Robinson suggested that this blowup wouldn't have come to a head if just one thing hadn't happened.
"All of this starts from Aaron Rodgers getting hurt," Robinson said on Good Morning Football Weekend on NFL Network. "I feel like Martellus Bennett will play through an injury with his quarterback on the field. I feel like the defense would be playing if their quarterback was on the field. A lot of things would be better if Aaron Rodgers was on the field. I don't even know if we'd be talking about this. ... The fact that they're losing, the fact that it's some bad energy around this team. You put Aaron Rodgers back on the field, Martellus Bennett is happy."
When Rodgers was on the field, Bennett caught 21 passes for 202 yards and was targeted 34 times in six games. In Brett Hundley's lone start with Bennett, the tight end caught two of the young QB's 12 completions for 17 yards. Overall, Bennett was on pace, at the time of his injury sidelining him, to exceed his targets and nearly match his catch and yardage production from the past two seasons.
The Packers have lost all three of the games that Hundley has finished this season and are currently on the outside of the playoff picture looking in. Bennett, meanwhile, is back on a Super Bowl contender.
