Tossing Stanford's Andrew Luck into the fire?
Not a good idea, according to Aaron Rodgers.
After all, Green Bay's star quarterback knows firsthand the benefit of sitting behind Brett Favre for three seasons, and believes Luck's NFL destiny would be helped by watching Peyton Manning do his thing.
"Peyton is obviously one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, and for Andrew coming in -- who everybody is saying is going to be one of the most NFL-ready players ever -- if he's able to be fine with sitting behind Peyton for a couple years, I think it'd be invaluable," Rodgers told ESPN Radio's "Mike & Mike" show Wednesday.
(Program note: We're imagining here that Indy continues its season-long dirt nap and grabs the top pick in the draft. Play along.)
"(Sitting) allowed me to get my body in the kind of shape I wanted to get in. But more importantly, to become an expert in our offense and to study defenses. If you talk to those guys you mentioned playing right now in a couple years, they'll probably say, 'Man, I didn't really know anything or know what I was doing as a rookie.' Because the game just really starts to open up to you after a couple offseasons."
Rodgers sounds like he's describing his Semester at Sea here. Meanwhile, we've got Cam Newton and Andy Dalton launched onto the field in minutes, with zero offseason -- and thriving.
Rodgers is right, in many respects. This should happen, but it won't.
