Does former Packers safety Leroy Butler have a point about benching quarterback Aaron Rodgers?

It’s no secret that the Packers are struggling and while their quarterback recently criticized some of his teammates in public, it would appear it’s now his turn to take some of that himself and of all places, it’s come from one of the team’s former players, who also happens to be a Hall of Famer

Former Packers safety Leroy Butler thinks Aaron Rodgers should be benched

With a record of 3-6 the Packers are not in a good place at the moment. Worse still, is the fact that they lost to one of the lowest ranked teams in the league - the Detroit Lions - by a score of 15-9 this Sunday gone. With that, coach Matt LaFleur now has to figure out how he’s going to get his men to make up ground on the Minnesota Vikings, who are 4.5 games ahead. Needless to say, after losing their last five consecutive games, that looks like a tough ask. As for what’s wrong with the Packers, there are of course varying theories, but there is one former member of the team who thinks the problem may lie with the quarterback.

Packers Hall of Fame safety Leroy Butler believes, that should the slide continue, the Packers should consider benching Aaron Rodgers in the name of giving an opportunity to Jordan Love. “OK, say you lose three more games,” Butler said. “Look at that in perspective. You got the Cowboys - best defense - I mean the defense - Micah Parsons, oh my goodness. And then you play, when they put my name up in the ring of honor, the Titans. They got a young quarterback. That defense gets after you as well, then you got the Eagles, best team in the league. Butler continued: “After that point, if you’ve lost those games, you’ve got to get Jordan Love in there at some point, because there’s no playoffs. I mean, there’s no playoffs, you’re not in the playoffs. You have to find out at some point can Jordan Love play because you can’t get rid of Aaron Rodgers because of his contract. But you can find a way to get Jordan Love some work to just kind of find out what you’re going to have in a few years.”

Does Leroy Butler have a point about Aaron Rodgers & Jordan Love?

While it’s hard to imagine that the Packers would actually tell Rodgers to take a seat on the bench, Butler does raise an interesting point. On December 2nd, Rodgers who is under contract for another two years, will celebrate his 39th birthday. If indeed the Green Bay fails to make the playoffs, it would make a lot of sense to remove the risk of injury to a player who in reality now qualifies as a veteran. It’s true that Love is untested, having just one career start, but with his contract in its final year and a fifth-year option that must be activated or declined in the coming offseason, now would be a good time to test him out.