Aaron Rodgers addresses missing Jets mandatory minicamp: 'It was really two OTA days'

As New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers prepares for his second training camp with his new team, the former Packers star addressed the controversy from this summer over his decision to skip Jets mandatory minicamp. The four-time league MVP took a trip to Egypt instead of participating in mandatory minicamp, which resulted in an unexcused absence from the team, but according to the QB, the situation was made out to be more important than it was.

Rodgers told the hosts of Pardon My Take this week that he considered mandatory minicamp to be essentially just two more days of OTAs, and took issue with the word “mandatory.”

“Now its not minicamp, they can arbitrarily put a tag on whatever week of OTAs that they want,” Rodgers said. This is the ‘minicamp week,’ which somehow makes it more mandatory than other weeks, but it’s an OTAs schedule.”

“That’s how words can be a little deceiving,” he added. “They can make a story about how I missed minicamp when it was really two OTA days. I came to the first 10.”

“You would never change the meaning of a word or deliberately tell people…,” PMT host Big Cat said, to which Rodgers responded, “No, of course not.”

The Pardon My Take host was seemingly referring to Rodgers’ bit of deception from 2021 when he told reporters, “Yeah, I’ve been immunized,” when asked whether he’d been vaccinated for COVID-19. He had not, in fact, taken the vaccine, and later admitted that he chose his words deliberately to avoid more questions, but only after he contracted COVID.

Herm Edwards: ‘This is the quirky Aaron Rodgers’

Former Jets head coach Herm Edwards joined GetUp on Monday morning to address Rodgers’ comments. He weighed in on whether it was of any consequence that he missed those days of practice, and whether the Jets should be concerned with his approach.

“It’s Aaron Rodgers, it’s not a big deal,” Edwards said. “It’s who he is and you know who he is when you sign him on. You want Aaron Rodgers to be healthy. Every player, every fan, wants Aaron Rodgers to play more than four plays this year. If they can do that, this offense will be electric…

“He understands the pressure on him, he gets it. But this is the quirky Aaron Rodgers. This is what he does. He always leaves you with, ‘What did he just say?’… But he’s fun to watch. ‘Can Aaron Rodgers get us to the playoffs?’ That’s all they care about.”

Report date for Jets training camp was on Sunday for veterans and last Wednesday for rookies.