Article about how Jennings is frustrated with not getting the ball. As he says in the article, it's hard for Rogers to hit him when he is starring up at the sky all game. Doesn't help he's dropped a few as well. You'd think Jennings would realize by now that with a cruddy O-line nothing good is going to happen for a team.
Inaction hero: Jennings wants the ball
By JASON WILDE
[email protected]
GREEN BAY – Greg Jennings stopped well short of channeling his inner Keyshawn Johnson Monday. Not once did he say, “Just give me the damn ball.”
But the Green Bay Packers No. 1 wide receiver also got his message out loud and clear. He just did it with a polite smile and a “doggone” instead.
"You’ve seen what’s going on. They know how I feel. As a competitor, I would hope they know that I want the ball,” said Jennings, who has 11 receptions for 240 yards and a touchdown, including a combined three catches for 31 yards in the Packers’ two losses. “When I’m in the meeting and I’m looking at myself (on film) running wide open and I’m not getting the opportunity, yes, I am pissed. Get me the doggone ball."
Jennings said those words with a smile. He also said he has spoken to his coaches, including receivers coach Jimmy Robinson, about his slow start, even though it’s not something he’s altogether comfortable doing.
"I’m not one to just go in (and say), ‘Can I get the ball more?’" Jennings said. "You have to go about it in a respectful way, and it’s not who I am to get outside of that. Do I get frustrated? Yes. Do I get highly upset? Yes. Do I vent to (the other receivers)? Yes. … These guys are like my (sounding) board. I can bounce things off them, and it’s like they bounce things off me. We (tend to) stay away from complaining to everybody else. We kind of let each other know how we feel, and it’s the way we get through it."
“I feel like, when I get the ball in my hands, good thing happen. Period. It’s not arrogance, it’s not ‘I better get the ball.’ It’s fact. Those are the facts.”
And who’s to argue? Last year, on his way to a career-best 80 receptions for a career-high 1,292 yards and nine touchdowns, Jennings had 25 catches for 482 yards and two touchdowns in the first four games, registering three 100-yard performances in the first four weeks.
As a rookie second-round pick in 2006, Jennings caught just one pass for 5 yards in his NFL debut but had 15 receptions for 259 yards and two touchdowns after four games.
The only year in which Jennings got off to a slower start was in 2007, when he missed the Packers’ first two games with an ankle injury and caught only 14 passes for 228 yards and three touchdowns in the first four games he played. But in the Packers’ seventh game, he exploded for six catches for 141 yards at Denver, including the game-winning 82-yard touchdown in overtime.
Jennings said the Packers’ four opponents so far – Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis and Minnesota – didn’t do anything extraordinary to take him out of the game, either. The Bengals managed to shut him out, the first time at any level – high school, college or pro – that Jennings went through an entire game without a reception.
“They have done more, but not excessively more,” Jennings said. “It’s not much more than they’ve done in the past, or anything they haven’t done before, or anything we haven’t seen.”
Instead, Jennings said it’s been the lack of protection afforded to quarterback Aaron Rodgers that has been the main cause of his dip in productivity. Not only has Rodgers been sacked 20 times – who knows how many of those passes would have been directed at Jennings? – but he’s been under near constant pressure, throwing off the timing between Rodgers and his receivers. (To be accurate, Jennings also blamed the receivers for some of the problems, since the Packers have dropped a league-worst 14 passes this year.)
The protection problem is particularly troubling for Jennings, whose down-the-field deep routes need time to develop and require better pass blocking than Rodgers has been getting.
“I can’t be upset with Aaron. I can’t say, ‘Aaron, get me the ball.’ Who knows? He might be trying to,” Jennings said. “It’s frustrating, because we know the potential of our quarterback. He’s second to none. I’ll give you a statistic — he has one pick. One pick, and he’s been hit more than any quarterback in the league. He protects the ball pretty doggone well for going to the ground as much as he does. If he has room to play ball, the sky’s the limit. The sky’s the limit for him – as well as this team."
During Monday’s open locker room session after practice, Jennings and Rodgers spent several minutes talking in the hallway that leads to the shower. When Jennings, who signed a three-year, $27 million contract extension this offseason, emerged from their chat, he made it clear that he doesn’t blame Rodgers for his low numbers.
“Like I told Aaron, as I was just talking to him right there around the corner, it’s tough to talk to Aaron about it, because his back has been on the ground so much,” Jennings said. “It’s like when we have had plays that potentially could have gone to me – or anybody for that matter –we haven’t had the protection to run them. That’s the frustrating thing. I mean, he’s pressured so much – if we pass four times, he’s pressured on three of them at least. There’s no point going to Aaron and saying, ‘Look, I need more opportunities,’ because he’s thinking, ‘I’m trying to get anybody an opportunity.’ That’s how he’s seeing it. That’s the frustrating part.”
In the Packers’ four games, Jennings has had 23 passes thrown his direction. He was targeted on a season-high eight against Chicago, catching six for 106 yards, including the game-winning 50-yard touchdown late in the fourth quarter.
After he was targeted on five passes in his shutout against Cincinnati – he dropped one pass and slipped and fell on another likely completion – he had just four balls thrown his way at St. Louis, where he caught two for big gains (50-, 53-yarders). At Minnesota, he was the intended receiver on six throws, catching three for 31 yards.
“To me, it’s uncalled for. There’s no excuse for that. But it’s so hard for me to voice it,” Jennings said. “I spoke to A-Rod about it, I spoke to Jimmy about it. I want them to understand where I’m coming from and not look at it as, ‘Great, here goes Greg. We’ve got a diva on our hands.’ Because it’s not like that. That’s how it comes off, as, ‘We’ve got a guy who’s turning into a selfish guy.’
“Ultimately, for me, it’s about winning. If we’re winning, if we’re 4-0 right now, and I have these (limited) opportunities, I’m still saying, ‘C’mon, I need more opportunities,’ but it’s cushioned and the blow is softened by the productivity of the team. But that’s not the case. So it’s like, ‘What’s going on?’”
Not that Jennings is above voicing his unhappiness. During the opener, the NFL Films cameras on the sideline for Showtime’s “Inside the NFL” captured Jennings hollering at Robinson about how open he was in the middle of the field. Jennings admitted Monday he’s not doing a good job of handling his frustration.
“Do I deal with frustration well? I haven’t the last couple games. I really haven’t. I really haven’t,” Jennings confessed. “I try not to let it show, but sometimes the competitive nature of a guy, you can’t help it. It happens. It’s all about how you deal with adversity, and this is an adverse time – not only for myself, but for the team. We’re 2-2. It’s not a (time for a) panic attack, but we have to get things corrected, and correct them now.
“I’m going to get my job done. Now the onus is on somebody else to get their job done. To me, that’s how it works. You get your job done, you trust that the guy next to you is going to get his job done. And that hasn’t been the case. We haven’t, as a collective group, the 11 guys on the field at one time, each player has not been able to get his job done.”
Inaction hero: Jennings wants the ball
By JASON WILDE
[email protected]
GREEN BAY – Greg Jennings stopped well short of channeling his inner Keyshawn Johnson Monday. Not once did he say, “Just give me the damn ball.”
But the Green Bay Packers No. 1 wide receiver also got his message out loud and clear. He just did it with a polite smile and a “doggone” instead.
"You’ve seen what’s going on. They know how I feel. As a competitor, I would hope they know that I want the ball,” said Jennings, who has 11 receptions for 240 yards and a touchdown, including a combined three catches for 31 yards in the Packers’ two losses. “When I’m in the meeting and I’m looking at myself (on film) running wide open and I’m not getting the opportunity, yes, I am pissed. Get me the doggone ball."
Jennings said those words with a smile. He also said he has spoken to his coaches, including receivers coach Jimmy Robinson, about his slow start, even though it’s not something he’s altogether comfortable doing.
"I’m not one to just go in (and say), ‘Can I get the ball more?’" Jennings said. "You have to go about it in a respectful way, and it’s not who I am to get outside of that. Do I get frustrated? Yes. Do I get highly upset? Yes. Do I vent to (the other receivers)? Yes. … These guys are like my (sounding) board. I can bounce things off them, and it’s like they bounce things off me. We (tend to) stay away from complaining to everybody else. We kind of let each other know how we feel, and it’s the way we get through it."
“I feel like, when I get the ball in my hands, good thing happen. Period. It’s not arrogance, it’s not ‘I better get the ball.’ It’s fact. Those are the facts.”
And who’s to argue? Last year, on his way to a career-best 80 receptions for a career-high 1,292 yards and nine touchdowns, Jennings had 25 catches for 482 yards and two touchdowns in the first four games, registering three 100-yard performances in the first four weeks.
As a rookie second-round pick in 2006, Jennings caught just one pass for 5 yards in his NFL debut but had 15 receptions for 259 yards and two touchdowns after four games.
The only year in which Jennings got off to a slower start was in 2007, when he missed the Packers’ first two games with an ankle injury and caught only 14 passes for 228 yards and three touchdowns in the first four games he played. But in the Packers’ seventh game, he exploded for six catches for 141 yards at Denver, including the game-winning 82-yard touchdown in overtime.
Jennings said the Packers’ four opponents so far – Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis and Minnesota – didn’t do anything extraordinary to take him out of the game, either. The Bengals managed to shut him out, the first time at any level – high school, college or pro – that Jennings went through an entire game without a reception.
“They have done more, but not excessively more,” Jennings said. “It’s not much more than they’ve done in the past, or anything they haven’t done before, or anything we haven’t seen.”
Instead, Jennings said it’s been the lack of protection afforded to quarterback Aaron Rodgers that has been the main cause of his dip in productivity. Not only has Rodgers been sacked 20 times – who knows how many of those passes would have been directed at Jennings? – but he’s been under near constant pressure, throwing off the timing between Rodgers and his receivers. (To be accurate, Jennings also blamed the receivers for some of the problems, since the Packers have dropped a league-worst 14 passes this year.)
The protection problem is particularly troubling for Jennings, whose down-the-field deep routes need time to develop and require better pass blocking than Rodgers has been getting.
“I can’t be upset with Aaron. I can’t say, ‘Aaron, get me the ball.’ Who knows? He might be trying to,” Jennings said. “It’s frustrating, because we know the potential of our quarterback. He’s second to none. I’ll give you a statistic — he has one pick. One pick, and he’s been hit more than any quarterback in the league. He protects the ball pretty doggone well for going to the ground as much as he does. If he has room to play ball, the sky’s the limit. The sky’s the limit for him – as well as this team."
During Monday’s open locker room session after practice, Jennings and Rodgers spent several minutes talking in the hallway that leads to the shower. When Jennings, who signed a three-year, $27 million contract extension this offseason, emerged from their chat, he made it clear that he doesn’t blame Rodgers for his low numbers.
“Like I told Aaron, as I was just talking to him right there around the corner, it’s tough to talk to Aaron about it, because his back has been on the ground so much,” Jennings said. “It’s like when we have had plays that potentially could have gone to me – or anybody for that matter –we haven’t had the protection to run them. That’s the frustrating thing. I mean, he’s pressured so much – if we pass four times, he’s pressured on three of them at least. There’s no point going to Aaron and saying, ‘Look, I need more opportunities,’ because he’s thinking, ‘I’m trying to get anybody an opportunity.’ That’s how he’s seeing it. That’s the frustrating part.”
In the Packers’ four games, Jennings has had 23 passes thrown his direction. He was targeted on a season-high eight against Chicago, catching six for 106 yards, including the game-winning 50-yard touchdown late in the fourth quarter.
After he was targeted on five passes in his shutout against Cincinnati – he dropped one pass and slipped and fell on another likely completion – he had just four balls thrown his way at St. Louis, where he caught two for big gains (50-, 53-yarders). At Minnesota, he was the intended receiver on six throws, catching three for 31 yards.
“To me, it’s uncalled for. There’s no excuse for that. But it’s so hard for me to voice it,” Jennings said. “I spoke to A-Rod about it, I spoke to Jimmy about it. I want them to understand where I’m coming from and not look at it as, ‘Great, here goes Greg. We’ve got a diva on our hands.’ Because it’s not like that. That’s how it comes off, as, ‘We’ve got a guy who’s turning into a selfish guy.’
“Ultimately, for me, it’s about winning. If we’re winning, if we’re 4-0 right now, and I have these (limited) opportunities, I’m still saying, ‘C’mon, I need more opportunities,’ but it’s cushioned and the blow is softened by the productivity of the team. But that’s not the case. So it’s like, ‘What’s going on?’”
Not that Jennings is above voicing his unhappiness. During the opener, the NFL Films cameras on the sideline for Showtime’s “Inside the NFL” captured Jennings hollering at Robinson about how open he was in the middle of the field. Jennings admitted Monday he’s not doing a good job of handling his frustration.
“Do I deal with frustration well? I haven’t the last couple games. I really haven’t. I really haven’t,” Jennings confessed. “I try not to let it show, but sometimes the competitive nature of a guy, you can’t help it. It happens. It’s all about how you deal with adversity, and this is an adverse time – not only for myself, but for the team. We’re 2-2. It’s not a (time for a) panic attack, but we have to get things corrected, and correct them now.
“I’m going to get my job done. Now the onus is on somebody else to get their job done. To me, that’s how it works. You get your job done, you trust that the guy next to you is going to get his job done. And that hasn’t been the case. We haven’t, as a collective group, the 11 guys on the field at one time, each player has not been able to get his job done.”