Randall Cobb’s Hard Knocks speech made Aaron Rodgers sound like the boogeyman to his Jets WRs

The Jets’ receivers better not step out of line. Or else.

Like most great quarterbacks, Aaron Rodgers has a reputation for holding his playmakers to an almost impossibly high standard. In particular, towards the latter years of his tenure with the Green Bay Packers, Rodgers was notorious for dressing down just about every green-and-gold playmaker sans Davante Adams.

And it seems like nothing has changed with the New York Jets — for the worse.

During a key sequence of the latest episode of Hard Knocks, veteran receiver Randall Cobb spoke to the Jets’ young receiver room. As a Rodgers favorite for a decade in Green Bay, Cobb knows how the signal caller approaches practice better than anyone. He knows how to make Rodgers happy. And he knows how to put him on edge, too.

So, Cobb issued a stark warning to the Jets’ outside playmakers about attending to details, in turn making Rodgers sound like some kind of horror movie monster:

I’m gonna be honest. I wouldn’t be encouraged if I was a Jets fan watching this clip.

Part of the problem with Rodgers’ latter years in Green Bay was that he refused to trust other receivers, almost to the point of stubbornness. He wouldn’t have force-fed Davante Adams over 300 targets from 2020-2021 if he believed in other Packers players. And such an insistence made Green Bay’s offense easier to game-plan for. Focus on Adams, and suddenly, the Packers’ attack felt extremely limited.

It’s too early to make any definitive declarations, but a similar situation could be boiling with Gang Green. Based on other Hard Knocks sequences, Rodgers appears to already be developing quite a rapport with sophomore receiver Garrett Wilson. In fact, during the latest episode, Rodgers called Wilson “special” on multiple occasions, suggesting he’ll (rightfully) be his go-to guy.

The concern is whether Rodgers looks Wilson’s way almost too much. If the Jets will prevail in a logjam of an AFC, they’ll need a balanced offensive approach. They’ll need to keep defenses on their toes with every weapon at their disposal. They can’t succeed if Rodgers fixates on Wilson to the point that he starts ignoring his other options. As much as the onus is on the Jets receivers to keep Rodgers happy and earn his trust, it’s on him to mellow out and perhaps give his teammates a little more leeway.

The success of the Jets’ 2023 campaign could depend on it.