Aaron Rodgers has always faced criticism for his personality and controversial statements. In fact, as one former GM recently revealed, it was a major reason they didn’t draft him in 2005, citing a dinner with Rodgers that ultimately became the final straw.
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The GM in question is Scot McCloughan, who led the San Francisco 49ers from 2008 to 2009. But before that, he was the Vice President of player personnel. One of his jobs during that time was to scout Rodgers, who was a Bay Area native and went to school down the road at Cal Berkley.
Rodgers had a strong junior season at Cal and decided to enter the 2005 NFL Draft. However, he slid all the way to the 24th pick, where the Green Bay Packers finally selected him. It’s now remembered as one of the wildest draft slides in NFL history, especially considering Rodgers went on to become a surefire Hall of Famer.
So, why didn’t the 49ers select Rodgers first overall that year? Well, it’s quite simple.
“Because of personality. Aaron had more talent coming out [than Alex Smith], but Aaron would not fit our locker room,” Scot told Pacman Jones a few months ago.
“It was my first year there, we had the first pick in the draft, and I knew I had to build quality people before I built quality players. Had to get the culture right.”
It’s usually what new GMs and front office staff are most concerned with. A team’s culture is the most important thing to establish in any sport. It impacts player development, team experience, and overall success. No great team has ever won without first establishing a strong culture.
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At the same time, though, McCloughan recognized that the player he took instead of Rodgers, which was Alex Smith, didn’t have as illustrious a career. But he still stands by the fact that Smith had the better personality that fit the team at the time.
“Looking back, in hindsight, of course, I would’ve taken Aaron with his career. But I tell you what, what we’ve built in San Fran, part of it’s because of Alex Smith and his personality and the players I drafted. I wanted legit, solid, smart sons of guns,” Scot shared.
This led the former GM to share an intimate dinner that he once had with Rodgers while scouting him.
“But with Aaron, I’ll never forget, we went to dinner, sat down with him and his agent. And he got up, he called him by his first name, slapped him on his a**. The head coach… I’m like, ‘You don’t do that sh*t, dude.’ I mean, I get it, he was cocky. I get it. As you’ve seen it play out, he wears people out all over the place.”
They were quite the scathing remarks coming from Scot. One could tell that he still doesn’t like Rodgers’ personality to this day, and that the dinner sticks in his mind as a main reason why.
Rodgers vs Smith career numbers
Today, the choice of picking Rodgers over Smith looks foolish. The former has the latter beat in almost every career number. TD passes, passing yards, career record, Super Bowl, etc. It’s really not a fair comparison.
However, most would probably say they prefer Smith’s personality to Rodgers’. He’s a down-to-earth guy who’s never made headlines for something he said. Plus, he showed tremendous fortitude when he came back and played well after suffering a gruesome leg injury in 2018.
In the end, it shows how tricky the NFL Draft can be. Smith looked like an amazing prospect coming out of college, but so did Rodgers. So, teams like the 49ers tried to evaluate other aspects, like their personalities. Yet, that ended up misleading them into believing one would be better than the other.
There’s no secret to the NFL Draft. It’s hard, and teams miss out on superstars all the time. But it’s important to remain diligent and build a strong team culture to draft around. Scot missed on Rodgers, but he did hit on several other players during his time with the team.
