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Aaron Rodgers threw Mike Williams under the bus before Davante Adams moved on
Washington

Aaron Rodgers threw Mike Williams under the bus before Davante Adams moved on

Mike Williams may have fallen out of Aaron Rodgers’ circle of trust when he allegedly took the wrong route and then slipped on the QB’s fourth-quarter interception in the loss to the Bills.

Rodgers appeared frustrated in the postgame press conference, saying Williams played the wrong route, which was evident on the offense’s final play of the 23-20 setback.

“There are two verticals, Allen (Lazard) is down at the seam and Mike is down at the red line,” Rodgers said after the game. “So I don’t look at the red line. If I look back, Mike is doing an in-breaker… it has to be below the red line.”

Taron Johnson makes an excellent play on an interception. NFL on ESPN YouTube
Mike Williams slipped on the Jets’ last offensive play. NFL on ESPN

Facing a 3rd-and-16 at the Jets’ 40-yard line while trailing 23-30 with 2:01 left, Rodgers attempted to beat Williams down the right sideline for a big gain to achieve.

However, Williams slipped, allowing Taron Johnson to jump in front of him and intercept the ball, which nearly ended the game.

Rodgers looked at Williams in apparent disgust after the game.

Williams caught zero of his three targets on Monday and has caught just 10 of his 17 targets for 145 yards with zero touchdowns through five games.

Aaron Rodgers looks at Mike Williams in disgust after his second straight interception on the play. NFL on ESPN YouTube

The quarterback addressed his comments about Williams on Tuesday after celebrating his reunion with new Jets receiver Davante Adams.


Follow the latest on the New York Jets’ trade for star receiver Davante Adams:


“If you watch my press conferences, you know I started with myself,” Rodgers said on “The Pat McAfee Show.”

“When I made mistakes: ‘I have to play better, make the shot,’ that’s the benchmark for everyone.” There were a lot of mistakes throughout the night, but if you just look at this game, those were the questions. “What happened on this play?” Well, there were two verticals on the right side. Mike had to get to the red line, which would have been a big win, so I didn’t challenge Mike on anything other than his responsibility in the details of that play. I have great love and respect for Mike; He did some nice things for us, but he wasn’t in the right place on this play. You can make more of it if you want, but we should all hold ourselves to a standard. I hold myself to a standard of greatness, and at certain times that hasn’t been the case.”

With Adams now a member of the Jets, it will be interesting to see where Williams fits on offense.

His role will likely be significantly reduced as Lazard looks like the player he was in Green Bay again and Adams immediately figures to be the team’s second-leading target behind Garrett Wilson.

He will earn $10 million in 2024, making him the 34th highest-paid receiver in the NFL this year.

The former Charger, coming off a torn ACL, saw a significant decrease in his snaps on Monday (51 percent in Week 6 versus 71 percent in Week 5), while Xavier Gipson saw a significant increase in snaps in three-man sets.

Aaron Rodgers shakes his head at Mike Williams. NFL on ESPN YouTube

The Jets could try to move Williams at the trade deadline, but they will run into the same problems the Raiders faced when they traded Adams.

Williams will be a serious hit for anyone looking to sign him, so unless he gets injured, Williams could be on the bench for most of the season.

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