Bennett’s Instagram account causes Frenzy During Bye Week
Just when we all thought that this bye week was going to be business as usual for Mike McCarthy and the Green Bay Packers, The much-maligned Martellus Bennett took social media by storm by announcing his intentions to retire at seasons end. Bennett, is in his first year of a 3 year 24 million dollar contract, to which he has fallen far short of living up to the expectations that a contract like that comes with. Bennett has looked disinterested at times this season and is not moving around like he has in years past.
The daily grind of an NFL season has caught up with Bennett. His play on the field this season has not been up to the lofty standard that he has set for himself over the years. During this year Bennett has been deemed a bust for failure to reach the proven track record that he has established over the course of his career due to crucial drops. These Crucial drops and a lack of production have caused fans to lose patience with Bennett. The fans have turned their backs on the once top signee of free agency, voting him the most disappointing Packers player of 2017 in a recent poll conducted by The Packers Wire.
Bennett’s announcement of his plans to retire was both euphoric and infuriating. It was euphoric knowing that, at seasons end Martellus Bennett will never wear the green and gold again. It is infuriating that a man who committed to the Packer organization for three years announced his retirement after just seven games with the team. It is also infuriating that a player with this kind of character had the privilege of wearing number 80 for the Green Bay Packers.
Martellus Bennett is not a player who fits the mold of the green and gold. He lacks accountability and marches to the beat of his own drum. With the teams back against the wall and their season on the line, Martellus Bennett put his desires and his need to be in the headlines over the Green Bay Packers organization. Bennett felt like he needed to make headlines off of the field, to make up for the fact that he has yet to make any headlines on the field that would make the fans forget about all of his drops.
Returning number 80 back to its rightful owner:
Thankfully, at seasons end Bennett’s Packer career will come to an end and the real number 80, Mr. Donald Driver can have his number back. Packer Nation will again, have positive thoughts and good memories that coincide with the number 80. Packer fans will be able to forget about Bennett and remember that number 80 was worn by a man who was a class act throughout his Green Bay Packers career and put his team and organization first.
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David Michalski is a recent college graduate from Princeton New Jersey who has been a life long Green Bay Packers fan. Like the great Vince Lombardi, he values God, family, and the Green Bay Packers in that order. You can follow him on twitter at @kilbas27dave
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1 response to “Bennett’s Announcement Grabs Bye Week Headlines”
this is a lost season now that Rodgers is done. With that in mind, Bennett retiring is a good thing and I don’t see how can you find it infuriating. Everyone knows the NFL has non-guaranteed contracts, any contract is only as much of a commitment as the amount of guaranteed money it contains, so to argue Bennett back slid on some 3 year commitment is entirely misleading and you could fill each off season making that same argument against every team that cuts players. He didn’t perform as a top TE like he is getting paid to (for the record, neither is Cobb or Mathews) but his cap hit will come off the books. We will still have Kendricks and Rodgers at TE and Thompson can take another swing at the position in the off season. Like Cobb and Mathews, Bennett is under-performing but he was far from a bust. He’s had some very good plays and has had to spend a lot of time blocking due to injuries. Most important, he played 5 games with Rodgers!!!! Most of the games he was blocking due to OT injuries, offense was still finding itself, he was still developing chemistry. Jared Cook didn’t do anything the whole first 3/4’s of the season before catching fire down the stretch. You are using an incredibly small sample size to make a sweeping judgement. The rest of your arguments about “lacking accountability” and “desire to be in the headlines” have zero supporting evidence and anyone outside of the team or personal friends of Bennett,including you, have no idea if what you say is true or not.
Ironically, your supposed model Packer for wearing #80 struggled with drops his entire career, showed how much he “lacked accountability” when he supported his old teammate Greg Jennings in his criticism that Rodgers didn’t take the blame for team mistakes during film study even when Rodgers actions on the field were not in the wrong (I still believe this to be one of the most bizarre statements a current or former Packer has ever made), and everyone knows Driver loved, loved, loved the spotlight and being in the headlines.
I think what really happened is age caught up with Bennett in regards to his speed decline, and drops can come in spurts and happen to anyone (Cooper for Raiders, Cobb had problems, James Jones, etc). Bennett has a lot of interests and the fact he has played a long time, made money, and prob is worried about his long term health, all have more to do with retiring than anything mentioned in this article.
You have a strange, unexplained dislike for Bennett. His signing wasn’t a home run by Thompson but was far from a long term detriment and we will really never know how well it could have turned out if #12 stayed healthy.