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The Green Bay Packers veteran is adjusting to catching passes from a quarterback other than Brett Favre for the first time in his 10-year career, but he isn’t using his still-evolving relationship with Aaron Rodgers as an excuse.
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“I just dropped them, plain and simple,” Driver said. “Plain and simple. He threw a perfect ball. The first game, I turned my hands the wrong way and dropped it. The second game, misjudged it and took a dive. You watch it on film, I misjudged it. When I dove, it hit my fingertips and popped off. It’s one of those things.”
In the Packers’ first preseason game against Cincinnati, Driver dropped a scalding pass from Rodgers in heavy traffic. He immediately found Rodgers on the sideline to apologize, telling him it wouldn’t happen again.
Then Driver dropped another potential long gain on third down in Saturday’s second preseason game at San Francisco. But Driver wasn’t the only receiver who struggled in a rough offensive performance Saturday, as tight end Donald Lee also dropped a potential touchdown pass.
“I think we have a perimeter group that catches the ball very well, illustrated by what we have done in the past, but that doesn’t carry over, obviously, to the present,” Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. “We work on it every day. I’m not concerned as we move forward, but we need to catch the ball better.”
Given the scrutiny Rodgers will be under as Favre’s replacement, Driver said all the receivers have to go out of their way to help make him look good.
“We’ve got to make plays for him,” Driver said. “But we have to do it anyway. I’m the first one to criticize myself, and after that game the first thing I said was, ‘I should’ve caught that deep ball.’ Would it have changed the game? It was the first quarter. But it would have made a big play for us. Those two plays, I should’ve made. But I’ve always come back to make another one.”
Packers wide receivers coach Jimmy Robinson acknowledged that it was “unusual” to see Driver drop two catchable balls in back-to-back games, but said he didn’t have any long-term concerns about the three-time Pro Bowler.
“You don’t want to see it, because it obviously doesn’t help the offense when it happens and it might kill a drive and so forth,” Robinson said. “But with a guy like Donald who catches the ball so consistently, has such good hands, it’s not a concern.”
Neither, Robinson said, was Driver’s longtime relationship with Favre.
During the period of Favre’s monthlong unretirement saga when it looked like there was a chance Favre could return to play for the Packers in some capacity, Driver had a hard time hiding the fact that he wouldn’t mind having his old quarterback back.
Favre then was traded to the New York Jets, and Driver has since bristled at questions from reporters about whether he was disappointed with the team’s decision.
But Driver did acknowledge Tuesday that adjusting to a new quarterback was a challenge.
“For me? Yeah,” Driver said. “But it’s one of those things you can always work out.”
Despite the mind-bending twists and turns of the Favre saga, Robinson said Driver’s attitude never changed behind the scenes.
“He just wants to win, and whoever’s at quarterback, he’s going to be the Pro Bowl performer that he is and always has been,” Robinson said.
“It’s certainly easy to understand the relationship and the connection he had with Brett, but I think you can see that same level of confidence and production with he and Aaron.”
Driver and Rodgers have another chance to work on their relationship in the team’s third preseason game, at Denver on Friday. Packers offensive starters are expected to play into the third quarter.
“I think Friday night is more important because we get to play a little bit more,” Driver said. “And we want to establish some momentum going into the season. Because you know that last game of the preseason we’re not going to play as much. We know that. We never have and we never will. This is the big test to see how we’re going to get on the same page and start rolling.”
And Driver knows his concentration needs to improve.
“I know I can catch,” Driver said. “But when I relax and think I’ve got everything, that’s when I drop ’em. And that’s what happened.”
