GREEN BAY — Leave it to Justin Timberlake, of all people, to put the Green Bay Packers' quarterback situation into perspective.

Spotting Brett Favre in the crowd during the taping of the ESPYs last week in Los Angeles, Timberlake turned to the retired (at least for now) Packers quarterback and zinged him.

"What have you been up to lately?" Timberlake, a Packers' fan who attended last season's Sunday night game at Lambeau Field against Chicago, asked. "I haven't seen you anywhere."

Apparently, he's also bringing facetious back.

The Favre unretirement story has been inescapable since word leaked on July 2 that Favre had the "itch," to play again, and clips from his lengthy conversation with sympathetic Fox News Channel interviewer Greta Van Susteren have been played ad nauseum since the three-part miniseries began last Monday.

And Timberlake, who went into the seats later in the show to give Favre's would-be successor, Aaron Rodgers, a hug, got a big laugh out of the whole thing.

The Packers aren't finding the PR nightmare the least bit funny. And as much of a black eye as Favre has given general manager Ted Thompson and coach Mike McCarthy (not to mention chucking offensive line coach James Campen and to a certain extent Rodgers under the bus), the greater issue is how the saga will affect the team on the field, with the impact it has on Rodgers and if it fractures the locker room between Favre loyalists and Rodgers supporters.

'One man, one piece'

And yet, ask the coaching staff how much pressure Rodgers is under, and the company approach is to downplay it.

"You know, he's probably under the same pressure all 31 other quarterbacks in the league feel," offensive coordinator Joe Philbin said. "All the other stuff, that's ... eh. Every quarterback, every team expects the same things. Nobody says, 'We don't expect him to play real good.'

"Those guys, that's their job. So do we expect him to do it? Yeah. Is there pressure inherent in that job? Yeah. But the left tackle feels pressure, too. Aaron's an important part of our offense, but he's one man, one piece of an 11-piece orchestra."

While his offseason work in organized team activity practices and the three-day mandatory minicamp don't guarantee success when the Sept. 8 regular-season opener against Minnesota rolls around, the staff was pleased with Rodgers' leadership and performance.

"He's going to be his own guy. He can't be Brett Favre," quarterbacks coach Tom Clements said. "No one can be Brett. Brett's a pretty unique personality and a unique player. Having said all that, Aaron was drafted (in the first round) for a reason. He has a lot of talent, he's grown in the offense the last two years, he's very comfortable with it. So I think he's poised to do well. Obviously things aren't always going to go well, but he certainly has all the tools to be an outstanding quarterback for us."

Those tools, according to the coaches, include the ability to throw both short-to-intermediate routes and the deep ball.

McCarthy said while Favre's best route might have been the slant, Rodgers "can really drive the football. I would say what we refer to as the 'dog' or the 'puma' - the 15-yard breaking route or the 15-yard out breaking route."

As a result, while the coaches say they haven't taken anything out of the offense because of the change at quarterback, they are likely to emphasize those routes more than they did with Favre. Clements also said they might run more keep passes, in which Rodgers rolls out of the pocket and throws on the move.

"It's not like he has severe limitations where you say, 'Man, he can't make that throw,'" Philbin said of Rodgers, who has played in seven regular-season games while missing 10 due to injury. "I mean, we think the guy can do it all. Most guys know my background (is on the offensive line). But you don't have to be real smart to figure out this guy can throw a football. We'll see how he does everything else, but that's a good place to start."

Young and restless

Behind Rodgers are two rookie draft picks — second-rounder Brian Brohm, a three-year starter at Louisville, and seventh-rounder Matt Flynn, who spent most of his LSU career as a backup before leading the Tigers to the national championship last year.

After taking a look-see at three veteran free agents — Daunte Culpepper, Quinn Gray and Gus Frerotte — but signing none, the team appears comfortable and committed to the youth movement behind Rodgers, though a veteran addition later in camp can't be ruled out if both struggle in preseason.

"Sure, they're rookies, and they haven't seen everything you'd like them to have seen. And the fact of the matter is, by the time September 8 rolls around, they're not going to have as many reps as you'd like 'em to have as a coach," Philbin said. "But there's not much you can do to change that. Again, I don't think Mike McCarthy is the kind of guy that panics a lot, I don't think I am, I don't think Tom Clements is. We're going to get the guys better, we're confident in our system, we're confident the guys will develop.

"We don't really know what we have. We really don't. I could sit here and say, 'They're going to do fine,' Or, 'They're going to play like rookies,' but I don't know. I'm not sure."