This isn’t pretty. Aaron Rodgers is playing some bad football. He’s been playing bad football dating back to last season.
How bad is Aaron Rodgers playing right now?
Brace yourself for this.
Pro Football Focus, which grades every play of every game, just gave Rodgers the worst single-game grade of his career. He earned a 33.0 for Sunday’s loss to the Minnesota Vikings. That falls into PFF’s “poor” categorization, which is also their lowest or worst categorization. On the season, Rodgers’ grade thus far is 42.6, also classified as poor.
Here’s what they said after watching Sunday’s debacle.
Not much can describe Aaron Rodgers’ performance other than it being one of—if not the—worst outing of his career. At halftime, Rodgers had just 13 of his 59 passing yards come through the air. He finished the game having completed just 4-of-14 passes targeted 10+ yards downfield. On passes where the ball was out by 2.5 seconds, he completed 18-of-27 passes with an NFL QB rating of 93.8. On dropbacks that lasted more than 2.5 seconds, he completed just two-of-nine attempts on 17 dropbacks, and had a passer rating of 12.0. Most uncharacteristic of Rodgers, though, were his turnover-worthy plays. He fumbled three times, two of which the offense was lucky to recover, threw a slant pass straight to Terence Newman in the red zone (only to have the interception dropped), and then tossed the pick to Trae Waynes in the final two minutes.
Want to see something even more depressing?
Rodgers is playing quarterback at a similar level to the San Francisco 49ers’ Blaine Gabbert.
Aaron Rodgers vs. Blaine Gabbert thus far: #Packers #49ers pic.twitter.com/LdFLLwhywY
— NFL EXPERT PICKS (@NFL_expertpicks) September 20, 2016
The problems are numerous, but the one that we seem to keep coming back to is the very reason Rodgers himself identified as his biggest issue last year — footwork. Rodgers, for whatever reason, doesn’t like to stand in the pocket anymore. He’s got happy feet and when he makes throws, he’s often doing so when he isn’t set.
That leads to diminished accuracy.
Perhaps Rodgers expects pressure on every passing play. There certainly have been times when the offensive line allowed pressure on a regular basis in the past. This year’s group has been playing just fine, though.
The line isn’t the issue here.