You probably recall when Aaron Rodgers threw one of his four touchdowns against the Detroit Lions and then head-butted guard T.J. Lang and yelled, “I’m back!” Well, as we cautioned after that game, no one should be jumping to that conclusion.
In fact, at the quarter mark of the season, it’s clear Rodgers is not only not back, but he’s just bad. We’re not talking about bad for Aaron Rodgers because we all know the man has set a high bar, especially during his two MVP seasons. We’re talking about bad, period.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise if you’ve actually been watching and not blindly following. Rodgers regression started toward the end of the 2014 season, his last truly good campaign. In fact, we all got a great preview of what was to come in the 2014 NFC Championship game. It was a game full of gaffes, but I have always placed the blame for that loss mostly on Rodgers (even though he would tell you it was any number of other things).
Rodgers was 19-of-34 for 179 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. That gave him a 55.8 rating.
You can blame the Brandon Bosticks of the world for that loss, but the simple fact is, in the NFL you need your best players to show up for the biggest games. Rodgers didn’t really bother to do that.
We know what happened in 2015. It was hard to watch and Jordy Nelson’s absence was a convenient excuse.
Now Jordy Nelson is back, so there is no excuse. Rodgers is just doing his job poorly.
I’m sure there plenty of you out there who are ready to type a diatribe about my intelligence because HOW DARE I!?!
Just look at these statistics.
- Yards per game: 219 (26)
- Yards per attempt: 6.3 (28)
- Completion percentage: 56.1 (31)
- Rating: 87.7 (19)
The number in parenthesis is Rodgers’ ranking among quarterbacks with enough attempts. Clearly, all of those numbers put Rodgers in the bottom half of the league. In fact, he’s dead last in completion percentage.
Those numbers represent something else as well. If they hold for the entire season, they would also be career lows for Rodgers.
Unless something suddenly changes, the days of the Packers relying on Aaron Rodgers and their high-powered offense to win games are over. Someone should get Mike McCarthy that memo.
Question, Rodgers decline started really being consistent after the deflate case hit the fan, and Rodgers famously said he loved to over inflate the balls. Now the NFL is tightly controlling the psi and suddenly Rodgers has been consistently above average at best. Thoughts
This is interesting. Never thought of that and it is a very good point. Could play small part, although just the eye test in watching the tape there are certainly other factors like him bailing on a play before it full develops, his footwork, and his lack of trust in players around him. Also, McCarthy’s lack of adjustments and inconsistent separation by the receivers play a role as well. The ball inflation could play a role in some accuracy issues though
Ive been saying this since 2014 after we lost to the jets.
Rodgers ego will not let him achieve what he was once thought to be able to.
What made brett favre the most entertaining qb ever? He took risks. Aaron rodgers would rather throw to nelson in triple coverage than throw it to janis, montogomery, abbrederis, jared cook, or trevor davis… youre making it easy to defend.
Speaking of easy to defend, or predictable, mike mccarthy is trash. Underneath all of the chinese takeout menus there are plays on that gameplan that youre holding onto. Instead of looking like a dumbfounded buffoon constantly, maybe mix up your play calls.
After we lost to the Jets in 2014?
That second to last sentence was pure brilliance, LONGROD. Very funny!
Stop littering our website you homeless big fucking nothing.
Longrod….In order for Rodgers to throw it to Janis, Montgomery, Abbrederis, Jared Cook, or Trevor Davis, they’d actually have to be on the field.
I feel like we need a new head coach and offense. I don’t mind McCarthy, but the offense sucks right now. The first half against the lions, short methodical plays and Rogers caught fire. This last game, a lot going for the big play and the same lame groupings and personal we always see and Roger’s sucked… All day to throw and everyone’s covered. What’s new? Time for a new offense. The only issue I have with TT is keeping McCathy longer than he should have. — Time to draft a knock em dead Receiver, HB and TE.
Any person/dope can just read numbers off a sheet of paper or website. Did AR play a great game in the 2014 NFC Championship? No – he was also playing on one leg, and was brilliant, despite that, when needed vs. the Lions and Cowboys to get them there. But the team-wide collapse that day was monumental. Lat year, his surrounding cast was horrible, and played even worse, and he still almost elevated them to the NFC Championship game…See defensive collapse for why they didn’t get there.
He’s off to a slow statistical start this year, but they are 3-1. Jordy was horrid on Sunday night, though it’s good to have him back. Put it this way: if Rodgers were on the trading block, all 31 other teams would inquire.
Yea, im pretty sure that if he was put on the trade block there would not be 31 teams calling, not with the way hes played for the last year plus. Plus, your kinda forgetting that theres a few teams out there with franchise qbs they would not give up, hell there are even a couple rookies playing better right now.
You’re wrong, CUBAN. If the Packers agreed to pay most or all of Aaron’s salary I think all 31 teams are interested in upgrading their back-up QB if the required trade compensation was a 5th rounder or lower.
Eat a dick, you homeless big fucking nothing.
Three big egos responsible for the decline. The gray wonder. The buffoon and stubborn QB.
There was a time when Rodgers would spread the ball around so many receivers would show up in the box score. Now he only trust 3. And he keeps throwing to Dropvonte,unbelievable.
This train wreck is Thompson & McCarthy. BOTH have to go & take Alfred E Newman (Murphy) with them. WHY the F%$K do you hire a Offensive Coordinator from a 1-15 SF team as your HC?????? That’s monumental cluster F%$^!!! Those 2 Sphincters will do NOTHING to fix anything, shuffle practice squad, Do BS conf calls bout Cleaning things up, BLAH,BLAH,BLAH. The Cadaver Thompson & FATMIKE just hope to ravytrain a Wildcard game & get Bounced AGAIN. keep their jobs that way.