If Aaron Rodgers had to hit the open market, which teams do you think would be interested? (1 Viewer)

[MissippiWhoDat]

Garbage team most of his career? I agree that McCarthy is an underachieving coach, but the Packers teams of the last decade have been pretty good. Rodgers has been in the playoffs every year except for this past season and 2008. Green Bay made the post season for 8 consecutive seasons, which is the most of an NFC team in the last decade.

Rodgers became the starter for a team that was coming off a 13-3 season and had made the NFC title game. The Packers absolutely were not a dumpster fire or anything close when they handed the reins over to him. He had weapons like Donald Driver and Greg Jennings who had been with Favre. Green Bay drafted Jermichael Finley and Jordy Nelson in 2008 and Ryan Grant was a 1,000 yard rusher before injuries shortened his career.

The 2010 SB winning Packers are kinda underrated with how people treat them as some fluke team just cause they went 10-6. Despite only being 10-6, they ranked high in the top 3 on DVOA ratings all year and were projected to go 12-4 based off their stats. They were dominating teams during the season when they were healthy before all the injuries came to hurt them. Their defense ranked in the top 5 for points and top 10 on yards and they're the only team of the modern SB era to never trail by more than 7 points in a game. All their losses were close and they suffered through tremendous injuries all year. 10-6 could've easily been 12-4 or 13-3 if they win their overtime games and if Rodgers starts vs the Patriots (they almost beat New England with Matt Flynn starting). That was a great team and they were rightfully favored by Vegas in the Super Bowl against Pittsburgh. When they shot up to that 21-3 lead early, they proved it.

GB has had a 15-1 season and reached two NFC title games after their SB win on top of 8 consecutive years of reaching the playoffs. That's hardly a garbage team by any measure.

Brees has been on far worse teams than Rodgers if you're going to compare them. Everyone loves to talk about how bad Green Bay's defense is when they get stomped in the playoffs, but no one says it during the season when their defense will get interceptions and play good for a stretch of games. Brees was on 4 teams who had historical terrible defenses in 2012, 2014, 2015 and 2016. The worst defense Rodgers has had to deal with was the 2011 Packers who ranked dead last in yardage and yet they some how went 15-1 that year and were SB favorites.

When he first took over, they had a really good team. I'd argue that he drug a bad/below avg team to the playoffs most of those years in that 8 year streak. Our bad teams have been way worse than their bad teams though. I still think he's the best ever. He has to throw a lot of his receivers open or make extremely tight window throws. He doesn't get to throw ~10 wide open completions a game that Brees, Brady or Goff last year get to throw because McCarthy isn't on the same level as Payton, McDaniels or McVay.

 

[Saviorbrees]

Every team would be interested even us. Would be a huge bidding war and he would end up going to browns.

 

[DoubleSaint]

The Redskins would throw some money at him.

The Vikings love collecting Quarterbacks, and they signed Favre so history could repeat itself.

 

[ChaChingBaby]

When he first took over, they had a really good team. I'd argue that he drug a bad/below avg team to the playoffs most of those years in that 8 year streak. Our bad teams have been way worse than their bad teams though. I still think he's the best ever. He has to throw a lot of his receivers open or make extremely tight window throws. He doesn't get to throw ~10 wide open completions a game that Brees, Brady or Goff last year get to throw because McCarthy isn't on the same level as Payton, McDaniels or McVay.

Completely disagree with you.

This is Green Bay's records when they make the playoffs under Rodgers.

2009 - 11-5
2010 - 10-6 - SB winner
2011 - 15-1 Division Champs
2012 - 11-5 Division Champs
2013 - 8-7-1 Still Division Champs
2014 - 12-4 Division Champs
2015 - 10-6
2016 - 10-6 Division Champs

5 of these 8 teams won their division. This isn't some mediocre team that he drags to the playoffs by the skin of their teeth. Green Bay was averaging at least 11-12 wins with a healthy Rodgers excluding 2013 when he was injured most of the year. They didn't start to really suffer until 2015 when Rodgers' production began to slip and their over-reliance on the passing game became exposed as a weakness for teams to exploit. Denver wrote the blueprint to shutting Rodgers down in 2015 and everyone followed that formula after that beat down game.

If anything, I'd argue that the NFC North is a weak division and Green Bay has benefited from beating up on 3 teams who are usually mediocre at best. Chicago won the division in 2010 and no one took them seriously under Jay Cutler. The Lions make the playoffs from time to time but with one of the worst records against teams at .500 or above under Stafford. The jury is still out on Minnesota, as this year is their chance to prove last year wasn't a fluke if they can reach the playoffs with having to face a healthy Rodgers. For most of GB's dominance though, the NFC North has been just slightly better than the old AFC South the Colts used to easily dominate.

Mike McCarthy is not a terrible coach with his record. I agree that he's overrated cause his teams underachieve in the post season when they should be flying high. He has some pretty big embarrassing playoff losses where he was out-coached against Tom Coughlin twice, Jim Harbaugh twice and Pete Carroll. But the Packers offensive scheme is built around Rodgers' skill set and was a key reason he had his MVP seasons. Rodgers thrives in the west coast offensive scheme.

I don't think he's the best QB ever. He has the best TD/INT ratio in NFL history and that's it. If you're judging a QB solely based on TD/INT ratio, then he's your guy. When you look at his numbers besides the TD/INT ratio, Rodgers is far behind other QB's. Manning, Brees and Brady beat him out on every other statistic and it's not even close. His TD's are inflated at times due to how often Green Bay throws the ball at the goal line rather than handing it off to an RB and punching it in. (To be fair; the Pats do this too and it accounts for some of Brady's high TD numbers.)

Back in the 90's, Steve Young had all the great stats for this argument. He even retired at the time with the best TD/INT ratio and QB rating in NFL history, which Rodgers owns right now. Young also had the records for completion percentage during his time. No one called Young the greatest quarterback ever despite having those records at the time of his retirement. Pull up Young's stats, and they still look impressive by today's standards. It's always bugged me that Rodgers' owning those two records is brought up all the time by pundits in arguments labeling him the GOAT. He pretty much is the modern Steve Young in a number of ways; Both of them replaced a Hall of Fame quarterback. Both of them put up more impressive numbers than their predecessor. Both have a poor number of comeback wins despite their amazing stats. Both of them play in offenses centered around passing and designed around their skill set as passers. Could also add that they both have poor durability, but Rodgers injuries are different than Young, who suffered a high number of concussions that led to his retirement.

He has to throw a lot of his receivers open or make extremely tight window throws.

So does Brees and Brady. Brees has spent years having to surgically throw the ball in very tight spaces. Peyton Manning spent his entire career winning close games by doing this. You can also throw in Montana and Marino whom very efficient in their primes back in previous eras when the rules didn't overly favor passing.

Rodgers has a very poor comeback record compared to those QB's I mentioned. Manning is still the king of comebacks and though Brady is behind him, he needs 9 more comebacks just to tie Manning. Our very own Brees, has built up a pretty impressive record of comebacks in his career.

Most of his memorable tight window completions come from sideline plays where the ball could easily go out of bounds and not run the risk of an INT. It's rare for him to take risks throwing long passes down the middle or in risky coverage. This is one of the key reasons his TD/INT ratio is so impressive but lacks the comeback wins, because he does not take the chances that QB's like Manning and Brees will, with making risky throws in tight coverage when you desperately need big plays. Rodgers stats still look fine even when the Packers get blown out badly.

He doesn't get to throw ~10 wide open completions a game that Brees, Brady or Goff last year get to throw because McCarthy isn't on the same level as Payton, McDaniels or McVay.

When do we average 10 wide open plays a game? I can't remember the last time we did. I've seen it happen for New England and often wonder why teams run that useless zone coverage against them, but that's another subject. Modern NFL defenses are more adjusted to guarding against the pass than ever. Rodgers having to deal with coverage is nothing different from other QB's having to deal with it. Like I mentioned about his reliance on sideline passes, teams have been adjusting on this vs Green Bay over the last few years. The main reason their offense has struggled since 2015 is because teams know how to counter Rodgers. If there's something to blame McCarthy on, it's definitely that. He's done nothing to adjust to this and as time goes by, teams have figured out how to lock Rodgers up and shut the Packers offense down. The Packers overly rely on great QB play.

The jury is still out on Sean McVay. The Rams offense got shut down when they played defenses like Minnesota, Jacksonville and then the Falcons in the playoffs. They have to prove this year that they weren't a fluke last year. I'm not ready to call McVay a great offensive mind until we see what else he does.

Rodgers is a great QB and will be a Hall of Famer in the future, but I don't think he's the greatest ever. In the last decade, I am taking Brees and Manning over him without question. He will no doubt retire with the best QB rating and TD/INT ratio in NFL history like Steve Young did, and then another 10 years later someone else will break that record.

 

[Swimmer]

Perfecta for us. He plays 2018 under contract, tagged in 2019, then becomes Drew’s replacement after he retires following back to back SBs.

Hey Waffles - I posted that about a year ago and got roasted. You are survinvig it well. I hope you are right.

 

[LetsGetWaffles]

Hey Waffles - I posted that about a year ago and got roasted. You are survinvig it well. I hope you are right.

I am so far. I bet if you said that Pete mentioned it as a possibility due to inside info that it would rival the Suh thread.

 

[Swimmer]

I am so far. I bet if you said that Pete mentioned it as a possibility due to inside info that it would rival the Suh thread.

haha. Lmao. Pete usually has such high quality insights and intel, I try to convey it as best as I understand. But Waffles I thought it was really interesting what you said so I just texted him. He will 1) Not respond because he thinks its stupid 2) say something funny smart arse 3) or shoot it down as crazy. We shall see

 

[Swimmer]

I am so far. I bet if you said that Pete mentioned it as a possibility due to inside info that it would rival the Suh thread.

Pete texted back, "NO WAY!"

 

[LetsGetWaffles]

Pete texted back, "NO WAY!"

Well... Shirt!!!!