Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Jerry Rice, Lawrence Taylor.
Those are some players who are considered the GOAT (Greatest of all time) of the NFL (National Football League) by fans. But there’s one player who seems to fly under the radar; Aaron Rodgers.
Especially talking about the best quarterback of all time. Of course, Brady, also Peyton Manning Joe Montana, and Drew Brees. For some reason Rodgers is always left out of this conversation and it’s hard to understand why.
We’ve all heard it, Brady has seven Superbowl rings so he’s the GOAT, but Rodgers does have a case. I am not denying that seven rings are an amazing accomplishment and most likely will not be replicated, but they are not the result of just one person. It takes a team to win. Brady has had a statistically top five defense for the majority of his career. Rodgers has had a top five defense once, in 2011, his first Superbowl victory. People love to clown Rodgers because he seems to choke in the playoffs but let’s look at how Rodgers performed in some of those games.
The Packers played the Arizona Cardinals in the 2015 NFC divisional round.
They ended up losing in overtime 26-20. This was not Rodgers best game only completing 24 of his 44 pass attempts, but with a minute remaining and a 4th and 20 from their own four-yard line, Rodgers hit Jeff Janis for 61-yards. Then with five ticks left; Rodgers threw a hail mary to Janis who came down with it to send the game to overtime. But the Packer defense let up a 75-yard pass play on the first play from the
line of scrimmage. A couple plays later, the Cardinals scored, winning the game.
In 2016, the Packers played the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC title game and ultimately lost 44-21. It is kind of hard to win when the defense gives up 44 points and allows almost 500 yards. Rodgers put up 287 passing yards, three touchdowns, but did throw one interception. Good performance by Rodgers.
Another NFC title game in 2019 saw the Packers play the San Francisco 49ers. Again, the defense was a letdown giving up 37 points to the 49ers and allowing almost 300 rushing yards. Rodgers put up over 300 yards and had two touchdowns versus two interceptions.
As of week two of the 2022 season, Rodgers has 55,789 passing yards (ranks 10th all time), 451 passing touchdowns (ranks 5th all time), and a career passer rating of 104.4 (ranks 3rd all time). Rodgers also has the best passer rating in a season with 122.5 in 2011, the most consecutive passes without an interception (402), lowest career interception percentage (1.3%) only throwing 94 in his 15 full time seasons. For reference, Brady’s interception percentage is 1.8%, and Peyton Manning’s is 2.7%.
Rodgers has also won the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award four times, trailing Peyton Manning (5), and is a four-time first team all-pro. Also note that Rodgers sat behind Brett Favre for three years after being drafted in 2005. It’s hard to understand why Rodgers is left out of the GOAT conversation with stats like these and his performance in games where he’s “choked.” It is tough to win when your defense gives up about 30 points, but Rodgers still gets the blame. I guess people think he plays defense and gave up all those points.
