Has the 4-time MVP and first ballot hall of famer taken his last stand?
Green Bay, WI– On Sunday night, under pressure, Aaron Rodgers threw a heave to Christian Watson only for it to be picked off by Lions safety Kerby Joseph. It might’ve been Rodgers’ last throw as a Packer.
Joseph has haunted the reigning MVP all year, being the first player to intercept Aaron Rodgers three times in one season. And thus, the storylines begin, is Aaron Rodgers done?
A slew of cryptic messages and innuendos left up to interpretation swarmed from both Rodgers’ mouth and the air in Green Bay last night following a 20-16 loss to the Detroit Lions eliminating the Packers from playoff contention in a Week 18 must-win game.
During the immediate postgame conversation, Lions WR Jameson Williams asked for Rodgers’ jersey, to which Rodgers responded with, “I gotta hold onto this one.”
A mysterious message signifying that this could have been Rodgers’ last hurrah as a Cheesehead.
In 12 back-to-back seasons as the Packers quarterback, Green Bay has been subject to a myriad of disappointments year after year with Rodgers at the helm. It’s been a revolving carousel of what blunder will the Packers make in order to find themselves ending their season again.
For a marquee veteran, one who will be hailed as one of the best to ever play the game, Rodgers has been rather bleak in big-time games, a trait that has almost always proven to lead to demise. The Packers have been a team which have been keystoned and linked by their hall of fame quarterback, usually having to step up and be Superman while the rest of the team could occasionally misstep and make mistakes. Lately, during the 2022 season, Aaron Rodgers has shown signs of regression, due to a multitude of factors.
“I think many times, and I’ve said this throughout my tenure here, the quarterback’s going to take the blunt of the blame when you don’t have success and a lot of the other time when you do have success, they’re going to get too much of that praise,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. “It takes everybody on that field.”
A new wide receiver cast, a lingering thumb and rib injury, and possibly fleeting talent has circled around the main man in the Green Bay QB room as of late. Yet, Rodgers has been able to cover up many of the Packers’ mishaps. Whether it be 2015 in Detroit when Rodgers launched a Hail Mary to keep Green Bay in playoff contention or 2013’s 4th & 8 dagger to Randall Cobb, Aaron Rodgers has always been there for the Packers when they needed him. And it has always almost ended up in disappointment.
It seems as though Rodgers’ tank is always empty when the mistakes culminate and it comes time to do or die.
He’s a bad man… except when the Packers need him for a final push.
Colin Kaepernick ravaged the Green Bay defense in 2012 and 2013, with Rodgers left to clean up the mess of a dwindling defense, which he was rather pedestrian in by Green Bay standards. A 55.9 passer rating versus the best defense in the NFL at the time in 2014 at Seattle in the NFC Championship Game sent a 16-0 lead vanishing into thin air and sent the Packers home.
Then, in 2015, Carson Palmer outdueled Rodgers in a showdown for the ages in the desert for a 26-20 overtime lead despite Rodgers throwing two Hail Marries and completing both. While the loss could be pinned on Green Bay’s suspect defense, it would be comical to let Rodgers off the hook with a 77.9 passer rating and a 54.5% completion rating.
In 2016, following an uncanny 4-6 start, Green Bay stormed back and made the NFC Championship Game, where they were embarrassed by Matt Ryan and the Falcons, with Rodgers’ supposed superpower-offense putting up a goose-egg in the first half. The Pack looked better in the second but by that time it was too little, too late en route to a 44-21 loss.
In 2019, Green Bay faced San Francisco, whose defense stifled the Packers, once again failing to score a single point in the first half.
In a 2021 rematch in the Divisional Round, the high-powered offense Rodgers and Company had flexed all season went ghost and was a remnant, only posting 10 points, putting an end to a magical year where Rodgers won his 4th MVP.
In Green Bay’s latest blunder, Green Bay once again couldn’t put the ball in the endzone in the first half versus the red-hot Lions, who by Sunday night had already been eliminated from playoff contention by way of the Seahawks win. Instead, Rodgers seemed off, missing wide open throws and almost being picked off by Kerby Joseph two times on the same Cover 2 hole shot to Aaron Jones.
Rodgers was held to an 83.1 passer rating, an abysmal statistic for borderline one of the best talents to ever step foot on a football field.
In his postgame conference, Rodgers spoke about his future with the Packers, promising them to not “hold them hostage” and that the feeling between the two parties “has to be mutual”. By now, you can start to see the similarities between Rodgers’ situation and Brett Favre’s nearly 18 seasons ago. The team had young Aaron Rodgers on deck in 2008 when the Packers decided to let then record-holder Favre go, and stick with the young buck from Cal who had waited for three years.
Now, Green Bay has first-round pick Jordan Love in the chamber, who also has waited three years for his turn, and has shown flashes of readiness versus the Kansas City Chiefs and Lions last year, and more recently, the number one team in the league Philadelphia Eagles, relieving an injured Aaron Rodgers in Week 12.
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“At some point the carousel comes to a stop and it’s time to get off,” Rodgers contemplated in his postgame presser. “And I think you kind of know when that is. And that’s what needs to be contemplated. Is it time? Also, what’s the organization doing? That’s part of it as well.” Later on, when asked about retirement, he stated, “I feel good about what I’ve accomplished in this league and wouldn’t have any regrets walking away.”
If that was the last pass of Rodgers’ heralded career, it certainly wouldn’t be the most ceremonial. Like something out of a nightmare, Rodgers posted career lows throughout the 2022 season, a 91.1 passer rating, 3,695 passing yards, the first time that’s happened when he’s played a full season since 2015, and a 39.2 quarterback rating. Absolutely abysmal for the no-doubt legend.
Rodgers said that he’d need to take some time well after the emotion of the game has passed and make his decision then, whether or not to return to the green and gold for another run. Promising, are the young stars that have emerged on this Green Bay Packer team. 2nd round draft choice Christian Watson has come on as Rodgers’ number one receiver along with Romeo Doubs also having a coming out rookie season showing spurts of brilliance. A young defense also has hope, with infamous rookie linebacker Quay Walker playing lights out through the Packers 5 game stretch. The secondary, bolstered by Jaire Alexander has also been impressive, forcing 8 takeaways in the previous 2 games before Detroit, an unpredicted turnaround for a Green Bay defense that has been the butt of many offenses.
If this is Rodgers’ last hurrah, it draws eerie parallels to Brett Favre’s last pass a Packer… which was also an interception. Fear it, run from it, dread it, destiny arrives all the same, and for the Green Bay Packers– it has arrived. The contention point is here, and it looks like history might repeat itself.
