Photo Credit: Morry Gash/AP
Watching Aaron Rodgers play against the Arizona Cardinals and the Minnesota Vikings was pretty pathetic especially for someone as “elite” as Rodgers. Some would say that Rodgers is suffering due to the loss of his top receiver Jordy Nelson as well as a slight midseason decline of running back Eddie Lacy. Not all of the blame can lay on what is around Rodgers, however, most of the blame has to lay on Rodgers himself. Having a down season is one thing but when Kirk Cousins is playing better than you, there’s something wrong.
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when Rodgers started to fall; it could have been the loss of Jordy Nelson during a preseason game. In 2014, Nelson was targeted 151 times with 98 receptions with an average of 15.5 reception yards per catch. He also led the team in touchdowns and receiving yards in contrast to this year where James Jones leads the team, but only has eight touchdowns and 890 receiving yards for the season.
Let’s look at 2014 Aaron Rodgers versus 2015 Aaron Rodgers to see the exact difference. In 2014, Rodgers completed 341 of 520 passes while he only completed 347 of 572 this season; his overall completion percentage went down almost five points from 65.6 to 60.7. His average yards per pass decreased as well from 8.43 to 6.68. The stats that really hurt Rodgers were his stats during Green Bay’s game against the Arizona Cardinals. Rodgers had a completion percentage of 53.6%, threw one touchdown and one interception, was sacked eight times and lost two fumbles. The biggest slap in the face though was that Rodgers was benched for backup QB Scott Tolzien during the blowout against the Cardinals.
At the beginning of the season, Rodgers seemed better than ever and looked like he could propel the Packers to go undefeated. The facade of Rodgers as perfect has been lifted and we all can see that he is not perfect; Sunday’s game against Washington will truly tell us if we can still trust Rodgers.
