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Is it a little frustrating for the teams involved having to wait on the four-time MVP? Sure. But the New York Giants and Pittsburgh Steelers wouldn’t be waiting for him if it wasn’t worth it—nor would the Minnesota Vikings even consider him.
And this is where we run into the problem.
Saying Rodgers has lost something doesn’t mean he’s lost everything. Those who studied him last year will tell you he hasn’t. Then, they’ll add that while the guy who was once the best quarterback in the league may not be that anymore, he’s still the best quarterback and, again, certainly worth waiting for.
I talked to one pro scouting director earlier in the month who told me to go back and watch the New York Jets’ Week 15 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. He said it was all there. Rodgers’s ability to throw and see and think the game at a high level was on that tape. So I took a look, and he wasn’t lying. There were examples where you could see Rodgers couldn’t escape the way he used to, but a lot more where he showed he can still sling it with anyone.
If you weren’t watching, it’s tough to blame you. It was a mid-December game between two 3–10 teams. But go back and look, and I bet you’ll see what I did in the 289-yard, three-touchdown performance that Rodgers gave the Jets in a 32–25 win.
So, then, I wanted to check in with some others who went against him near the end of the year. Opinions did vary. What didn’t was the idea that Rodgers still has something to give.
“He’s on the downside,” said one AFC exec whose team played the Jets late. “He still has the flashes of arm talent and accuracy. There’s a depreciation of the mobility that made him great, when he was that two-way, run/pass option player on every play. It’s relegated him to being more of a pocket-passing veteran. Do I think he can start for a year? I do. … He still sees the field well, has football intelligence, the quick release. His arm’s not quite what it was but with the right surrounding cast? Yes.”
“I think the guy is still a beast,” texted an AFC defensive coach who went against him during that time. “Mentally and arm-talent-wise, he hasn’t dropped off at all. Now, his mobility and athleticism, of course, isn’t the same as it was 10 years ago. [But] if I’m a team and I need a quarterback right now, I don’t hesitate signing him.”
The coach then sent another text, “I would not flinch.”
The AFC exec was a little more measured, in saying, “Know the options are limited, yeah, I would, if I had the right coaches, the OC specifically, the support system. You’d have to consider it.”
Now, there’s certainly a perception out there that last year was indicative of Rodgers’s career careening off the NFL’s freeway and into a ditch. The reality is that, again, while he wasn’t what he had been before, he finished eighth in passing yards (3,897), seventh in touchdown passes (28) and had a middling passer rating (90.5) while enduring a train wreck of circumstances with his head coach and offensive coordinator replaced midseason.
Could it be better in a more stable situation? Since he’s 41 years old, there’s obviously a ceiling on that, but it’s fair to think a motivated Rodgers has one last real run in him.
“There was a time when Aaron was like [Patrick] Mahomes or Josh Allen—when things would break down, he could create with his mobility and athleticism,” the coach continued, via text. “Obviously, at 41, he can’t do that like he used to. But he can still move. He’s not a complete statue back there. And he also might be a little bit more mobile this year, two years removed from the Achilles.”
The Steelers and Giants certainly think so. The Vikings are contemplating it, too.
And that’s not without reason.
