As someone who is battling a shadow war against Colin Cowherd (more on that later), it pains me to say this, but this take is 100% accurate. In the playoffs, Rodgers seems to revert to 2018 Aaron Rodgers. Locked in on Davante and Davante only, chucking the ball downfield into double coverage, holding the ball too long in the pocket, etc. I’ve gone back and watched some of the All-22 from Saturday, and he had SO MANY missed opportunities to get the ball out quickly, stay in the confines of the offense, and keep pushing the ball downfield. The most egregious example was the final offensive play of the game where he heaved it to Davante on 3rd & 11 instead of tossing an EASY pitch-and-catch* to Allen Lazard over the middle:
…tough one to watch back. Rodgers will be sick with himself when he sees it on the film. Ugh. pic.twitter.com/caI79hZIbV
— Ben Fennell (@BenFennell_NFL) January 23, 2022
Brutal. Lazard catches that and runs to at LEAST the Niner 30 yard line. In one play you give yourself a chance to kick a game winning field goal (which was likely to be blocked and returned for a touchdown but that’s another what-if story for another what-if day).
But outside of the first drive, and up until the Marcedes Lewis fumble on the second drive, that was how Rodgers played all game. All regular season long he got the ball out on time, took the check-downs, played within the offense and carved up opposing defenses. And for some reason that only he could explain, in the playoffs, he gets tunnel vision for 1 or 2 guys and tries to play hero-ball. I don’t understand it. I’ll never understand it.
And with Sunday’s loss, Rodgers is now 7-9 in playoff games since the Super Bowl XLV title. This is now his legacy. He’s got the 1 ring (thank GOD they got hot and he got that one), but for most of his career, his caliber of play in the postseason doesn’t come close to what we see in the regular season.
And look, I realize there’s more to it than just Rodgers. There were a lot of bad defenses in that time frame, the Bostick Boner, it’s a team game and it’s not ONLY Rodgers. But the buck stops with the best player, the most talented player, the highest paid player on the team. And that’s him. Unless he somehow reverses his fortunes in the postseason in Green Bay next season, or somewhere else, he’s going to go down as one of the greatest regular season quarterbacks of all time. He’s a Hall-of-Famer, no doubt, but any and all ‘GOAT’ talk can now stop completely.
So now the Packers are at a fork in the road that they need to figure out in the next month. We talked about this in the last blog, but I know there are a TON of Packer fans that are ready to move on from Rodgers. And I don’t blame them one bit. If they somehow restructure a million things, and get Rodgers and Adams back in Packer jerseys next season**, this team will win 11-13 regular season games, win the NFC North, and go to the playoffs. But what is going to be different once they get there? The 2020 and 2021 teams were without question the most talented teams in the entire NFL. The odds on Super Bowl favorites. They both got the #1 seed, home field, everything. And both didn’t even make it to the Super Bowl. So how will next year be any different? Run it back with a similar roster for the 4th straight year and just pray they play better in January? Hire a new ST coach and hope that unit isn’t -10 points in a playoff game? I don’t know.
The other side of that coin is Jordan Love. If you trade Rodgers, Adams is gone too. You’ll get a bunch of draft picks and maybe some usable talent back from whatever team you send them to, but at the end of the day, if Love isn’t ‘the guy,’ then we are headed for YEARS of darkness. And ask any other fan base in the NFL, the likelihood is that it will be much more that 2-4 years. Just ask the Bengals. They finally have a franchise quarterback, but it took them THIRTY YEARS to find one. Just like it took the Packers about 30 years in between Starr and Favre (sorry Lynn Dickey). That’s the risk if you do move on from Rodgers.
I guess I don’t know what I would do if I were Gutey, but I think I err on the side of trying to bring Rodgers and Adams back, gutting the whole special teams operation, and just hoping they play better in January 2023. But I wouldn’t be stunned if they burn it all to the ground, sacrifice 2022 and 2023, and hope to be playoff-ready by 2024.
*Said the guy who has worn sweatpants for 72 straight hours.
**This would come at the expense of a bunch of talent on the defensive side of the football. Za’Darius is gone either way, but if you restructure Rodgers and extend Adams, it’s going to be extremely difficult to resign De’Vondre Campbell or Rasul Douglas. Adrian Amos might be a cap casualty as well.
PS: I don’t know why, but Colin Cowherd references Sheboygan at least once a month on his show. And even though he has ZERO reason to even know who I am, listen to these clips and tell me he’s not talking about me:
You can’t convince me that’s not a shot against me. I’m Bob in Sheboygan. The NFL does beat my brains in every week. I roll in off the toilet and do a morning show.
