Love Perhaps Gives Packers Better Chance to Win Without Rodgers
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Aaron Rodgers’ streak of 56 consecutive starts, third-longest among quarterbacks, will end on Sunday when the Green Bay Packers kick off their game at the Kansas City Chiefs.
At least they’re in a better position to win this time.
Rodgers has started 198 regular-season games in his career. Including playoffs, he’s started 218 games. In regular-season play, he’s 133-64-1. That’s a .674 winning percentage. Without him, Green Bay is 6-11-1 – a winning percentage of only .361.
The last time Rodgers was out was 2017, the second time he was sidelined by a broken collarbone. Injured early in the Week 7 game at Minnesota, Rodgers spent seven games on injured reserve before returning for a must-win game at Carolina. The Packers lost that game and Rodgers spent the final two weeks back on injured reserve.
Rodgers went 4-3 as a starter that season. He threw 16 touchdowns vs. six interceptions with a 97.2 passer rating. His replacement, Brett Hundley, went 3-6. He threw nine touchdowns vs. 12 interceptions with a 70.6 passer rating. The interceptions stick out like a sore thumb. Rodgers threw 13 in 2008, his first season as the starter, and 11 in 2010. Over the next 10 seasons, he’s never thrown more than eight.
In 2013, Rodgers missed seven games with a broken collarbone. He went 6-3 as the starter with 17 touchdowns, six interceptions and a 104.9 rating. Veteran Seneca Wallace played most of the Chicago game off the bench but suffered a groin injury on his opening series of a loss to Philadelphia the following week. The next man up was Scott Tolzien, who went 0-1-1 in his starts. He threw one touchdown vs. five interceptions with a 66.8 rating in a little more than 10 quarters of action. Matt Flynn replaced Tolzien during that tie vs. Minnesota and went 2-2 as the starter. In about four-and-a-half games, Flynn threw seven touchdowns vs. four interceptions with an 86.1 rating. He kept the Packers afloat so Rodgers could return to win the NFC North at Chicago in Week 17.
Hundley was a fifth-round pick in 2015, putting him in his third season when he replaced Rodgers in 2017. In 2013, Tolzien was in his third year in the NFL but hadn’t played a snap until being thrust into action, and Flynn was in his sixth year in the league and second tour of duty with Green Bay.
Jordan Love, of course, was a first-round pick in 2020. In Year 2, his NFL experience consists of seven passes in garbage time of the season-opening loss to the New Orleans Saints. He could be joined in the huddle by almost every starter, though, with the possibility that All-Pro left tackle David Bakhtiari, All-Pro receiver Davante Adams and big-play receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling will be back in action.
Is he ready?
“We’ll find out, right?” LaFleur said on Wednesday. “I know he’s been working hard every day, and I think Luke Getsy does a great job with him, getting him prepared. The majority of his reps have taken place on the scout team, but when we’re doing those scout teams in practice, you try to take whatever play that they’re running and put it into our terms to help the development process. So, I know he takes every rep very seriously.”
Taking care of the ball will be key. In 2013 and 2017, Green Bay's other quarterbacks threw 22 interceptions in 16 games. During his 56-game starts streak, Rodgers has thrown 14.
The longest ironman streaks at quarterback are Tampa Bay’s Tom Brady with 84 consecutive starts, followed by Las Vegas’ Derek Carr (66), Rodgers, Buffao’s Josh Allen (45) and Arizona’s Kyler Murray (40).
