Rodgers Turns Back Clock for Mind-Blowing Season
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Through the first eight games of the 2011 season, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ passer rating was a ridiculous 129.1. Through the first eight games in 2014, his passer rating was 113.6.
Rodgers won NFL MVP honors following both of those seasons.
Rodgers is at it again with a turn-back-the-clock season worthy of winning a third MVP.
At the midpoint of the season, Rodgers has completed 67.5 percent of his passes for 2,253 yards with 24 touchdowns vs. two interceptions, good for a passer rating of 117.5. The simple math shows a quarterback on pace for more than 4,500 passing yards and an unfathomable 48 touchdowns vs. four interceptions.
If he can continue that pace for the rest of the season, he would have a 12-to-1 touchdown-to-interception ratio. That would be the fourth-best in NFL history behind Tom Brady’s 14.0 in 2016, Nick Foles’ 13.5 in 2013 and Rodgers’ 12.5 in 2018. In fact, of the top 11 seasons in NFL history, Rodgers would hold five of the spots.
“It’s unbelievable,” coach Matt LaFleur said after a 34-17 thumping of the undermanned San Francisco 49ers on Thursday. “You could give him the game ball every game. He is an unbelievable quarterback, just pinpoint accuracy and just what a great leader he is for everybody. It is definitely special to be a part of this with him leading the way for us and he just has such command out there on the field. It really is something special to watch.”
The 36-year-old Rodgers has a 110-plus passer rating in six of eight games this season. That’s as many as his last 34 games combined.
While Rodgers has been dominant, Seattle’s Russell Wilson is the runaway leader for MVP honors. At DraftKings, he is an overwhelming -167. Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes is next at +400, Rodgers is +500 and Tampa Bay’s Brady is +1,300. Arizona’s Kyler Murray leads the next tier but at a distant +2,800.
Rodgers has “been all over the place” on the MVP board based on the team’s performances vs. Tampa Bay, Houston, Minnesota and San Francisco, noted Johnny Avello, DraftKings’ director of race and sportsbook operations.
“Wilson’s never won this before, if it comes down to the two of them and they’re close,” Avello continued. “You’re supposed to look at the strength of schedule, so that’s certainly something to look at. If you look at the two divisions that they play in, Seattle’s got the edge. But Rodgers, that’s not been the healthiest of teams, either, so he’s working his magic this year.”
With Rodgers’ weekly magic, a team that was supposed to take a significant step backward after going 13-3 last season is on pace to go 12-4 this season. Green Bay is second with 31.6 points per game, a dramatic improvement of 8.1 points over last year.
Rodgers’ 24 touchdown passes matches his eight-game high set in 2011. Against the 49ers, he threw four touchdowns vs. six incompletions.
“It’s fun to execute the way we did tonight,” Rodgers said. “Obviously, it’s nice being clean and not really getting hit at all, other than the end of the first half. Having Aaron Jones back got them thinking about the run and we did a good job up front of slowing them down, opening up some gaps and kind of taking what was there. In the pass game, we were efficient and made some really good plays down the field. I threw it pretty accurately. When it was off-schedule, I think we did a nice job of keeping things alive and making some plays.”
The huge move on the scoreboard this season shows up in vital areas where it struggled last season, third down and red zone. The Packers are fifth on third down (vs. 23rd last year) and seventh in the red zone (vs. eighth last season, though the touchdown percentage has gone from 64.0 to 74.2). Their streak of 12 consecutive red-zone touchdowns, dating to the Week 4 game against Atlanta, was snapped in the third quarter on Thursday. For the season, Rodgers has fired a league-high 18 touchdowns vs. zero interceptions in the red zone. That’s already more touchdown passes than in 2019 (16 touchdowns, two interceptions) and 2018 (16 touchdowns, one interception).
Rodgers’ pace of 48 touchdowns and four interceptions is unprecedented. Of all quarterbacks with four-or-fewer interceptions in NFL history, Brady’s 36 touchdowns in 2010 is the best season. Rodgers is on track to crush that by a dozen scores.
While Mahomes leads the way with 20 touchdowns vs. one interception to start this season, Rodgers’ rate of 12 touchdowns for every interception is preposterous. He is the NFL’s all-time leader in that stat with a career mark of 4.51, far distant Wilson’s next-best mark of 3.42.
