Top-10 List Should Add Fuel to Rodgers’ Fire

“He’s like that friend that growing up in middle school, let’s say you’re at recess and you’re sitting on the bench and you spit,” David Bakhtiari said of Aaron Rodgers.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – If a spitting competition is enough to bring out the competitor in Aaron Rodgers, then learning he’s not even one of the top 10 quarterbacks in the NFL should really get his competitive juices boiling.

Sean Wagner-McGough of CBS Sports ranked the top 10 quarterbacks in the NFL. Patrick Mahomes was No. 1 on the list; Rodgers didn’t even make the cut.

“Rodgers is one of the greatest quarterbacks I’ll ever get to watch,” Wagner-McGough wrote. “But I left him off the list because, as stated above, we’re looking ahead to the 2020 season and, well, Rodgers has already started his decline. In 2019, Rodgers threw for 4,002 yards, 26 touchdowns, and only four interceptions, but he averaged only 7.0 yards per attempt, and ranked 13th in DVOA, which measures value per play, and 20th in total QBR. The truth of the matter is, Rodgers hasn’t been operating at his peak for a few seasons now.”

It’s been an eventful calendar year for Rodgers. Under coach Matt LaFleur, though Rodgers’ statistically wasn’t any better than he was in 2018 under former coach Mike McCarthy, the Packers surged to 13-3. The Packers reached the NFC Championship Game but were overwhelmed by San Francisco. Rather than give Rodgers another weapon in the draft, general manager Brian Gutekunst drafted Rodgers’ potential successor, Jordan Love, in the first round.

Not much is expected from the Packers or Rodgers this season. And that should be an added kick in the pants for the two-time MVP quarterback.

“He’s like that friend that growing up in middle school, let’s say you’re at recess and you’re sitting on the bench and you spit,” Bakhtiari said on the “Jim Rome Show” on Tuesday. “And your friend spits further. He immediately takes that as a competition. Now, he’s going to make sure he’s going to spit the furthest. Any little thing, he wants to make sure he’s better than the other person and he will take the time and really pick up the nuances and do the mental game behind it. When we play card games, it’s so crazy seeing how he can quickly pick up not only the rules of a new game but also the certain strategies like someone seasoned. Someone who hasn’t been playing that game for a while, they need to learn through the errors and the faults. He just picks it up right away. It really speaks not only to his competitiveness but his mental aptitude to cerebrally dive into anything.”

In a Zoom call last week, quarterbacks coach Luke Getsy said Rodgers  has taken a business-as-usual approach to the team’s virtual offseason.

“Nothing has changed,” Getsy said. “This guy is extremely motivated. His input through this offseason has maybe been the best I’ve been around, to be honest with you. We’ve included him in so much and we needed him to be included in so much. He’s been huge. He’s clarified things for us; we’ve clarified things for him. I feel like there’s no question that we’re moving into this summer with our staff being on the same page with him as good as I’ve ever been with him.”