The most prestigious title to come out of the Rodgers Family in the last five years is Jordan Rodgers winning The Bachelorette. It wasn’t supposed to be this way.
When the Green Bay Packers and Aaron Rodgers lifted the Lombardi Trophy following their Super Bowl XLV victory over Pittsburgh in February 2011, the NFL steeled itself for the Aaron Rodgers Era of domination. The Brett Favre protege had only just turned 28 and was a Super Bowl champion in his third year as a starter in the NFL. The modern Packers dynasty was upon us.
Green Bay opened the 2011 season at 7-1 Super Bowl odds, second only to the Patriots – as the Patriots always open with the best odds, per modern NFL tradition – and tied with the Philadelphia Eagles. As the season progressed, everything went according to plan ... save for the Eagles becoming an NFL “Dream Team,” of course.
Rodgers put up career numbers that would earn him his first MVP and the Packers cruised to 15-1, good enough for the NFC’s No1 seed and the opportunity to rest starters in Week 17 as future Seahawk Matt Flynn threw six touchdown passes.
The Packers were heavy favorites to repeat as Super Bowl champions. How could they not be? Even their backup QB was a star. But then, in their opening playoff game after a first-round bye, they got blown out by Eli Manning and the Giants, 37-20. At Lambeau Field. It was a stunning and disappointing end to the season and sent Packers fans into the depressing Wisconsin winter cold and alone and weeks ahead of schedule. Yet if there was any consolation in Green Bay back then, it was knowing the loss to the Giants was merely a brief stumble on the way to the promised dynasty.
But now it’s 2016 and there has been no second Lombardi Trophy for Rodgers and definitely no dynasty. There hasn’t been a return trip to the Super Bowl. The Packers aren’t even coming off a division title this year either. Last season the NFC North was won by the Minnesota Vikings, quarterbacked by Teddy Bridgewater, who was still in high school when the Packers won their last championship. Time is passing.
The Aaron Rodgers Era of NFL domination has not come to pass. But it’s not the fault of one of football’s top QBs. Sure, Rodgers hasn’t always been at his best in the playoffs. His 19-for-34 game against the Seahawks in the 2015 NFC title game that produced just 178 yards of passing, two interceptions and a total of nine points in the three final quarters and overtime comes to mind. But he has done more than enough to succeed in January. In 13 career playoff starts, Rodgers’ QB rating is 98.2. Tom Brady’s? More than 10 points lower at 88.0. Rodgers is playing like a quarterback in his prime. The question is: Why are the Packers wasting his prime?
Jordan’s older brother will turn 33 this season, old enough to have a few gray whiskers on the face of the franchise. This will be his 12th season in the NFL and ninth as a full-time starter. He is at the peak of his powers – if not already past them, as some have worried Rodgers’ career-low QB rating of 2015 portends. Either way, the time to win is now. So in order to load up and give Rodgers what he needs to deliver Green Bay its fifth (and sixth and seventh) Super Bowl title, the Packers this season went out and brought in ... former Titans and Rams tight end Jared Cook and Broncos special teamer Lerentee McCray. Yeah. That’s it. Those are savvy moves if Green Bay’s new strategy is to be overlooked by everyone and then quietly surprise their way to a championship.
The fact that Green Bay didn’t use free agency to bring in big names is no surprise. Splashy moves are not the style of general manager Ted Thompson. He’s built a consistent contender through the draft in the 12 years since he took the job and selected Rodgers with the 24th pick. Thompson prefers to build from within and that appears to be the whole plan on how to contend this year. Jordy Nelson’s knee is intact and Eddie Lacy has slimmed down to the point that he no longer looks like BJ Raji and that’s apparently the end of the plan. Green Bay are going to sink or swim with essentially the same team they had at the end of the 2014 season when they were sunk by Seattle.
Even if Nelson returns right back to his 1,500-yard pre-injury form and Lacy doesn’t return to the shape of a lineman, they will only help the offense. Rodgers’ unit has never been the problem. It’s been Green Bay’s defense, ranging from mediocre to abysmal, that has ranked 32nd, 11th, 25th, 15th and 15th respectively in yards allowed in the five years since Super Bowl XLV. Yet 66-year old Dom Capers is still the defensive coordinator, firmly in place high above the field in the coaches’ box as the game passes him by below. And Raji retired in the offseason at age 29, forcing the Packers to use their first-round pick on defensive tackle Kenny Clark.
Selected out of UCLA after his junior year, the 20-year old Clark projects to be a very good NFL player ... in a few years. Right now, this year, Rodgers is almost 33. Nelson is 31. Julius Peppers 36 and Clay Matthews 30. The window is open now, but the Packers have pulled up to the window and ordered more of the same.
There’s no reason to think the Packers can’t be a playoff team again this season and just getting there with Rodgers under center gives them a chance to reach the Super Bowl if he plays out of his mind. But Rodgers deserves more than having to carry a team at this stage of his career. He deserves more than Jared Cook and Lerentee McCray and a 20 year-old replacement for BJ Raji. The Broncos proved last year it’s possible to win a Super Bowl without a quarterback. The Packers seem intent on proving you can win one with little else.
Rodgers famously once told Packers fans to RELAX. R-E-L-A-X. That was almost two full years ago after a disappointing 1-2 start to the 2014 season. Two years. Two more title-less years. It may not be time for the Packers to panic quite yet, but the relaxing should be over or they’re going to nap right through Aaron Rodgers’ career.
