Hello smash fans, I hope you all are having an amazing day. In this week’s article, I wanted to talk about the Green Bay Packers and how they managed to waste the past 13 years of Aaron Rodger’s career.
Before we start, I do want to recognize that some of the blame for the Packer’s lack of success in the postseason is on Rodgers, but this does not change how Green Bay has run their organization during the last 13 years.
First up, I want to talk about coaching. Green Bay has had two coaches during Aaron Rodgers’ career, Mike McCarthy and Matt LaFleur. Now I don’t have any problems with LaFleur. I actually believe that he is a good coach. The person I want to focus on is Mike McCarthy because, for the first 10 years of Aarons’s career, this man was his coach, and he was not a great one.
Besides that fact that there is almost a consensus among fans and media that McCarthy isn’t a good head coach with videos on youtube stating that he is the second worst coach to win a Superbowl and articles that illustrate the fact that McCarthy is a bad game manager, let’s look at the facts. And the facts plainly state LaFleur is the better coach by far.
Over, the past two years, a 36 and 37-year-old Rodger has set career bests (as a starter) in touchdowns, touchdown percentage, competition percentage, and QBR. Furthermore, Rodgers recorded his second-best passer rating this season nearly matching his first MVP campaign in 2011. If you need any more proof than this, just look at McCarthy’s past season with the Cowboys. Yes, that team was riddled with injuries but that does not excuse the 1 and 3 start before Dak’s injury, only winning the one game by a hair after a comeback from 15 points down in the 4rth quarter due to the fact that the Falcons forgot how to field an onside kick. After that 1 and 3 start, the Cowboys would only win 4 more games even though they still arguable had the second-best quarterback talent in the division in Andy Dalton and the best running back and receiver core in the division as well.
Now, I want to shift the focus to the front office and talk about the talent that they have surrounded Aaron Rodgers with. In the last decade of Aaron Rodger’s career, the Packers defense has been top 10 a total of 1 time. The front office decided to draft Jorden Love in the first round in the 2020 NFL draft instead of getting a wide receiver that could help support Aaron. The last time that Aaron Rodgers had two solid wide receivers on the same roster was back when Jordy Nelson and Randle Cobb were on the team. The Packers have also only drafted 1 player on the offensive side of the ball not named Jordan Love in the past 10 years and that player is already retired. Furthermore from 2011 to 2017, the Packers spent the least amount of money in free agency in the entire league.
Overall the Packers have just failed to set up Rodgers for success and that has lead to an underwhelming amount of Super Bowl rings and appearances. It is time to face the fact that Green Bay’s management is not top tier, and they may have just wasted the talent of a generation and lost him because of it.
Thank you Smash Fans for sticking with me until the end. If you want to talk about this topic or any other topic sports-related, please email me or text me using the information on the contact page. If you want to support me even more, please consider following my Spotify as well as subscribing to my youtube channel and blog for weekly podcasts and articles. Until next time, PD Smash signing off.