Photo by Adam Ryan Morris.
You wouldn’t think there’s much of a drawback to breaking records and becoming the best.
Aaron Rodgers did just that last season. “His 2011 MVP award commemorated one of the greatest statistical seasons in NFL history,” Jason Wilde wrote in his Milwaukee Magazine profile of the Green Bay Packers quarterback.
The official measuring stick was his quarterback rating of 122.5, the best single-season mark ever posted. The unofficial measure? Your eyes.
With every pinpoint back-shoulder throw, every magical escape, every piece of perfection, you knew you were witnessing something special. And the end results confirmed it: a 15-1 regular season for the Packers despite Green Bay’s defense being historically bad.
Now, here we are in 2012, and the Packers sit at 2-3, and here’s the topic du jour: “What’s wrong with Rodgers?” Because now his passer rating is only 97.0, which is far from the best in history. Heck, this season alone, it barely cracks the top 10.
After five weeks, Rodgers’ rating ranks eighth in the league. The top spot goes to San Francisco’s Alex Smith. The 10th spot to Minnesota’s Christian Ponder. All of which should tell you something about the danger of small sample sizes.
But that’s only part of the puzzle.
So still, the question remains. What’s wrong?
Even Rodgers is getting caught up in it, judging by his weekly 540 ESPN Milwaukee radio show. “I haven’t played as well as the expectations are, obviously,” he told Wilde. “The ones I put on myself, I like to think, are as high or higher than the ones people outside put on me. It’s interesting to look at the stats for what they are and think I’m not playing my best football right now.”
Interesting is the mild description. Worrisome is the more common one.
But here’s the problem with either assessment.
Rodgers’ best football was different than anybody else’s best. Because doing his best meant doing something no man on earth had done in nine decades.
So why should we be surprised that no man, not even Rodgers, could do it two years in a row?
For a more realistic look at what to expect from Rodgers, go back to 2010. This lowering of expectations – if you can call Super Bowl-winning seasons a lowering of the bar – saw his passer rating at 101.2.
Better than this year? A tad. And much worse than last year, too.
What’s wrong with Aaron Rodgers? The same thing that’s wrong with everybody.
He’s human. And humans, even history-making ones, don’t make history every year.
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