Official what is wrong with Aaron Rodgers thread

[PackerShrine]

I can't believe how sharply Aaron Rodgers' stock has dropped.

As a Packer now, I am so disappointed in him as a player.

 

[HeartyHops]

I don't even know how to venture a guess.

Is it physical? Is it fundamentals? Is it mental (lack of confidence)?

He just doesn't even seem like the same guy. The bone-headed mistakes he's making are blowing my mind.

Even the expressions on his face are different now.

Hopefully he can 'watch the film' and all will be right in the world, but if something doesn't change, and soon, I'm the one who's going to lose confidence.

 

[Mark87]

It's a lot of things to me, He's checked out mentally. His Offense isn't what he wants to be..which leads me to believe there is a rift between him and the staff. Our WR talent despite what many believe isn't that great.. our run game less Lacy is nothing.

Add in that the man is going to be 33... his gorgeous GF and him have a great home out west and Aaron has been hanging in the acting circle.

Despite what people think here that book stuff won't make him popular with Packer alumni or some very loyal blue collar fans in NE WI. He knows it. ( Adds too the mental part)

So as I have been saying it's the sum of many moving parts, it's the beginning of the sunset of his playing days.

 

[Budman]

None of these thoughts are original to me as many good members here have shared many opinions. I like to credit Mark with my current line of thinking because it kind of snuck up on me and that is that AR is on the decline. It's a fact of football life that the skills will eventually start to diminish. Now, I'm not saying he's a bum. Heck, he's Aaron fricken' Rodgers for crying out loud but we seen the decline of Favre so we know its inevitable. I also don't believe that he's totally bottomed out. I also don't think that it's something that is easily fixed because, again, thanks to Mark, I think it is the sum of all wrong parts that have created a perfect storm.

Another angle is one that TW has eloquently stated and that is the fragility of the QB psyche. Confidence can be shaken. Hits occur and before you know it, the QB play is affected. That's Bud's simplistic version as I'm hoping TW, Mark, CD, Terranimal, and so many others jump in on this thread and offer an even better analysis.

 

[ski]

14 games including playoffs since the last 300 yard passing day for Rodgers. Even given the fact he picks up yards on the ground and there's been a lot of DB penalties it's still a mind blowing stat. Especially given the 3 40+ yard hail marys. Only 3 in the last 23 games dating back to the start of last year.

 

[Budman]

14 games including playoffs since the last 300 yard passing day for Rodgers. Even given the fact he picks up yards on the ground and there's been a lot of DB penalties it's still a mind blowing stat. Especially given the 3 40+ yard hail marys. Only 3 in the last 23 games dating back to the start of last year.

That's mind boggling ski. Thanks for sharing. The season is still young. Packers are 3-2 and this last loss will show us how they respond.

 

[Pugger]

I think Rodgers' problems are between the ears. I can't believe his physical skills are gone. We see fleeting glimpses of it at times. Aikman today speculated that AR might not be seeing the field as well as he once did. His accuracy is poor because he is throwing the ball too late. How many passed of his were behind the WRs today? When he threw quick passes and slants he looked like his old self. Unfortunately I don't think MM is gonna change his offensive philosophy any time soon. Mike just can't seem to adjust his play calling to match the caliber of talent on his team. It may be time to make a change after this season is over. It also might not be a bad thing for us to miss the playoffs completely and force Ted or Murphy that it is time to make a change before #12 retires.

 

[Mark87]

McGinn: Rodgers falls from ranks of greats

It starts in August, with Rich Gannon serving as analyst for the exhibition games.
Now it continues with the network broadcasters assigned to the games that count.
From the standpoint of the Green Bay Packers, the story begins and ends with Aaron Rodgers, twice a winner of the NFL most valuable player award.
A lovefest is what it is, non-stop talk about the quarterback that is the face of the Packers franchise and how great he is. The narrative, with a wrinkle here and there, basically has been the same since Rodgers’ magnificent play led Green Bay to a Super Bowl title six years ago.
People working for networks that pay billions to become NFL partners won’t change their sunny approach. Realists understand, however, that it’s time for that narrative to change.
Rodgers might be great again, and from someone who picked the Packers for a 13-3 record and Super Bowl berth this season it’s fully expected that he will. It could happen Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys at Lambeau Field. The Packers have the pieces to turn it around on offense, and in dramatic fashion.
Until it happens, Rodgers should be categorized as a good veteran quarterback scuffling to regain his elite form.
Are 16 games, the equivalent of one regular season, long enough to say a quarterback has slipped? That should go without saying.
Rodgers hasn’t been the same player since Game 7 last season when the Packers, a three-point favorite, went to Denver and were crushed, 29-10.
“I haven’t had my ass kicked like that in a long time,” said coach Mike McCarthy, but Rodgers might have said the same thing after throwing for a career-low 77 yards.
That was the start of a 16-game stretch – 12 last year, four this year – in which Rodgers’ level of play, so outstanding season after season, has fallen.
Working backward, Rodgers’ career was divided into eight 16-game segments, playoff games included. The two games in which he departed early because of injury also were counted. The eight 16-game segments totaled 128 starts; left out were the first eight starts of his career in 2008.
The decline in Rodgers’ statistics in the most recent 16-game segment is startling, if not shocking.
Start with passer rating. His 83.6 mark in the last 16 games doesn’t even begin to compare to his previous seven segments, which are listed here in reverse chronological order: 110.0, 105.5, 113.0, 110.9, 115.5, 98.6 and 98.5.
Now check out completion percentage. His mark of 56.8 percent in the last 16 games was preceded by 65.1, 66.5, 66.9, 66.6, 69.2, 65.2 and 63.3.
Look at yards per attempt. His mark of 6.04 in the last 16 games was preceded by averages of 8.20, 8.20, 8.36, 8.25, 8.77, 7.96 and 8.07.
DOUGHERTYackers lacking quick strike
His passing yards (3,677) and touchdowns (29) in the last 16 games were the lowest of the eight segments, and his interception total of 10 was his highest since the first two segments of his career.
It’s almost as if an imposter has been wearing the No. 12 jersey since that night in Denver.
At the risk of statistical overload, allow me one more set of metrics to underscore the depths of Rodgers’ struggles as the face of this offense and this franchise.
Situational football dominates analysis of the game. Whether it’s third down, red zone, short-yardage or goal-line, it’s all important.
To say any of those situations are more vital than first down would be a stretch. First down plays a direct role in the last three, and without steady production on first down, third downs become far less manageable.
Usually on first down, everything is on the table. It measures a passing game, a running game and, without question, a quarterback. First down sets everything else up.
Through five weeks of the season the Packers ranked last in the NFL in average gain on first down at 3.79 yards. Atlanta leads at 8.63.
The statistics available to me date to 2003. In the last 13 seasons, the worst first-down average was 3.88 by the 2-14 Houston Texans of coach Dom Capers in 2005.
The average record of the teams that finished last on first down since 2003 was 4-12. Ten of the 13 teams either ranked 31st or 32nd in total offense.
Of the starting quarterbacks for those 13 teams, the highest passer rating was the 86.2 compiled by San Francisco’s Blaine Gabbert last year. Five starters, including John Skelton, Jimmy Clausen, Brady Quinn, Andrew Walter and Joey Harrington, had ratings below 68.
It’s just a four-game aberration for the Packers, right? Not quite. They ranked 31st a year ago at 4.53.
New England, the one NFL team with offensive-system continuity to rival Green Bay’s, ranked in the top half of the league every year except 2008, when Tom Brady went down in the opener and Matt Cassel took over.
With Brady, the Patriots never have averaged worse than 5.30 on first down since 2003.
McCarthy, Rodgers, assistant coaches and other players have been brushing aside the offensive malaise for the better part of 12 months. McCarthy fired some more coaches after last season, established fundamentals as his major emphasis for 2016 and continued to praise on Rodgers at every turn.
Other than the fact the Packers are 3-1, there is little evidence at this point to think they’re a championship offense. The passing game has settled in again as one of the NFL’s least effective just as Rodgers checks in 19th in passer rating (87.7), 28th in average gain per pass (6.30) and 31st in completion percentage (56.1).
Rod Marinelli, now the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator, was preparing for the NFC championship game in January 2011 as coordinator for the Bears. Rodgers was coming off one of the best games of his career in the 48-21 divisional romp against the Falcons at the Georgia Dome.
“I’ll tell you what, when he’s outside the pocket, he’s extremely accurate,” Marinelli said a few days before the game. “It’s uncanny. He steps up in the pocket well. The thing I admire, he’ll take the hit to get the ball down the field.”
Rodgers makes a magical throw or two every week, and almost always on the move. When he uses that incredible release to drive a ball downfield and dead on the money, it’s part of the reason why those who watch highlights still rate him as the best.
For years, it seemed like every time that Rodgers ran up through the pocket, at least from my vantage point, a big pass play followed. It was a shooting gallery. Defensive backs couldn’t plaster their receivers long enough.
“He was on the other hash and he threw it all the way back to the side,” Seattle cornerback Byron Maxwell said after Rodgers’ 15-yard completion across the field to Jordy Nelson during the NFC title game in January 2015. “I am like, ‘OK, man, what is this, a robot, really?”
Rodgers is extending plays more and more each year and, in the last 12 months, with less success. Rather than giving plays time to develop, too often he bolts prematurely. When he does extend, he isn’t as decisive. He’s not seeing the field as well. He’s missing more open targets.
As far as planting his back foot from shotgun or a straight dropback, striding into the throw and taking a hit, it almost never happens. Just as Brett Favre fell into poor throwing mechanics later on during the Mike Sherman years, Rodgers is following suit.
You see a lot of all-arm throws, skipping into throws, firing off balance and across his body. He sails one pass, bounces another. At times, his feet don’t work in unison with his torso. His deep-ball accuracy, once extraordinary, has improved somewhat from a year ago when it was embarrassingly bad for a player of his stature.
The abject failure on first down over the last 22 games is due in large part to Rodgers, who has a respectable ground game and a first-rate offensive line. The short-to-intermediate passing game on first down that sets the table for what’s to come has been missing.
Rodgers’ mediocrity a year ago was partially obscured by his wondrous Hail Mary passes of 61 yards to Richard Rodgers that beat Detroit and another of 41 to Jeff Janis that forced overtime in the Arizona divisional game.
It also should be remembered that in the first six games of 2015, a critical element in the offensive success was free plays. In Games 1-6, Rodgers completed passes for 52, 34, 29, 27 and 22 yards after his hard count coaxed the opponent offside, not to mention a 52-yard pass-interference penalty on Seattle’s Richard Sherman.
Since then, the Packers haven’t had a single “free play” completion. Defensive linemen have seen it, been warned about it and aren’t jumping as much.
Still, Rodgers continues to hard count time after time as the play clock winds down to 1 or 2. He also has an eagle eye out for substituting D-linemen, and twice this season he has drawn a penalty via quick counts.
The offense probably would be better off if his teammates could focus on the play and getting off the ball in advantageous fashion without all this other stuff going on so often.
McCarthy is at fault, too. He’s the one in January who promoted youthful Luke Getsy, a college quarterback and quality-control coach, to coach wide receivers, a key position for a passing game with major issues that once was the province of proven veteran assistants like Jimmy Robinson, Ray Sherman and Lew Carpenter.
One NFC personnel man has said several times that the Packers’ receivers don’t run routes in the classic sense of the word. The talent at wide receiver is more than adequate, according to several scouts, but McCarthy’s staple remains isolation routes instead of using bunches, rubs and other creative devices to give receivers easier releases into the secondary.
At the same time, let’s end this nonsense about receivers needing to gain the trust of Rodgers. What he needs to do is his job, throw accurately to the open man and let the coaches handle it from there.
My guess is that Rodgers, after 12 years as a pro, would be a hard man to coach.
Can you imagine another player saying “it’s a silly drill … I did it today as a favor to the coaches,” as did Rodgers when McCarthy employed the wet-ball drill last month in practice with rain in the forecast for the Detroit game?

 

[Budman]

Wow....great read Mark. The reality is in front of us.

 

[Dubz41]

Two scenarios:
1- The whole offense has lost its identity. MM seems to want to run more and throw deep, which is kinda crazy batshit since we really don't have a quick/fast WR and we don't really have the RBs (plural) to pound it. Eddie at 250+ is not going to hold up. Couple that up with the feeling that DBs are running our routes with our WRs. Stagnation. ARod is off and MM doesn't want to hit 'Reset'. In simplest terms (IMO it is simple) start over and start taking what the defense gives you. When Janis and Adams are open in the first 5 yards- hit them. They are big boys and might break a tackle. You have to make the Defenses take a step up to stop the short rhythm passing game in order to get that shot down the field. We're back to no TEs and inconsistent play from our QB and WRs. Hard to watch.
2- Somebody stole ARs MoJo at the Denver Airport last year and is hiding in the catacombs of the secret base under the Airport. We need a volunteer to escort Austin Powers back there and recover it.