As the 2016 football season approaches, the results of last season linger. In Green Bay, where a Super Bowl win six years ago has been followed by five straight disappointments, the effort to apportion blame for the outcome to the 2015 season continues.
Bob McGinn of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, in a position-by-position preview of the team for the upcoming season, puts plenty of it on quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
The headline declares that Rodgers “needs to rebound from mediocre season,” and the first paragraph proclaims that Rodgers is “coming off his worst year at the helm of the Green Bay Packers.”
The numbers suggest that, indeed, every other year since he became the starter in 2008 was better. But 2015 hardly was a disaster for Rodgers, who completed 60.7 percent of his passes for 3,821 yards, threw 31 touchdown passes against eight interceptions, and generated a passer rating of 92.7. Plenty of lesser quarterbacks would have loved those numbers, and Rodgers surely would have loved the support around him that plenty of lesser quarterbacks enjoy.
So is it Rodgers or is it something else? Is it coaching, with Mike McCarthy going through an existential crisis over whether he should call plays? Is it lack of talent, with Ted Thompson not doing enough to put enough talent around Rodgers?
Rodgers surely would disagree with the assessment that 2015 was his “worst year.” As McGinn notes, Rodgers told A.J. Hawk on a podcast in May, “I feel like I’m playing my best football, and I have been for a number of years now.”
Still, quarterbacks coach Alex Van Pelt said last season for Rodgers was “not up to his standards,” and that they have “targeted improvement areas.”
McGinn points out that, in 26 career games decided by four points or fewer, Rodgers is now 8-18. And while McGinn praised Rodgers’ durability, McGinn offered up this stinging assessment of the quarterback’s most recent season: "[H]is deep-ball accuracy went south, he too often bolted the pocket prematurely and, at times, he glared and gestured at teammates when the situation called out for him to inspire the troops.”
In a sport that puts 11 guys on the field at the same time, it’s impossible to dispense accountability with precision. That’s why quarterbacks often get too much credit when things go well and too much criticism when things go poorly. For the Packers, Rodgers has played as well as any quarterback in the NFL, but something is keeping it all from coming together.
It’s unclear whether it will come together again in 2016. It is clear that the so-sensitive-he’s-sensitive-about-being-called-sensitive Rodgers won’t be happy with McGinn’s article. The team undoubtedly hopes Rodgers does something about that, on the field in 2016.