Aaron Rodgers, quarterback
FOX Sports Wisconsin's Paul Imig gives an in-depth statistical analysis and film study of every Packers player in his annual offseason checkup. You can find every report here.
Season stats (playoffs included): 18 games, 18 starts (1,148 snaps; 94.4 percent of total offensive snaps); 384-for-589 passing (65.1 percent), 4,875 yards, 42 touchdowns, seven interceptions, 109.7 passer rating; sacked 31 times, fumbled 12 times
ProFootballFocus.com season rating: 44.7 (ranked No. 1 out of 21 Packers offensive players; ranked No. 1 among all NFL quarterbacks)
Best game: Week 10 win over Chicago; 18 for 27 passing (66.6 percent), 315 yards, six touchdowns, zero interceptions, 145.8 passer rating; 5.0 PFF rating
Worst game: Week 15 loss at Buffalo; 17 for 42 passing (40.5 percent), 185 yards, zero touchdowns, two interceptions, 34.3 passer rating; minus-3.1 PFF rating
Expectations at the start of the season: High
Expectations were ... Exceeded
Looking live: How many wins better does Aaron Rodgers make the Green Bay Packers every year? Before the midway mark of the 2013 season, that was a question without a firm answer. Then Rodgers fractured his collarbone and the Packers went 2-5-1 in his absence. That was a team that had been on a four-game winning streak before Rodgers' injury. Yes, every team with a great quarterback is going to take a step back when their star player goes down, but Rodgers may have perhaps never proven to be worthy of a "Most Valuable" title than he did while sidelined for those seven-and-a-half games.
To no one's surprise, Rodgers was ranked No. 1 in FOXSportsWisconsin.com's pre-training camp "Most Important Packers of 2014" series. It was noted then that for as great as J.J. Watt was in 2013 (and of course he only got better in 2014), the Houston Texans had a 2-14 record in 2013 (and missed the playoffs again in 2014). Plus, arguably the best left tackle in the league over the previous seven years was Joe Thomas, yet he'd never been to a playoff game with the Cleveland Browns. I wrote at the time: "The quarterback position is just that much more impactful to a team's ability to collect wins, and with Rodgers in, Green Bay wins far more often than not. When Rodgers is out, losing streaks happen. There is now proof of that."
Training camp and preseason obviously mean less to a player of Rodgers' stature than it does to the majority of the 90-man roster. Rodgers didn't play in the preseason opener at Tennessee or in the finale at home against Kansas City. However, he played 70 combined snaps in the other two exhibition games and looked sharp with a 116.6 passer rating. As an interesting side note, Rodgers completed as many passes to Jarrett Boykin (three) in the second preseason game alone (in a span of just 24 snaps) than he did to the now ex-Packers wide receiver in the entire 2014 regular season.
Upon further review: Rodgers added a second NFL Most Valuable Player trophy to his collection after a season in which he did just about everything that any team could ask from its quarterback. Rodgers' 38:5 touchdowns-to-interceptions ratio was by far the best in the league. That wasn't accomplished by just throwing short passes, either, as Rodgers had the second-highest yards per pass attempt in the NFL.
Rodgers helped give Green Bay such a big lead in four different games that he wasn't even needed to play in the fourth quarters. Basically, Rodgers sat out the equivalent of a full game (and thus missed out on a full game's worth of adding to his stat line) because of how far ahead the Packers were.
After Green Bay's Week 14 matchup, Rodgers had officially started 100 career regular-season games. He had more touchdown passes (222), more passing yards (27,520) and a better passer rating (107.3) than any other quarterback through 100 starts. Rodgers also was No. 1 in zero-interception games (58), 100-plus passer rating games (60) and touchdown-to-interception ratio (4.11:1). Records are meant to be broken, but Rodgers' touchdowns-to-interceptions mark through 100 starts could stand for a very long time.
The week after setting all of those 100-start milestones, Rodgers talked to FOXSportsWisconsin.com about what he hopes is next for him. "Where can I go from here? Hopefully I can stay where I'm at. I feel like I've set the bar fairly high, and I want to keep living up to that bar." Rodgers added, "Hopefully you level out at this level. It's kind of like plateauing at your peak."
Rodgers injured his left calf Week 16 at Tampa Bay, but it wasn't overly serious at the time. However, in the regular-season finale, Rodgers went down while throwing a touchdown pass and needed assistance getting off the field. He was soon carted to the locker room and did not come back out with the rest of the team to begin the third quarter. But after one series with Matt Flynn at quarterback, Rodgers emerged from the tunnel, began warming up and was then back on the field. "There was risk for sure," Rodgers said after the game. But Rodgers' comeback helped get the Packers the win they needed to earn a first-round bye. "I don't think I did anything heroic tonight," Rodgers said at the time. "I just have a strong desire to compete."
Rodgers knew he was going to play in the postseason, but "it's just a matter of how" (according to Rodgers on Jan. 7). Rodgers clearly had limited mobility against Dallas and Seattle, but his play in the Cowboys game was especially sharp considering the circumstances. Though it was still a good enough performance to nearly beat the Seahawks, Rodgers had his second-worst output of the season in the NFC championship game with two interceptions and a 55.8 passer rating.
Overall 2014 grade: A
Status for 2015: One-hundred percent chance of being on Green Bay's active roster to begin the 2015 regular season. Rodgers has five years remaining on the $110 million extension he signed in April 2013, but he certainly plans to play beyond his current contract. "Nine in, nine to go" had been his go-to line for a while. While talking to FOXSportsWisconsin.com late in the regular season, Rodgers said: "Here I am in my 10th season, feeling great, I'm 31 years old and I feel like I've got a number of years in front of me." The question a couple years from now will be how much longer Rodgers can play in the style that he has been thus far in his career. "As you get older, and this is a young man's game, and people say, well, there's no way I can keep up running the way I'm running, there's no way my arm is going to stay as strong as it is," Rodgers said. "It's the challenge of trying to stay in my tip-top shape year in and year out so I can keep playing the way I want to play. This is how I play. I like to extend plays, I can make plays with my legs, and this is the way I want to play moving forward as long as I can possibly play like this."
Next: Tight end Richard Rodgers
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