Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is a 10x Pro Bowler and a 3x National Football League (NFL) Most Valuable Player (MVP). He likely has a fourth MVP on the way after a stellar 2021 regular season in which he posted a 37:4 TD-INT ratio and led his squad to a league-best 13-4 record. But, Pro Bowl and MVP honors are both based on regular-season statistics.
Rodgers’s lack of playoff success since winning his lone Super Bowl in 2011 has been a point of ridicule that many use to discredit his dominant career. For years, I’ve defended Rodgers’s inability to make it back to the Super Bowl as I firmly believed that he wasn’t being provided with a competent defense. But after the Packers’ loss in this year’s divisional round to the underdog San Francisco 49ers, it’s time to stop making excuses and come to the realization that the great Aaron Rodgers does not belong in the conversation with all-time greats such as Tom Brady or Joe Montana who have been able to win numerous NFL titles. I can confidently claim that Aaron Rodgers is the greatest regular-season quarterback of all time, but nothing more than that.
The 13-10 loss to the 49ers was the last straw in tainting Rodgers’s legacy. In a game where his defense did its job, the Packers put up a mere 10 points, the lowest total of any playoff team in the divisional round. Rodgers grew up a 49ers fan in California. When asked if he was disappointed that the team didn’t draft him 1st overall in 2005, Rodgers responded, “Not as disappointed as the 49ers will be that they didn’t draft me.” This has been far from the case though, as Rodgers is now 0-4 against San Francisco in his playoff career.
With lots of uncertainty on Rodgers’s end, the world awaits his upcoming decision as a free agent. The quarterback would be welcomed back to Green Bay with open arms, but many teams will be pushing hard to sign the reigning MVP. In addition, rumors have circulated that he is considering retirement. I believe that the best step for Rodgers’s career would be taking his talents to the Tennessee Titans. The Titans have a complete team with an elite receiving core, stellar defense and the best running back in the NFL, Derrick Henry. On the same day that the Packers fell to the 49ers, the Titans were defeated by the Cincinnati Bengals, largely due to poor quarterback play. Rodgers and the Tennessee Titans could be a match made in heaven.