Packers made right choice by going with Rodgers

By Scott Sierzenga
Western Herald

Anyone who thinks the Packers should have kept Brett Favre over Aaron Rodgers either doesn’t watch football, is caught up in the past or hasn’t watched one Green Bay Packer game in the past two seasons.

This year, despite being sacked a league high 25 times, Rodgers still has the fifth best quarterback rating in the league. The number 25 might not mean anything to you, but consider they have only played five games so far this season.

For anyone that is not a mathematician out there, that’s five times a game and that is absolutely absurd. Even the dismal Lion offensive line has given up 22. That’s with a rookie quarterback who probably holds onto the ball too long and Daunte Culpepper, so enough said about that.

Favre has just been handed a team with the best running back, two legitimate deep threats in Percy Harvin and Bernard Berrian, and a top five defense in the league. If Rodgers had half the protection Favre had to throw the ball he might be having a better year than fantasy juggernaut Drew Brees.

Even the old Western Michigan University and current Packer wide receiver Greg Jennings told the Associated Press, “He’s second to none. I’ll give you a statistic: He has one pick. One pick, and he’s been hit more than any quarterback in the league.”

This quote came before the Lions game this week, a game where even the pathetic Lions defense sacked Rodgers five times. They now have 15 sacks total on the season.

Rodgers, the past two seasons, has not only been taking heat from opposing defenses, but the media.

He had to deal with the Brett Favre retirement business and all the critiques about that. Talk about possibly the worst situation to walk into in the history of the league; a living legend in a city that is told its team is moving in a different direction thus making fans bitter toward everyone, including Rodgers.

He then has to go out and perform under an enormous microscope, each week being compared to the “kid who just likes to have fun,” Brett Favre.

Rodgers under all these circumstances has not only handled himself extremely well to the media, but played great even when his team has not.

Everyone said, “Oh well they have the same team, look at what Favre could do that Rodgers couldn’t”.

Well first of all, going back to 2005, this season and 2007 have been the only seasons where Brett “the kid” has thrown more touchdowns than interceptions. Last season Favre had 22 touchdowns for each one of his 22 interceptions.

Last season Rodgers threw for over 500 more yards than Favre and had 28 TDs and only 13 interceptions. Two less than Favre had in 2007 when he had arguably one of the best seasons in his career.

What else can Rodgers do? He can’t throw the ball and catch it too. He can’t line up and play defense either. In 2008 the Packers were ranked 20th defensively in yards per game with the Steelers being ranked 1st and they were also tied for 10th with the 49ners for the most points per game being given up at 23.8. The Lions were first with 32.3.

In 2007, the year of Favre, the Packers were 11th in the league in yards per game with the Steelers being the best again and also had the seventh lowest points per game average in the NFL. That is a polar opposite turn‑around and that is why the Packers sucked last year, not Rodgers.

People should realize these things and give the guy credit for doing a great job under the circumstances. But then again, I guess people just like to see Brett out there having fun. He has so much fun all the time. Wow does he have fun? He is just a kid… and nobody else in football (or any sport) has fun.

Scott Sierzenga, a Western Herald sports writer, is a junior majoring in journalism and can be reached at scott.sierzenga@wmich.edu.

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Posted by heraldstaff on Oct 20 2009. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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