Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is the best pure quarterback in the NFL, and he is oftentimes money when it counts the most. He’s won a Super Bowl in his career, which is no small thing. Yet the Packers are often seen as a team that underachieves.
Rodgers was asked about this perception by Peter King of The MMQB. His response was enlightening, to say the least. First and foremost, like his head coach, Mike McCarthy, Rodgers doesn’t believe the Packers should be criticized for what they’ve been able to achieve.
“I get asked about it, I got asked about it last week — this idea that the Packers embrace mediocrity,” Rodgers said. “I think what we’ve done the last eight years, making the playoffs [every year], there’s only a couple other teams that have ever done that.”
Rodgers then pointed to the New England Patriots, noting the Packers are on the same type of postseason streak. However, unlike the Patriots, they haven’t been able to bring home multiple titles. At the age of 33, he doesn’t feel like the team’s championship window is closing. Though, there is some urgency to win another title to shut up the haters.
“I don’t feel like our window is closing here,” Rodgers said. “I feel like this window is going to be open for a while. And in order for some of that stuff to go away, the outside noise, we’re going to have to win another Super Bowl. It would be disappointing if we were only able to win one in my time here. Hopefully we can get one of those done.”
In his career, Rodgers has been less successful in the postseason as you’d expect from a top quarterback. His 10-7 record, and his 3-2 record at home in the playoffs is mediocre. But we cannot solely blame the quarterback for his team’s inability to win playoff games. Especially considering he has a career postseason passer rating of 99.4, having thrown 36 touchdowns and just 10 interceptions in his 17 postseason games.
Green Bay is one of the teams in the NFC that experts expect to make a strong run at Super Bowl LII. Heck, Packers CEO Mark Murphy promised fans they’d be able to make the short trip to Minnesota this winter for the big game to cheer their team.
So it’s fair to say expectations are Super Bowl or bust. With a quarterback like Rodgers, that’s fair.