Aaron Rodgers might be out the rest of the season with a broken collarbone, suffered early in the Green Bay Packers’ Week 6 loss to the Minnesota Vikings. There’s a chance he could return late in the season, but the Packers will have to make the playoffs for the most part without their leader.
And based on the latest news, it likely means he’s done for the season, anyway.
#Packers coach Mike McCarthy said QB Aaron Rodgers will require surgery for his broken collarbone. Likely means his season is over.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 16, 2017
Speaking to the importance of this loss for the Packers, former teammate Greg Jennings, now an analyst with Fox Sports, made it clear Green Bay will miss Rodgers terribly.
“He means more to his team than any other player in this league,” Jennings said, speaking with TMZ Sports.
When asked if he means more to the Packers than Tom Brady means to the New England Patriots, he said, “absolutely.”
“We’ve seen how successful the Patriots have been able to be when Tom has gone down, with Matt Cassel stepping in and them going 11-5. Just last year, with him being suspended for the four games and them still success. And they have a quarterback they believe is going to be the predecessor there… The Packers don’t have that. They don’t know what they have yet in Brett Hundley, and we’re about to all find out.”
Jennings also said that without Rodgers there to guide the offense, the fan base will find it very hard to relax, as Rodgers famously said a couple years back during a tough stretch.
The simple truth is that Rodgers has held the Packers up by his own greatness the past eight years. The roster is not stacked with talent on either side of the ball, and Hundley is going to have a very tough time finding success playing behind a banged-up, mediocre offensive line. Even more damning, Green Bay’s defense isn’t a powerhouse type that can hold down the fort until/if Rodgers returns late in the season.
At 4-2, the Packers are still in control of their own destiny in the NFC North. But we’re not convinced things will end well for this organization in 2017. Without the magic of Rodgers, the Packers will be lucky to finish 8-8.