As Roger Goodell announced that Jordan Love was the first-round selection for the Green Bay Packers, many sat back and wondered about the future of Aaron Rodgers.
Fifteen years ago, with Brett Favre as an aging quarterback at the age of 36, this man named Aaron Rodgers, a quarterback from Butte Community College, was selected in the first round as the 24th pick of 2005.
He was expected to go much higher and even potentially to his hometown San Fransisco 49ers, but they selected Alex Smith. Favre was not very pleased, as he was in the midst of a Hall of Fame career, and the organization looked to be giving up on him too early for his expectations. He was very unhappy and took his frustration out on a man who was not involved in any part of the decision: Aaron Rodgers.
It wasn’t until 2008 that Rodgers got his chance to start. When he debuted, he became the first quarterback other than his predecessor to start for the Packers since 1992. This was a result of Favre announcing his retirement, although the then 39-year-old began to get the itch to play again, ultimately signing with the New York Jets.
Rodgers started off his career with a 24-19 win against the Vikings, which was the start of what still is a truly incredible career. He was selected to his first Pro-Bowl in 2009 as a second-year starter, his next came in 2011––and he hasn’t looked back since.
Rodgers took the Packers to the Super Bowl in 2011, beating Ben Rothlisberger’s Steelers 31-24, a game in which he took home Super Bowl MVP in a year he also won League MVP. He was selected to the First-Team All-Pro for the first of two selections with the other coming in 2014. He was also the MVP in 2014 and was second-team All-Pro in 2012.
Also, he was selected to the NFL All-Decade Team as the second-best quarterback behind Tom Brady.
Rodgers knows that they haven’t been helping him very much and then, in the first round of a stacked draft for offensive talent, they take a quarterback? History tends to repeat itself and I’m sure Rodgers remembers the situation he was drafted into. The eventual Hall of Famer is likely not too pleased.
Can we be seeing another pass of the baton in Green Bay 15 years after the last? Time will tell.
However, a team that should be monitoring this situation is the New England Patriots.
New England already lost their franchise quarterback to Tampa Bay, leaving behind a second-year guy with three career passes in Jarrett Stidham. They lost many other key players to retirement or free agency and are closing their window of contention at a rapid pace.
Bill Belichick has never been one for rebuilds so would a move for Aaron Rodgers make sense?
Their offense still has Julian Edelman, Marqise Lee, Mohamed Sanu, N’Keal Harry, Sony Michel, and James White. Their defense, though depleted, still is loaded with star-level talent. Can Rodgers take the Patriots offense to the Super Bowl? I think it may be better than what he has right now in Green Bay.
Time will tell on if Aaron Rodgers will become verbally displeased with Packers brass, or even if they have a future gem in Jordan Love. However, one cannot help but notice the parallels between this situation and what happened with him and Brett Favre back in 2005.
