NFL Top 10 Series: Quarterbacks - #1

Welcome one and all to the much talked about and much anticipated (maybe not so much) debut of the NFL Top 10 Series. We’ve gone through the motions since the middle of the month of April with honorable mentions posts, which if you’re reading this post right now you have probably read through most if not all of them. So once again, thank you for the page views. It is appreciated. We’ve reached the ultimate end to this and afterwards, as previously said, it will just be Top 10 lists. Not posts, lists. As I said, I was too ambitious with this, so with all that said let’s just get the show on the road here.

Quarterback #1 – Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers

Aaron Rodgers is not only the best quarterback in the league. He also might be the best player in the league, period.

From Green Bay, Wisconsin, by way of Chico, California and The University of California, Berkley, standing 6-foot-2, weighing in at 225 lbs., the reigning and defending National Football League Most Valuable Player, the Super Bowl XLV Most Valuable Player, and checking in as the #1 quarterback in the league, and perhaps the best player in the league today...

Aaron Charles Rodgers.

You heard right. The 28-year old who spent most of his time famously being the backup of one of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of the NFL, Brett Favre, has taken leap after leap since the year 2008 all the way up to the top of the charts. Green Bay didn't know what to do with themselves after Brett was traded to the New York Jets, and then donned the evil purple and gold of the rival Minnesota Vikings. They didn't realize that all they had to do was embrace somebody who had been on the roster since 2005.

Since being given the starting job, here's what Aaron Rodgers has done:

• Thrown for 17,037 yards
• Completed 65.5% of his passes (on 2,054 attempts)
• Thrown 131 Touchdowns, to only 37 INT
• Been in the Playoffs 3 times
• Won Super Bowl XLV and won the Super Bowl MVP, earning a trip to DisneyWorld

And, you know, make Green Bay forget all about #4. 

Well, the bitter ones at least. That's for another day though.

Rodgers, for what seemed to be most of 2010, was talked about as a quarterback who "wasn't clutch" and "didn't have the big moment yet." Well, personally, I thought that was ludicrous, but it wasn't farfetched at the same time. He had never been in that position, so I guess you could say that. But to outright say it was just shortsighted. Even with that said, Rodgers had an absolutely incredible performance in the 2010 Wild Card Playoff Game against the Arizona Cardinals.He threw for 423 yards, four touchdowns, only one interception, and completed exactly two-thirds of the passes he threw (42 attempts). Marvelous. Do you think he was listening to the critics in the next postseason? I personally do. 

The 2011 postseason for Rodgers was stupendous. Rodgers threw for 12 touchdowns, and only two interceptions. Those two interceptions came in just one game: the NFC Championship Game against a nasty Bears team that has, for the better part of his career, had his number to some extent. Rodgers shined in the Georgia Dome (and broke my heart), throwing for 366 yards on a ridiculous 86.1 completion percentage, and threw for three touchdowns. Aaron looked unstoppable that night. It was incredible, and is something that if you as a football fan haven't seen, it is to be seen to be believed. 

(I personally don't ever want to see it again, but that's just me)

Certainly, Rodgers and the Packers threw up a duck of a performance against the New York Giants this last postseason, but don't let that skew your thoughts about how #12 performed in the regular season. He was without a doubt the MVP (and MOP) of the league last year. Rodgers threw 45 touchdowns to just six interceptions, completed 68.3% of his passes and threw for 4,643 yards. Had he played in the final game he may have come very close to eclipsing the ever-elusive 5,000 yard mark. His YPA was a ridiculous 9.3, and he finished with a 122.5 QB rating. He's the only quarterback in the entire history of the National Football league to throw for 4,000 yards or more in his fist two seasons as a starting quarterback. 

Rodgers played behind a porous line that allowed 158 pressures and he wound up taking 36 of them for sacks, for a 22.8 sack % which was 25th of 34 in the league. However he was unfazed by this pressure, throwing for four touchdowns, and not once while being pressured did he throw for an interception in 2011. He had the 11th best completion percentage under pressure in the league, with 48.1% of his passes thrown completed. PFF ranked him as the fourth best QB under pressure with a grade of 2.1. Since the 2009 season, Rodgers has thrown 3,181 yards via the deep ball, and 27 touchdowns have come off the deep ball as well. His deep ball completion % is 39.5% and 46.5%, good enough for seventh amongst his peers.

Perhaps it's his handling of the ever-so-fragile Favre situation that puts him above the rest. Not many people could have done what he's done pre and post-Favre, so you have to give a lot of credit to him there. QB and team divorces sometimes end sourly, and there are situations like with what happened with Joe Montana and Steve Young, and now Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers, where the team and the quarterback pick up from right where their preeminent player left off and take the ball and run with it, and don't bother looking back. 

Yes, it sounds like a lot of gushing, but what is there to really criticize about him? Cool, calm, and collected, Aaron Rodgers will enter the 2012 season as the best quarterback in the league and arguably the best player in the league. Who knows how many times we're going to say that for the next several years? Only time will tell.