The Green Bay Packers have struggled on offense this season as the team has just a 3-3 record. The struggles have led to star quarterback Aaron Rodgers getting visibly frustrated on the sideline, seemingly criticizing teammates, pondering his eventual retirement, and discussing potential trades to improve the roster all after blasting his wide receivers during the preseason.
Rodgers seems to be placing blame on everyone but himself for the Packers’ struggles. But according to Ty Schalter of FiveThirtyEight, the reason the Green Bay Packers have struggled this season is actually quite simple: Aaron Rodgers.
“Rodgers’s overall statistical effectiveness has been extremely lacking by his standards: He’s below league average in Total QBR, yards per attempt and expected points added per dropback, according to ESPN’s Stats & Information Group,” Schalter wrote in the article. “Sure, he’s still good at avoiding interceptions, with the seventh-lowest rate in the league, and he checks in with the seventh-highest completion rate. But the big-time throws that have been Rodgers’s hallmark throughout his career are missing. Without them, the Packers are much easier to defend — and nothing the rest of the offense is doing seems capable of replacing them.
Simply put, the Packers are struggling due to Rodgers’ inability to throw the ball downfield, according to Schalter. That’s something Rodgers is going to have to fix if the team is going to be competitive this season.
