Why Packers' Aaron Rodgers has so much to prove in 2019

Aaron Rodgers has plenty to prove in 2019. Ridiculous statement, right? Just another hot-take artist on the Internet trying to get clicks. 

There isn’t some sort of crisis enveloping the Packers’ quarterback. He’s not coming off a terrible year. He hasn’t had anything but excellent ones since he took over as starter in 2008. But prove-it seasons come in all shapes and sizes, and Rodgers is staring one down now. He must prove that Mike McCarthy was the problem in Green Bay, and that shedding him is the solution that turns great statistics and regular seasons into championships. 

Rodgers has nothing to prove when it comes to individual stats and accolades. Here’s a refresher:

•  Two MVP Awards. 
•  A 103.1 career passer rating, the best of all-time among qualified passers. 
• A 99.4 playoff passer rating, fifth all time and just a tick behind Drew Brees and Matt Ryan for the best active mark.
• 338 TD passes and only 80 interceptions, an astonishing ratio. 
• A Super Bowl MVP. 

But other than the Super Bowl XLV win over the Steelers, Rodgers has had little success in the playoffs despite often-spectacular regular seasons.

Despite those post-season failings, Rodgers is the favorite quarterback of a guy with six Super Bowl rings. No less an authority than Tom Brady said Rodgers would throw for 7,000 yards annually if he played for Bill Belichick in New England. He also admitted that Rodgers’ talents are considerably greater than his own. Rodgers can reduce the best quarterback in football history to a gushing fan, but he can’t stay within two scores of Eli Manning in a home playoff game. Go figure.

If the implication in Brady’s statement is that coaching and environment are big factors in his success, and that Rodgers would terrorize the league were he in his situation, then it stands to reason that firing McCarthy could kick-start a mid-30s renaissance for Rodgers. 

Enter Matt LaFleur. It’s his job to turn around Green Bay, but there have already been some bumps in the road between the Packers’ rookie  head coach and Rodgers. LaFleur called plays for the first time in his career last year as Tennessee’s offensive coordinator. The Titans finished 27^th in points per game and 25^th in yards. Despite those underwhelming numbers, he wants to have control of the offense and to tamp down Rodgers' improvisation. Rodgers wants the autonomy to do things his way. He did, after all, throw for 25 touchdowns and only two interceptions in 2018, a season in which he played on a bum leg. 

So who cedes ground first? Or, at least, who should? The best answer is both must give a little.

LaFleur must check his ego at the door and realize that he’s designing an offense around a man whose capabilities are virtually limitless. Rodgers must understand that playing within a system doesn’t mean sacrificing his freedom. By most accounts, LaFleur is better than McCarthy at creating favorable match-ups for an offense. Rodgers must see that as an opportunity.

“You don’t want it to get to the point like you had with Ben Roethlisberger, where all of a sudden, (offensive coordinator) Todd Haley wouldn’t let him call an audible to a running play at the 1-yard line,” NFL Insider John Clayton told me in a radio interview last week.

Rodgers is too good to have played in only one Super Bowl. And he’s too good to have ugly, inexplicable playoff losses dotting his resume. So, yes, 2019 is a prove-it year for Aaron Rodgers. If he and Matt LaFleur prove they can co-exist, the quarterback with all the individual accolades might start to pile up what really matters. 

Championships.