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Join Date: Sep 2006
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Packers by position: Confident in QB Rodgers
PackersNews.com - Packers by position: Confident in QB Rodgers
Quote:
There's no knowing whether this will be Brett Favre's last season as the Green Bay Packers' quarterback.
He turns 38 in October and seriously has been considering retirement for several years, so the end is near. But if the team shows great promise this season, who knows? Maybe he'll want to come back in 2008 if he thinks he has a shot at a title.
Regardless, the Packers soon will have to replace him, and the man who will get first shot, 2005 first-round pick Aaron Rodgers, and the Packers have had two seasons plus this offseason to develop and monitor Rodgers' growth.
No one will know until Rodgers takes the helm for an extended stretch of games whether he has the leadership and intangibles to be a quality NFL starter, and any comments the Packers make about him until then are unlikely to be critical, even if General Manager Ted Thompson or coach Mike McCarthy harbor serious doubts about Rodgers' future.
Rodgers has done nothing to eliminate himself from the succession line, but he's done nothing to push Favre toward retirement. For what it's worth, Thompson made no meaningful moves at quarterback this offseason, which suggests he and his coach are comfortable with Rodgers next in line after Favre retires.
"I don't think we would have had any problem with it this year if Brett would have retired," said John Schneider, the Packers' personnel analyst to the general manager.
"But like any other player, (Rodgers) has to have a strong training camp and preseason and take advantage of all his reps."
Rodgers' play in the exhibition season last year was better than his rookie year, when he led only one scoring drive in four games and had a passer rating of only 53.0 points. Last year in the exhibition season, he had a passer rating of 101.1 points, threw three touchdowns and one interception.
This past spring, while also rehabilitating from surgery on the broken left foot that ended his 2006 season against New England in November, Rodgers improved his body composition through diet and workouts. Though he gained only 2 pounds over last year — he was 223 pounds for the Packers' offseason practices this year — he looked thicker in his upper body, and his throwing arm looked slightly stronger.
Rodgers took only limited part in McCarthy's quarterbacks school early in the offseason while recovering from surgery, then received plenty of work in minicamps and organized-team activities practices. The Packers appear sold on his intelligence and arm talent.
"The guy throws the ball well, his arm is certainly strong enough, he's got good anticipation throwing the ball," said Joe Philbin, the Packers' offensive coordinator. "In general, we place these guys in a ton of situations in the spring, and there may have been some decision making relative to down and distance and field position he needs to do a little better, but that's just a function of getting him in there and letting him make those mistakes. They're kind of a natural progression in anybody's development."
What will determine whether Rodgers becomes a good starting NFL quarterback will be things such as his pocket presence in the face of a pass rush, mobility and skills as a leader.
Rodgers can provide some groundwork in his third training camp. Though Favre's incredible durability suggests Rodgers won't get on the field much during the regular season, the Packers, and no doubt his teammates, will be watching the command he displays in practice and exhibition games.
"I think (Rodgers) had a phenomenal offseason," Schneider said. "The accuracy, decision making, gets the ball out of his hand quick. And I think he's handled everything about as well as it could be handled in terms of playing behind Brett Favre and the mystique and whether or not he's going to come back and play."
Favre, in the meantime, returns for his 17th NFL season and 16th as the Packers' starter. By all appearances, the future Hall of Famer took well to McCarthy's harder coaching style than the previous staff's and cut his interceptions from 29 in 2005 to 18 last season.
Favre's offseason wasn't without controversy — he was upset Thompson didn't push harder to sign receiver Randy Moss as a free agent and expressed his disappointment publicly. But by the team's minicamp and OTA practices, he appeared to have moved on.
McCarthy spent part of the offseason finding ways to better utilize his aging quarterback, whose passer rating of 72.7 points was third-worst of his 16 seasons as the Packers' starter and only slightly higher than the 70.9 rating in 2005. Also, his 56.0 completion percentage was the worst of his career, behind the previous low of 58.3 percent in 2000.
An improved running game would help Favre immensely. Last year, the Packers had almost exactly a 60-to-40 pass-run ratio and would prefer to be closer to 50-50. Among other things, McCarthy is looking at putting Favre on the move more this year with rollouts and keeps, because his quarterback has decent mobility.
"Brett's certainly more than capable of throwing on the move still," Philbin said. "We just have to do a better job coaching-wise figuring out when's the best situation to call it."
Unless the Packers pick up another quarterback after final cuts, second-year pro Ingle Martin appears likely to return as the No. 3 quarterback. The only other quarterback on the roster is undrafted rookie Paul Thompson of Oklahoma, who has excellent size (6-4, 216) and a decent arm but is extremely raw.
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Packers by position: Confident in QB Rodgers
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