I'm not ready to give up on Aaron Rodgers.

The Green Bay Packers quarterback has had a down year, to be sure. The Packers are sitting at 4-4 after losing on Sunday to the Colts, mired in third place in a division they looked primed to win once the Vikings fell back to earth. Rodgers has looked positively mortal in those eight games, and the stats bear out what I've been seeing on the field - Rodgers seems less mobile, and he's taking fewer shots downfield. At 32 years old, Rodgers is already being questioned by some as being past his prime and on the downturn.

I don't buy it. I don't buy it because Rodgers still has all the tools, and this Packers team isn't working right now. Rodgers can't throw to guys who are covered, and he can't surprise defenses when his team runs the most predictable offense in the NFL.

For me, watching Packers games is akin to seeing Helio Castroneves show up at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and being asked to drive a Ford Fiesta. The Fiesta is a fine car, good and reliable, but uh, it's Helio Castroneves at Indy. Maybe we give him something with a little more horsepower and see what he can do?

The Packers' offense is a symphony of bland. It laughs in the face of creativity. They've got one of the most accomplished offensive lines in the league, a bruising running back in Eddie Lacy, and one of the most gifted quarterbacks of the past 25 years, and this offseason head coach Mike McCarthy talked about getting back to basics with his offense. Seriously. This was the quote, via ProFootballTalk.

"The best plays are still the basic plays. It's not the design of the play. It's what everybody can do with that design," McCarthy said. "That's what we have to get back to - winning with the fundamentals, with players and not plays. When you get in tough times, offensively, we may have leaned a little more towards plays instead of focusing on developing players. That's a big part of my getting back in there full-time [calling plays]. That's how I built this thing, and that's how it should be ran. We got away from that a little bit."

Continue Reading @ USA Today 

Nate Scott wrote: