Whatever happened to the Aaron Rodgers who used to complete passes to eight, nine, even ten different receivers a game?
Originally Posted by: Nonstopdrivel
The issue's not as severe as you seem to be making it out as. It's easy to lose sight of what normal is. Let's look at last year in games Rodgers played the entire game, and compare this to opposing teams.
Week one: Passes completed to 6 players, with number of targets being 12, 8, 7, 6, 4, 4. Opposing team completed passes to 6 players.
Week two: Passes completed to 9 players, with number of targets being 11, 10, 9, 7, 5, 4, 1, 1, 1. Opposing team completed passes to 7 players
Week three: Passes completed to 6 players, with number of targets being 12, 9, 8, 6, 4, 3. Opposing team completed passes to 6 players
Week four: Passes completed to 7 players, with number of targets being 7, 7, 5, 4, 2, 1, 1. Opposing team completed passes to 7 players.
Week five: Passes completed to 7 players, with number of targets being 7, 7, 5, 4, 2, 1, 1. Opposing team completed passes to 7 players.
Week six: Passes completed to 7 players, with number of targets being 11, 5, 4, 3, 1, 1, 1. Opposing team completed passes to 7 players.
Week fifteen: Passes completed to 7 players, with number of targets being 14, 8, 7, 6, 4, 2, 2. Opposing team completed passes to 5 players.
So last year, Rodgers averaged passes completed to 7 receivers per game, with opposing teams averaging passes completed to 6.4 receivers per game.
2016:
Week 1: Passes completed to 8 players. Opposing team completed passes to 7 players.
Week 2: Passes completed to 6 players. Opposing team completed passes to 7 players.
Week 3: Passes completed to 8 players. Opposing team completed passes to 7 players.
Week 5: Passes completed to 6 players. Opposing team completed passes to 6 players.
Week 6: Passes completed to 9 players. Opposing team completed passes to 6 players.
Week 7: Passes completed to 7 players. Opposing team completed passes to 6 players.
Week 8: Passes completed to 6 players. Opposing team completed passes to 8 players.
Week 9: Passes completed to 8 players. Opposing team completed passes to 9 players.
Week 10: Passes completed to 7 players. Opposing team completed passes to 6 players.
Week 11: Passes completed to 7 players. Opposing team completed passes to 7 players.
Week 12: Passes completed to 8 players. Opposing team completed passes to 8 players.
Week 13: Passes completed to 6 players. Opposing team completed passes to 9 players.
Week 14: Passes completed to 6 players. Opposing team completed passes to 6 players.
Week 15: Passes completed to 8 players. Opposing team completed passes to 8 players.
Week 16: Passes completed to 8 players. Opposing team completed passes to 6 players.
So in 2016, Rodgers averaged passed completed to 7.2 receivers per game, with opposing teams averaging passes completed to 7.1 receivers per game
Tried finding some statistics for the league but couldn't find anything using any of the search terms I could think up of. Point being - the stats just don't back up the assertion that Rodgers locks in on one or two guys and ignores everyone else. Or at least, not any more than any other player does. In fact, he consistently spreads the ball around MORE than our opponents do, and there's not a ton of variation between number of targets for his #1 target, and number of targets for his #3 or even #4 most targeted receiver in any given game.