For two straight years, the Packers have secured the No. 1 seed in the NFC. For two straight years, the Packers have failed to parlay the top seed into a Super Bowl appearance.

Yes, a stunning failure of special teams fueled the latest collapse. But quarterback Aaron Rodgers also hasn’t performed at Aaron Rodgers levels in those losses. This year, for example, Rodgers completed a modest 20 of 29 passes for 225 yards, with no interceptions but also no touchdown passes.

The latest edition of Peter King’s Football Morning in America includes a quote from longtime Packers writer Bob McGinn, who made an observation at the Go Long website regarding the possibility that the supersensitive Rodgers is hypersensitive to the impact of interceptions on his passer rating.

“Rodgers . . . for years has played a careful, calculating game understanding that number of interceptions plays a disproportionate, nonsensical role in the passer-rating formula,” McGinn said. “Bad interceptions are, well, bad. Then there are interceptions that are the cost of doing business for unselfish, competitive, stats-immune quarterbacks battling to make plays and lead comebacks until the bitter end. When a quarterback, especially one with a powerful, usually accurate arm like Rodgers, deliberately minimizes chances to deliver a big play for fear of an interception . . . that’s just hurting his team. In the playoff game, a modest talent like Jimmy Garoppolo was under every bit as much pass-rush pressure as Rodgers but drilled more tight-window completions down the field largely because he wasn’t afraid of a pick and the moment.”

For all the harsh assessments of Rodgers’s off-field behavior and comments in 2021, this is the most stinging critique of his on-field performance that we’ve seen. The dichotomy nevertheless has become jarring. Rodgers has won the regular-season MVP award four times. Not once in any of those four seasons has Rodgers led his team to the Super Bowl. (Then again, no regular-season MVP has won the Super Bowl since Kurt Warner in 1999.) Three of the four playoff runs ended at home, with the Giants stunning the Packers at Lambeau Field in 2011, the Buccaneers beating Green Bay in Green Bay in 2020, and the 49ers upending the Packers on their own home turf in 2021.

This question emerges at a time when Rodgers is trying to decide whether to stick around with the Packers for another season. And here’s where the decision gets trickier for Rodgers, who would hope to follow Tom Brady and Matthew Stafford as winning a Super Bowl to cap the first year with a new team. The Patriots were fading when Brady left. The Lions were, well, the Lions. But Green Bay has a team that hovers on the fringes of the title game. If Rodgers doesn’t fare as well elsewhere, his move will be viewed as a failure.

And if he takes a new team to the top seed in the conference (whether AFC or NFC) and doesn’t get to the Super Bowl for a third straight year, he’ll be viewed as the primary reason for his team soaring during the regular-season — and flying into a window in the postseason. He’s smart enough to consider that possibility. Given McGinn’s theory regarding Rodgers’s unreasonable fear of failure one throw at a time, would Rodgers ultimately shy away from making the jump to another team due to concerns of another one-seed-one-and-done while wearing a new helmet?

As Rodgers closes in on making a decision, it’s a factor that can’t be ignored. If he shies away from making a misstep on a micro level, will he do the same thing on a macro level, too?

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Mike Florio wrote:

I don't think drugs have anything to do with it.
But I think the article is correct.
Rodgers seems so scared to take a chance in a big game, that he collapses. During the regular season it's not a lose and your season is over game so he plays a little more loose.
He needs to realize that the way he's playing in the playoffs is not getting it done, and needs to just let it rip.
What is there to lose? What your doing isn't working.

Originally Posted by: Cheesey 

There's absolutely zero truth to Aaron Rodgers and drugs. Why that would ever be brought up is absurd. So, I agree with you that drugs have nothing to do about it.

Aaron Rodgers has said it would mean a lot to him to have 500 TD's with under 100 INT's. I believe that to be true and not just facetiously stated.

I also believe Rodgers tends to get tunnel vision towards his favorite target in crunch time. rather than trust the offense and the other guys on the field. This could be characterized as being too safe, but who knows? Maybe in his eyes he feels even if 17 is doubled or tripled that's safer than throwing to an open 13? Why? Because who is going to blast him for throwing it to 17? No, I'm not saying he's worried about public opinion while playing the game, lol. Just throwing some thoughts out there.

Originally Posted by: Zero2Cool 

I think Aaron does coke to deal with anxiety in big games.

Originally Posted by: nerdmann 

Cheesey said: Rodgers seems so scared to take a chance in a big game, that he collapses.

This is blatantly unfair. To accuse without evidence is character assassination. What if I said that you seem to post in spurts, which would indicate you use cocaine, are obsessive compulsive and watch old episodes of Mr. Ed.? I have absolutely no basis for saying any of that, and neither do you..... so put a sock in it.

I respect McGinn as a writer. He was the first to rightly criticize Favre. However, I disagree with his assessment. He may have been 'hesitant' in some of the playoff games but in the last couple of years, but not so, IMO. He threw a couple balls up for grabs when behind against Tampa last year in the playoffs, and this year, the throw that everyone is critical of him (the one to Adams at the end) he was throwing into double coverage. You can't have it both ways, either he was taking a chance or not.

Hindsight is always 20/20.

Could he have played better....sure, and he should have. But the offensive line could have been significantly better, the special team just sucked, Lewis fumbled., and the coaches choked IMO

Originally Posted by: Martha Careful 

How about taking a chance on the guy who was wide open over the middle?

To sit there all season with big talk about the SB, and then take that huge of a shit, I mean, wow. Then walk off the field crying that you don't wanna be "part of a rebuild" after you $100 million contract put the team in this position to begin with.

That's a bitch move, imo. Or rather a series of them. Ever spend time around coke heads? Rhetorical question.

Originally Posted by: nerdmann