Everyone has a weakness. For Aaron Rodgers, it’s Father Time. Pro Football Focus unveiled a list of the top weakness, the “kryptonite” of each starting quarterback in the NFL. The site didn’t ignore the elephant in the room when it comes to Rodgers.
“This could be just a copy and paste from our 2024 iteration. Rodgers will turn 42 years old this season, and he is adapting to a new coaching staff and new weapons,” John Kosko wrote. “He still has the arm talent, but everything just looked harder for him a year ago. His mobility isn’t where it used to be, when it was a weapon in the prime of his career. It is still possible for Rodgers have a Tom Brady-esque end of his career, but the odds are stacked against him.”
As Kosko notes, PFF shared the same concern about Rodgers last year. That largely proved true as Rodgers battled nagging injuries and struggled to turn the Jets around, a 5-12 season in which the entire coaching staff was fired and Rodgers himself unceremoniously shown the door.
During training camp, Rodgers tested his mobility and moved around without issue. He still made impressive off-platform throws. But doing so in August versus in December are two different things and as PFF notes, everything about being an athlete is tougher the older you get. It’s harder to recover from bruises and hits in your 40s compared to your 20s. Rodgers will face a tough slate of defenses to begin the year, including a Minnesota Vikings unit that sacked him three times and picked him off thrice more a season ago.
The good news is Rodgers’ arm still looks live. There’s still plenty of zip on the football and the high-level throws he made a decade ago still exist today. But he needs a clean pocket to make those types of plays and Rodgers has to overcome the short list of quarterbacks to succeed in their 40s. Tom Brady is an obvious example but he’s proven to be an outlier in every conceivable way.
When Rodgers takes his first snap on Sept. 7, he’ll become not just the oldest quarterback but oldest player in Steelers’ history. Pittsburgh’s goal is for Rodgers to look anything but his age next Sunday and beyond.
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