There is one legitimate criticism of Aaron Rodgers.

Rodgers came under fire this week from Fox Sports' Colin Cowherd. Cowherd wants us to criticize Rodgers more because Pro Football Focus said that the Packers have the second-best roster in the NFL. Cowherd saw this ranking, accepted it as gospel, then went into a diatribe where he criticized Rodgers for not winning more than seven playoff games over the course of his career. The foundation of Cowherd's argument is that Rodgers has had everything he has needed to win multiple Super Bowls. His only specific criticisms of Rodgers the individual are “he holds the ball too long,” “he's not the greatest leader,” and “he can be moody and cocky.” Save for holding the ball too long, none of those criticisms can be explored in on-field analysis.

When a great quarterback is consistently great but doesn't win multiple Super Bowls, we go in search of fabricated reasons why. It can never simply be that football is a team game and the quarterback has limited control over the outcome of results; it must always be an inherent flaw in that individual's make-up if his team underachieves. Leadership, personality, and ability in the clutch are the pillows into which these analysts fall back. This was emphatically highlighted with how analysts (including Cowherd specifically) spoke about Cam Newton last year. Newton's Panthers were winning, so he suddenly became a good leader and his confidence was no longer an issue. It couldn't have been that Newton was always a leader or that his confidence was never an issue, or that the team around him (along with his own play) improved to the point that they became one of the best teams in the league. That's too outlandish a scenario.




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Criticizing Aaron Rodgers more doesn't make any sense. Sometimes a player truly is great and he just happens to be on a team that isn't as good as others with which it competes. Any added criticism for the franchise in Green Bay should be pointed at the general manager. Ted Thompson is the one who built this roster, and despite Pro Football Focus' declaration that it is the second most talented roster in the league, it's a team that is far too reliant on its freakishly talented quarterback to carry them. This offseason, Thompson's big addition to his collection of skill position players that have shown off limitations and inconsistency over the past two seasons was Jared Cook, a founding member of the limitations and inconsistency club.
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Cian Fahey wrote:

This team has demonstrated that it had enough roster to win it all certainly in '14, arguably last year too. Our 6 and 7th WRs were getting it done in the playoffs against a top defensive unit. How many teams could do that?

Originally Posted by: nerdmann 

Bullshit.

The reason this team hasn't won more SBs is Mike's fear-based game management. You don't go into a shell midway the the third quarter and expect to consistently win.

Under Holmgren, they'd get a big lead then use the running game to drain the clock in the third and fourth quarters. But running a highly efficient WCO-based screen and trap game is not the same thing as running dive plays to Kuhn, then having to punt.

This team has demonstrated that it had enough roster to win it all certainly in '14, arguably last year too. Our 6 and 7th WRs were getting it done in the playoffs against a top defensive unit. How many teams could do that?

Originally Posted by: nerdmann 

Umm how many Super Bowls did Holmgren win?

Originally Posted by: buckeyepackfan