Will Aaron Rodgers smash Brett Favre’s records?
The statistics of Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers over the first five years of their playing careers are strikingly similar. Favre played 16 years in Green Bay and if Rodgers is to come close to matching Favre, he will have to play for another decade.
Raymond T. Rivard photograph
Brett Favre has said lots of good things over the past couple of months about his former understudy, Aaron Rodgers and his former team, the Green Bay Packers. Some say he’s sucking up to Packers fans, many of whom have become haters over the past few years – mostly because of his traitorous act of joining the Minnesota Vikings and sticking it to his former team twice in 2009.
Brett Favre lets a pass fly against the New Orleans Saints.
Raymond T. Rivard photograph
Most recently, Favre said the way Rodgers is playing that he would most likely smash all the Packers records Favre established over his 16 years in Green Bay. Considering that Rodgers has been in Green Bay since 2005, but has been a starter only for the past five years, we’ve taken the liberty to take a look at Rodgers’ first five years in Green Bay to compare them with Favre’s first five.
Amazingly, the two quarterbacks who have manned the position in Packers News for the past 23 years have strikingly similar statistics when placed side-by-side
The full statistics are available below, but let’s dive into them to see if what Favre says could come to fruition.
"During his first five years, Rodgers started 78 games, Favre started 77; Rodgers’ overall record is 52-26, Favre was 50-27; Rodgers has completed 1,752 passes in 2,665 attempts (65.7 percent) for 21,661 yards, Favre was 1,667 for 2,692 (61.9 percent) for 18,724; Rodgers has thrown 171 touchdowns and 46 interceptions, Favre tossed 147 touchdowns and had 79 interceptions; Rodgers’ longest touchdown pass went for 93 yards, Favre’s for 99 yards."
Rodgers’ overall quarterback rating is 104.9; Favre’s rating through his first five seasons was 88.6.
One of the areas that Favre stands out was in fourth quarter comebacks and game-winning drives, mainly because the Packers teams under Rodgers have not gotten into the position where they needed to come back as much as those Packers teams of the early to mid-1990s. Favre brought the Packers back in the fourth quarter nine times during those first five years and also had 11 game-winning drives; For Rodgers, it’s been less – he’s had five fourth quarter comebacks and nine game-winning drives.
Another interesting statistic is that surrounding sacks – an area of the game that has plagued the Packers of recent years. Rodgers has been sacked 211 times for a loss of 1,312 yards. Over the course of his first five years, Favre was sacked 169 times for 1,064 yards.
While Rodgers is slightly ahead of Favre in total yards in the five-year comparison with Favre, he still has a long ways to go. To do it, Rodgers needs to show the kind of durability that placed Favre into the upper echelons of all-time quarterbacks.
That said, Favre finished his 16-year career in Green Bay with 61,665 yards, leaving Rodgers about 40,000 yards shy of Favre’s numbers. Favre also completed more than 8,700 passes during his career, meaning Rodgers would have to complete another 6,000-plus passes to bring him to Favre’s level.
Aaron Rodgers calls out signals.
Raymond T. Rivard photograph
Those are huge numbers.
Rodgers would have to fulfill his entire newly-signed contract, but would need to play at least three or four more years beyond it (averaging around 3,500-4,000 yards per season) to have a shot. And, of course, he’s got to stay healthy. That would place him around the 60,000-yard mark. That is a huge undertaking, but not out of the realm of reality for a quarterback who is in the prime of his career.
Though records aren’t the most important goal for Rodgers, Those numbers would fit nicely next to at least one more title. Only then can Rodgers be included in the upper echelon of all-time quarterbacks.
One thing is for certain – Rodgers won’t match Favre in the consecutive game category. However, if he continues to play each season relatively injury-free, he will join Favre in one of the most significant categories – games played – an incredible feat in and of itself.
Rodgers has had an incredible start to his career, but to sustain it and meet the plateau on which Favre sits will take durability, a team that continually improves and wins, and a hell of a lot of luck.
But if there’s one player who could do it … it would be Rodgers.
Maybe Favre knows more than we do …
Here are Brett Favre’s first five years of statistics and his career stats:
Here are Aaron Rodgers’ statistics since 2008: