Packers Top 10 opening day passer ratings ranked
By Jerry Tapp
Barring a preseason injury, Jordan Love will become the first Green Bay Packers quarterback not named Brett Favre or Aaron Rodgers to start on Opening Day since 1992.
Don Majkowski was the starting QB for the Pack in their first game of the 1992 season. Brett Favre was the Opening Game starter for the Packers from 1993-2007; Aaron Rodgers was the starting QB in Week 1 for Green Bay from 2008 to last season.
In the Favre-Rodgers era, the Packers had a 20-10 record in their first game of the year. In many of those games, Favre and Rodgers had big games; in fact, Favre had a passer rating of 120 or above in seven of his 15 Opening Game contests, while Rodgers had six games with a passer rating above 120 in his 15 Opening Game starts.
Of all Green Bay Packers Opening Games since 1950, Favre had the highest passer rating with a 141.5 PR on September 1, 1996, against the Tampa Bay Bucs. Green Bay won the game 34-3.
Here are the Top 10 QB passer ratings for the Packers in their season openers since 1950:
- Brett Favre, 141.5 (1996)
- Aaron Rodgers, 140.5 (2015)
- Lynn Dickey, 137.6 (1983)
- Bart Starr, 133.6 (1965)
- Aaron Rodgers, 132.1 (2011)
- Bart Starr, 131.5 (1968)
- Aaron Rodgers, 130.7 (2018)
- Brett Favre, 129.2 (2001)
- Aaron Rodgers, 127.5 (2020)
- Brett Favre, 121.5 (1998)
In all 10 of the games above, the Packers won.
Favre and Rodgers are tied with the most season-openers starts by a QB (since 1950) for the Packers with 15. Next is Bart Starr with 12, Lynn Dickey with eight and Tobin Rote with seven.
In the Super Bowl era (since 1966), there have been 12 different quarterbacks who have started the season-opener for the Packers: Favre, Rodgers, Starr, Dickey, Randy Wright, Don Majkowski, Scott Hunter, David Whitehurst, Zeke Bratkowski, Jerry Tagge, John Hadl and Anthony Dilweg.
Dickey holds the Green Bay record for most TD passes in a season opener with five (he did it 1983 in a 41-38 OT win over Houston). Rodgers has the most passing yards in a season-opener with 364 (he did it in 2020 in a 43-34 win over Minnesota).
While Jordan Love may be getting (hopefully) his first season-opening start for the Packers at QB in 2023, he has played in two previous season-openers and has performed well.
On September 12, 2021, Love was five-for-seven for 68 yards in the Pack's season-opening 38-3 loss to New Orleans. His passer rating was 102.1 for the game. On September 11 last season, Love was 4-for-5 for 65 yards; his passer rating was 118.7. The Packers lost that game 23-7 to Minnesota.
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