Clements: Rodgers Playing ‘Well’ (Whatever That Means)

Quarterbacks coach Tom Clements, who gave Aaron Rodgers his highest season grade on Sunday vs. the Commanders, discusses the play of the MVP quarterback.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers scored only two offensive touchdowns in Sunday’s loss at the Washington Commanders. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers didn’t convert a single third down, didn’t reach 100 passing yards until the final play of the third quarter and didn’t complete a single pass thrown 10-plus yards downfield until the final minutes.

Nonetheless, it was his highest-graded game of the season.

“I grade what I see,” quarterbacks coach Tom Clements said on Thursday.

The 69-year-old Clements was coaxed out of retirement by Rodgers and coach Matt LaFleur to fill the void created when Luke Getsy became the Bears’ offensive coordinator. Clements originally joined the Packers in 2006 and was the quarterbacks coach for the first six seasons of an 11-year run with team. As such, he watched Rodgers go from Brett Favre’s backup to Super Bowl champion and NFL MVP.

Rodgers didn’t want Clements just to have a friend and fan to hang out with in the quarterbacks room. He wanted Clements because he’s a stickler on the finer points of quarterback play.

“Tom doesn’t realize when I was a young player, I wanted nothing more than to make Tom Clements happy,” Rodgers said on July 27 following the first day of training camp. “And it was incredible motivation for me because I would have great games in my opinion – 100 quarterback rating, three touchdowns – and Tom would give me a minus performance. I’d say, that mother.

“But it motivated me because I loved that Tom held me accountable in more ways than just the stat sheet. It was all about the fundamentals, the decision-making, the footwork and stuff that really actually has molded me into the quarterback I am today. So, on Day 1, to get a fist-bump, I said, ‘Tom, you haven’t seen me play in a while. That was for you.’ So, that felt good.”

Not much about this season has felt good for Rodgers. When the Packers traded Davante Adams, it wasn’t just that Rodgers lost his favorite receiver. It was as if Rodgers and Adams shared the same brain. No matter what everyone else was doing on offense, Rodgers knew what Adams was going to do. It wasn’t that they were on the same page. They were on the same sentence on that page.

Without Adams getting open and making those big-time plays on third down, Packers are 3-4 and have lost three consecutive games.

With an abundance of mental errors and injuries – including to the thumb on his throwing hand – this season has been incredibly challenging. Rodgers hasn’t always met the challenge but he’s hardly the biggest reason for Green Bay’s consistently inconsistent play.

“His grades were all about the same general area” this season, Clements said. “It was just a couple percentage points higher [against Washington], so it was graded out the way I grade him out.”

The Packers will need Rodgers – and everyone else – to rise to the occasion on Sunday night at Buffalo. Green Bay is 23rd in the league in scoring while Buffalo is No. 1 in points allowed. Adding to the challenge, Rodgers’ most reliable receivers, Allen Lazard (shoulder; probably inactive) and Randall Cobb (ankle; injured reserve), figure to be on the sideline.

With that, Rodgers is going to have to rely on receivers who have been unreliable. Sammy Watkins is in his first season with the team. Romeo Doubs, Christian Watson and Samori Toure are rookies. On the practice squad are Juwann Winfree, who has one catch and one drop this season, and Travis Fulgham, who hasn’t played for the Packers in a regular-season game.

It almost seems like Mission Impossible to cobble together a winning passing attack against a quarterback-sacking, ball-hawking Bills defense.

“I think he’s playing well,” Clements said. “Each game, there are going to be some plays that don’t turn out as well for any number of reasons. But I think, overall, he’s playing well. We’ve had spurts where the entire team has been playing well. We just haven’t been able to do it consistently for a whole game. That’s, obviously, something that needs to be corrected.”

What does playing “well” even mean? Clements was quarterbacks coach for the first of Rodgers’ MVP seasons in 2011 and offensive coordinator for the second in 2014. He was the assistant head coach in 2016, when the Packers started 4-6 but won their final six games behind a series of virtuoso performances from Rodgers.

“I’m not going to make an assessment of whether it’s an MVP-type year or an all-star year,” Clements said. “I think he’s playing well. We have to play well more consistently overall. Everybody.”

Was Rodgers playing “well” in 2016? What does “well” mean by comparison to his elite seasons?

“I can’t give you an assessment of that,” Clements said. “He’s just playing well.”

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