Favre Calls Rodgers Maybe ‘Greatest Player Ever’
GREEN BAY, Wis. – Brett Favre offered the highest praise imaginable for Aaron Rodgers on Tuesday.
“I think he, aside from the [number of] Super Bowls, he may be the greatest player ever,” Favre said of his former teammate on Monday’s The SiriusXM Blitz with Brett Favre.
In Sunday’s 30-16 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles, Rodgers became the seventh player in NFL history to throw 400 touchdown passes. For Rodgers, the milestone came in Game No. 193. New Orleans’ Drew Brees had been the fastest to 400, doing it in 205 games.
Favre threw 442 touchdown passes for the Packers in 255 games from 1992 through 2007.
Rodgers leads the NFL with 36 touchdown passes – already 10 more than last season – and a 118.5 passer rating. That rating is fourth-best in NFL history behind his record-setting 122.5 in 2011, Peyton Manning’s 121.1 in 2004 and Nick Foles’ 119.2 in 2013.
“I say this all the time,” Favre said, “Tom Brady is the greatest player ever if we’re measuring from a Super Bowl [perspective]. And, statistic-wise, Tom has put up tremendous statistics and has won six Super Bowls. But, believe me, the Packers are good year in and year out because of him. And his statistics certainly speak for themselves. I mean, he's not doing anything to jeopardize the team. I'm just amazed at how prolific he is and takes care of the ball in the process. Just an incredible player [and] makes everyone around him just so much better.”
Along with the 400-touchdown milestone, Rodgers became the first quarterback in NFL history with five seasons of 35-plus touchdown passes.
“Those are fun milestones,” Rodgers said. “I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to hold onto [the 35-touchdown record]. There’s some really good young quarterbacks, I’m guessing, amassing some numbers in that vicinity. But it does speak to the consistency over a long period of time that I’m very proud of.”
What makes Rodgers’ year particularly remarkable is how it compares to recent seasons.
After winning his second MVP in 2014, Rodgers posted career worsts of 60.7 percent accuracy and a 92.7 rating in 2015 as he and the offense were sent reeling from the loss of Jordy Nelson. The first half of the 2016 season wasn’t so hot, either, until he got rolling with his famous running of the table that led Green Bay to the most unlikely of NFC Championship Game appearances.
However, his 2017 was ruined by a broken collarbone and his 2018 and 2019 seasons were relatively ho hum considering he topped 4,000 yards each time with a combined 51 touchdowns vs. six interceptions.
With that, the Packers selected potential successor Jordan Love rather than a playmaker in the first round of April’s draft. Despite substandard play, age and a perceived lack of playmakers, Rodgers has responded with one of his greatest seasons in leading Green Bay to a 9-3 record. The Packers are No. 1 in the NFL with 379 points and 48 touchdowns. Those 12-game totals beat the team’s full-season production from the previous three seasons.
To Favre, the coach is new and the scheme is new but it’s still the same old Rodgers.
“He looks as athletic to me at 37 as he did from Day 1,” Favre said. “Maybe he looks a little older, his hair, his face. But as far as his movement, arm strength, it looks identical, if not better, than it did at 22.”
