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I’ll be honest with you: I don’t know the first thing about analytics. Math and I haven’t seen eye-to-eye since the 11th grade. I mean, I’m literally a writer — numbers might as well be a foreign language to me.
Luckily, that’s why the nerds over at FiveThirtyEight exist, to explain statistical nuances that I simply don’t have to cognitive ability to communicate. And according to said FiveThirtyEight statisticians or mathematicians or A.I. programs or whatever the hell they actually are, it turns out that Aaron Rodgers himself may be the issue with the Green Bay Packers offense so far this year.
FiveThirtyEight publishes a piece detailing Aaron Rodgers’ subpar play and the struggles of the Green Bay Packers offense so far this season
“Aaron Rodgers could point to any number of reasons why his Green Bay Packers have started the season 3-3… but whatever the causes or excuses, the results are inarguable: The Packers’ four-time NFL MVP quarterback is playing like a mediocre signal-caller, and the team’s offense is below average,” the website’s recent piece argues.
Digging a little deeper, FiveThrityEight explains that Rodgers is currently below the league average in key categories such as Total QBR, yards per attempt, and expected points added per dropback. Furthermore, the Packers simply aren’t completing as many big plays as they once were, which makes the overall unit easier to contain. And that, ultimately, is the gist of the piece: the team’s offensive explosiveness is gone.
He’s below league average in Total QBR, yards per attempt and expected points added per dropback, according to ESPN’s Stats & Information Group. Sure, he’s still good at avoiding interceptions, with the seventh-lowest rate in the league, and he checks in with the seventh-highest completion rate. But the big-time throws that have been Rodgers’s hallmark throughout his career are missing. Without them, the Packers are much easier to defend.
via FiveThirtyEight
Luckily for Rodgers and the Packers, they have a chance to right the ship this weekend against one of the league’s most dysfunctional teams and organizations, the Washington Commanders. The Pack will travel to the outskirts of D.C. for that game on Sunday, October 23.