Entering Game No. 100, Aaron Rodgers Is NFL History's Best at Protecting the Football

The Packers quarterback will play in his 100th career regular season on Sunday, having already re-written several chapters in the NFL record books.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers by Mike Dinovo—USA TODAY Sports.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers by Mike Dinovo—USA TODAY Sports.

As Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers plays in his 100th career regular-season game on Sunday when he faces the Miami Dolphins, it's become clear through the first 99 that he's the best in NFL history at protecting the football, and it's not even close.

"Anytime the ball's turned over, it's definitely something that your football team has to overcome," said head coach Mike McCarthy. "But I think that Aaron has done a great job, and he'll continue to do so."

Every quarterback is unique, and there are different recipes for success in the NFL.

Brett Favre got the job done by staying healthy, having a cannon for an arm and making plays with improvisation. Peyton Manning does it with command of the offense and precision timing. Drew Brees does it by completing a high percentage of his passes.

Rodgers does some of those same things very well, but the one area that he blows away the competition away is by avoiding interceptions.

When opponents face the Packers, there's a good chance they aren't going to win the turnover battle, because Rodgers simply doesn't allow it happen. They don't get an extra possession or good field position that frequently comes as the result of grabbing an interception.

"Your No. 1 objective offensively is to take care of the football, maximize your possessions that you get during the course of the game," said McCarthy. "It starts with the quarterback position. The quarterback handles the football on every single play, so he's excellent at that and has been his whole career. It's a standard that he has set, and we definitely benefit from it."

Consider the NFL records (minimum 1,500 attempts) that Rodgers holds.

Rodgers ranks No. 1 in league annals with a career interception percentage of 1.7 percent with Tom Brady No. 2 at 2.0 percent.

The Packers quarterback also ranks No. 1 in career touchdown-to-interception ratio with 3.77 touchdowns to every one interception, more than a touchdown better than the next closest (Brady) with a 2.68-to-1 mark.

Because the NFL's formula for passer rating is also negatively impacted by interceptions, Rodgers is the only quarterback in league history with a career rating over 100, specifically 105.4, besting the 97.4 rating by Manning, which comes in second-best.

Rodgers is hitting milestone after milestone in his 10th season in the NFL. In Week 2, at the time of his 3,000th career passing attempt, Rodgers had recorded the fewest interceptions in league history (53), surpassing the mark previously set by Neil O'Donnell (59).

That same game, Rodgers also eclipsed 25,000 passing yards, reaching the mark in the fewest attempts in NFL history (3,065), beating the record held prior by Kurt Warner (3,076).

Just last week in the win against the Minnesota Vikings, when Rodgers found wide receiver Davante Adams in the end zone, he set the NFL record for the fewest interceptions (53) at the time of his 200th career touchdown pass. That mark bettered the previous record by 35, held by Brady (88 interceptions).

Just days after Manning became only the second quarterback in professional football to throw at least 500 touchdown passes, Rodgers is making a difference in his own unique way. Even if team success is the ultimate goal, individual achievements still matter to him.

"It does. It really does," said Rodgers. "You realize you're getting a little bit older in the league when you're getting some achievement balls early in the season like this. 25,000 yards was a cool number, as was 200 touchdowns. It definitely gets dwarfed by Peyton's 500 when that happens in a short amount of time there. But it's still special.

"It means that I've been able to play pretty consistently, and the guys around me have made a lot of plays for me. I've said it before, this is my 10th season. I'd like to think I'm halfway in. I'm nine in, and hopefully nine to go. So it's about being consistent from this point forward, keep my body in great shape and playing at a high level and making the guys around me raise the level of their game as well."

At 30 years old, there appears to be no end in sight. Rodgers is at the top of his game, age not yet catching up to him.

After throwing an interception in Week 1 at Seattle, his first and only of the season, Rodgers has gone 128 pass attempts without a pick.

With three more games before month's end, Rodgers' success in the month of October is enought to make Reggie Jackson blush.

Since taking over as the starter as the starter in 2008, Rodgers ranks No. 1 in several categories during the month of October: passer rating (111.9), touchdown-to-interception ratio (4.31-to-1), yards per attempt (8.78) and touchdowns (56).

In his last 13 October starts, the Packers have compiled a 12-1 record.

It's become clear that Rodgers has not only joined elite company, he's become the player to beat when it comes to limiting interceptions, just one of many things he does with aplomb.

McCarthy has seen many great quarterbacks in his liftetime. He's coached two of them in Green Bay between Favre and Rodgers and Joe Montana in Kansas City before that and sees some of the same traits in all of them.

"I just think their understanding of the game," said McCarthy. "Obviously there's physical talents that they all have, so they're definitely on the very high end of that as gifted athletes. Just the way they see the game, their anticipation and their eye discipline is something that's always stood out to me with the great ones. They see the things before they happen. They're anticipating, and the game really slows down for them."

 

Brian Carriveau is the author of the book "It's Just a Game: Big League Drama in Small Town America," and editor at Cheesehead TV and its "Pro Football Draft Preview." To contact Brian, email [email protected].

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Comments (23)

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Evan's picture

October 09, 2014 at 11:52 am

His historic INT rate is incredible and it's something I have to keep reminding myself of when he holds onto the ball and takes "unnecessary" sacks. There is a method to the madness.

Sacks > INTs.
Sacks > INTs.
Sacks > INTs.

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jeremyjjbrown's picture

October 09, 2014 at 12:02 pm

Unless he could have thrown the ball away and avoided getting hit. I'd like him to get to that 500 td mark. He certainly has been incredible.

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denniseckersley's picture

October 09, 2014 at 12:26 pm

Don't hold your breath for 500. For all the good his 3 years behind Favre did for him (and for us), that time basically eliminated him from any of those Career milestone records (other than ones related to efficiency). The Collarbone last year didn't help either.

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Evan's picture

October 09, 2014 at 12:29 pm

I get that, but with all the amazing plays he does make after holding onto the ball and extending plays, I think it's a trade-off I'm okay with.

I wonder how many years it'd take to get to 500 TDs at his current pace (his 3 years riding the bench are likely going to hurt his chances a great deal - that's at least ~70 TDs right there, assuming rookie growing pains.)

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Evan's picture

October 09, 2014 at 12:55 pm

Simple math....

So, he's at 200 now.

To get to 500, he'd need to throw...

30 TDs for 10 more seasons.

38 TDs for 8 more seasons.

In his 5 full seasons of starting, he's averaged 34 TDs a year (he's on pace for 48 this year). At the 34-TD rate, he'd need 9+ more seasons.

Definitely doable (assuming my math is correct). I think Rodgers can easily play to 38-40.

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murphy's picture

October 09, 2014 at 01:47 pm

It's entirely possible, I just don't see him getting there.

400 TDs would be spectacular and put him into a truly elite category that only 3 other players have reached, and only a few active players are within striking distance of.

Brees should easily pass 400, and Brady can get there if he can keep it together another few years. The next closest are guys like Rivers and Eli, and they aren't even past 250 yet.

I just hope 12 gets at least one more ring, as that's all he needs to pass Favre in my opinion.

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Evan's picture

October 09, 2014 at 01:51 pm

Wow...I'm actually pretty shocked Brady isn't even at 400 yet. And that Brees has more TDs than he does.

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FITZCORE1252's picture

October 09, 2014 at 02:41 pm

He's on pace for about 38 this year, with 3 interceptions.

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Evan's picture

October 09, 2014 at 02:50 pm

Ah, right. I was doing 12 TDs over 4 games, not 5.

Still, not too shabby...ha.

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Amanofthenorth's picture

October 10, 2014 at 04:58 am

Three interceptions? Wth Rodgers? No more hail Mary's at the end of the half.

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TarynsEyes's picture

October 09, 2014 at 12:44 pm

Rodgers greatness will be decided by other things of more value than that which places him among the stat whores of the NFL QB's. :)

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PackerAaron's picture

October 09, 2014 at 01:53 pm

They're not stat whores. They play QB. Other people keep the stats.

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DrealynWilliams's picture

October 09, 2014 at 02:09 pm

I never understood that either

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White92's picture

October 09, 2014 at 01:30 pm

This is especially great when I'm at Soldier Field. I can't tell you how many times I hear Bear fans say "here comes a pick 6".

I always laugh and say "you might be waiting a long time for that"

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Evan's picture

October 09, 2014 at 01:33 pm

To be fair, they're yelling that when the Bears are on offense.

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murphy's picture

October 09, 2014 at 01:54 pm

They had their chance with Urlacher, and blew it.

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calabasa's picture

October 09, 2014 at 01:51 pm

This has nothing to do with the ARod story, but I just read this on ESPN- Corey Linsley (Ohio State "graduate") talking about the weather in Miami:

Rookie center Corey Linsley said he loves playing in extreme temperatures -- either scorching heat or bone-chilling cold.

"I like it because I feel like the hot is like, you get like delusional, you just stop caring," said Linsley, a native of Youngstown, Ohio. "Like I feel like when it's just hot, I feel like 'Oh man! It’s hot, like shoot.' You start like complaining. But when it's like really hot, and really humid and you’re like 'Dude this sucks. I'm going to go as hard as I can.'"

Might be the dumbest thing ever said.

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PackerAaron's picture

October 09, 2014 at 01:55 pm

I see nothing wrong with it.

There's been much, much, much dumber stuff said in the comments section on this website. And I see dumber than that on Twitter every day.

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Evan's picture

October 09, 2014 at 02:21 pm

ha...I don't see anything "wrong" with it, but it definitely reads like the ramblings of a stoner.

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Thegreatreynoldo's picture

October 09, 2014 at 07:52 pm

Another ringing endorsement by packeraaron of the fans of this website. I suppose since we occasionally take issue with the articles, a little shot at us (maybe me!) is all well and good.

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jeremyjjbrown's picture

October 09, 2014 at 07:39 pm

Yeah, stupid Linsley stepping into the starting role as a rookie, making all of the line calls, and pancaking guys in the run game after spending very little time with the starters in preseason. He enjoys blocking out the physical distractions and just doing his job, what a jerk.

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Amanofthenorth's picture

October 10, 2014 at 05:00 am

Can any of you remember a pass that Rodgers has thrown where you said, "where the hell was he throwing that?l " ?

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TommyG's picture

October 10, 2014 at 05:39 am

At least twice during the Detroit game this year.

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