In recent weeks, the national conversation regarding Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers involved his vaccination status, his handling of COVID protocols and whatever the heck “COVID toe” is. That led to a moment with the quarterback flashing his little piggies for the world, in an image that requires enough coffee to numb your senses before viewing.
That discussion, however, seems to have overshadowed what was a little problem in Rodgers’ game. While the Packers passer has been putting up good numbers this year, and through the first ten weeks of the season he was among the upper tier of passers, there was something missing.
First, a snapshot of his performance through the first ten weeks of the season, viewed through the dual lenses of EPA per Play and Completion Percentage Above Expected:
There you can see Rodgers, up in the upper-right quadrant where you want to be on this chart.
However, something was missing.
The deep ball.
Known as a prodigious thrower of the football, Rodgers struggled over the first ten weeks pushing the football downfield. According to charting data from Pro Football Focus, during that time on throws over 20 yards downfield, Rodgers completed 13 of 41 throws (a 31.7% completion percentage) for 466 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions. His Adjusted Completion Percentage on those throws? 31.7%, which ranked him 25th out of 26 qualified passers in that category. Only Jared Goff was below him.
In the past two weeks? Rodgers has been much more effective on those throws. He has completed 6 of 12 such attempts (a 50% completion percentage) for 228 yards and three touchdowns, against zero interceptions. During this stretch his Adjusted Completion Percentage of 50% ranks second among qualified passers.
Tied with Kirk Cousins and just behind Baker Mayfield, so do with that what you will…
So let us dive into the past two weeks and look at how Matt LaFleur and Aaron Rodgers got their deep passing groove back.