Originally posted by pingpong:
I don't know how people saying anyone other than Rodgers can be serious. Yes, Alex is playing better than he has, but it should be clear he will never reach Rodgers's level, or even really approach it.
The importance of an elite QB cannot be overstated. Rodgers has a team with no real running game or defense, with a good/great receiving core, and the team just won a superbowl and is still undefeated this season. Look at what Peyton Manning was able to do with the Colts for so many years just by being so good at the position.
Now compare that to what Nnamdi suffered through in Oakland, or what Fitzy's been through post-Warner, or all of Megatron's years in the league. Every single one of those teams was a bottom dweller for multiple years despite having a top 1-2 WR or CB on the team.
Hopefully my point has been made about the general importance of elite QBs over elite players of any other position, especially in the sense of a franchise. And hopefully it goes without saying that Rodgers is just playing at a ridiculous level right now, and is still extremely young for a QB (http://i.imgur.com/LxNxu.png).
The only argument that some people make is that "our biggest weakness is at CB/WR/etc and not QB." This may be true, but it's not like QB is a position of strength. Alex is playing the best football of his career, but I would still take probably half of the QBs in the league over him. We already have the league's #1 defense, wouldn't it be better to improve our offense from below average to elite instead of incrementally improving our defense?
Green Bay has the best group of receivers in the league...and it isn't even close. Rodgers benefits ENORMOUSLY from that.
I'm not talking about their stats. I am talking about the way the run their routes, the adjustments they make to defensive alignments, the few number of passes they drop...all of it. Also, Rodgers has been in the same system/same HC/coordinator for 5 years and been with the majority of the same group of players for 3+ years. All of that makes a tremendous amount of difference. Rodgers here with the current group of receivers would be lucky to be in the top 5 in the league.