RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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There aren't a lot of people out there who would take another quarterback over Aaron Rodgers in the storied history of the Green Bay Packers .
After 15 seasons as the Packers' starting quarterback from 2008 to 2022, he left Green Bay as the franchise's all-time leader in passing touchdowns with 475 while winning four NFL MVPs and a Super Bowl title as Super Bowl XLV MVP. Rodgers also became the NFL's all-time leader in passer rating and touchdown-to-interception ratio during his time with the Packers.
The last two of his four NFL MVPs came consecutively in 2020 and 2021 while playing in head coach Matt LaFleur's Shanahan-tree offense, which featured staples such as under-center formations, zone blocking and heavy doses of play-action passing and motion.
Despite seeing some of the best football of Rodgers' legendary career up close, LaFleur would take current Green Bay starting quarterback Jordan Love over Rodgers when it comes to pre-snap offensive line protection calls and adjustments/audibles. Certainly an eyebrow-raising claim.
"He's got to be the best I've been around in terms of protections and adjustments," LaFleur said of Love on NFL Network on Monday. "Rarely does he get out-schemed. It's pretty remarkable. That was all foreign to him coming into the league. Having the opportunity to sit back and learn from Aaron [Rodgers], watch him do it at the level he did it was invaluable for him."
So why is LaFleur taking Love over Rodgers in the pre-snap department? There are two primary reasons, one that is pro-Love and one that is anti-Rodgers.
Let's start with LaFleur's pro-Love perspective. There are only two quarterbacks with at least nine wins, 20-plus passing touchdowns and fewer than 12 interceptions in each of the last three seasons, the three years Love has been Green Bay's starter: 2025 NFL MVP Matthew Stafford and Love. LaFleur's offense hums today thanks to Love's deep-ball accuracy and arm strength when squeezing the ball into tight windows over the middle of the field.
Despite lackluster play from his offensive line for the vast majority of the 2025 season, Love more than made do with the protection he was given. Green Bay's offensive line allowed a quarterback pressure rate of 40.9% in 2025, the fourth-highest in the NFL. However, Love had the NFL's seventh-lowest sack rate (4.6%). Hence, LaFleur's kudos to Love when it comes to setting the pass protection before the snap.
Expected points added (EPA) per dropback
LaFleur's knock on Rodgers in this area likely stems from the disagreement between the two over Green Bay's offensive scheme during their four seasons together from 2019 to 2022. LaFleur's offense is the opposite of predecessor Mike McCarthy's West Coast offense, which Rodgers grew up in and spent 13 seasons mastering. The Packers lined up in shotgun formation 52.8% of the time from 2006-2018, the third-highest rate in the NFL.
Rodgers, one of the best in NFL history at pre-snap audibles and quickly identifying mismatches on his own, has often referred to the West Coast offense as "the most beautiful offense in football." He appreciates its simplicity, with the quarterback going from one route progression to another and much more of the decision-making resting on the passer's shoulders instead of his coaches'.
LaFleur's Shanahan-rooted scheme is designed to simplify a quarterback's job in a different way. Similar formations help him diagnose the defense more easily, with the run and pass looking the same while the offense leans on motion and similar under-center looks before the snap.
In 2019, Rodgers had an efficient but less prolific campaign by his standards, tossing 26 touchdowns and four interceptions while totaling just over 4,000 passing yards in Year 1 with LaFleur. Rodgers soared in 2020 and 2021, winning back-to-back NFL MVPs while the Packers went 26-6 in his starts. Those 26 wins tied the Kansas City Chiefs , with Patrick Mahomes starting at quarterback, for the most in the NFL during those two seasons. Rodgers also led the league in passing touchdowns (85), touchdown-to-interception ratio (85-9) and passer rating (116.7) across the 2020 and 2021 seasons.
During Rodgers' return to peak performance in those back-to-back MVP seasons, the team leaned into lining up under center 40.5% of the time, the 10th-highest rate in the NFL. Looking more like LaFleur's offense -- with the head coach calling the plays and Rodgers mostly running them as called -- led to a much more high-powered, efficient offense.
* Aaron Rodgers won back-to-back NFL MVPs
However, Rodgers and the Packers struggled when they strayed from the offense's foundational staples of going under center and utilizing play-action. When the Packers had both their lowest under-center (31.1%) and play-action (15.2%) rates of LaFleur's first four seasons in Green Bay in 2022, they went 8-9 and missed the playoffs for the first time under their current head coach. It was a jarring contrast to the Packers' three consecutive 13-win seasons, the only such streak in NFL history.
Rodgers also posted the worst single-season passer rating of his Packers career in 2022 at 91.1 after he and the team shifted toward the way he preferred to play and away from LaFleur's style of offense: more shotgun and more route progressions based on his ability to read the field.
That's why LaFleur leans Love over Rodgers before the snap when it comes to his two Packers pupils.
"Aaron is going to get mad about this, but he just, it's uncanny what he can do at the line of scrimmage with our protection adjustments," LaFleur said of Love.
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