Patriots-Packers draft stat proves Aaron Rodgers has no excuse vs Tom Brady

The biggest talking point surrounding the NFL since the draft has been the future of quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who reportedly wants to be traded from the Green Bay Packers.

While it’s unclear whether Rodgers is going to be dealt, it’s completely understandable why the nine-time Pro Bowler wants out.

For starters, he’s entering the twilight of his career and has just one championship to show for it, which is criminal given his talent.

The Packers also blatantly insulted Rodgers in last year’s draft when they traded up to select Jordan Love, his supposed heir apparent, in the first round. As expected, the Utah State product has yet to see the field, so that pick looks incredibly wasteful in hindsight.

In a perfect world, Green Bay would’ve traded up to equip Rodgers with another marquee wideout to line up opposite star Davante Adams. When you consider how deep that WR class was, chances are they would’ve been able to net an immediate impact player.

However, while there’s no doubting the Packers have been inept in terms of maximizing their championship window with Rodgers as their quarterback, their sheer refusal of spending a high draft pick on a receiver is futile in the debate against Tom Brady.

After all, the New England Patriots, much like Green Bay with Rodgers, didn’t draft a wideout in the first round across Brady’s first 16 seasons with the franchise.

As far as legacies are concerned, this Patriots-Packers draft stat proves Aaron Rodgers has no excuse against Tom Brady.

We fully understand that Brady’s and Rodgers’ circumstances are different. For most of the latter’s career, the Packers didn’t boast a championship-caliber defense. The same obviously cannot be said for Brady and the Patriots, who almost always flaunted more talent on defense than on offense during his 20-year run with the franchise.

It’s duly noted that “defense wins championships,” but these are two of the most talented quarterbacks in the history of the NFL. If Brady was able to overcome not being equipped with superstar receivers, why wasn’t Rodgers, who’s arguably the more talented thrower of the football, able to as well? He simply can’t use that as an excuse.

Since Rodgers became the full-time starter in 2008, the Packers have been to the playoffs 10 times in 13 seasons. Of those nine eliminations, they came up short in the NFC Championship Game four times and the Divisional Round three times. In other words, Rodgers was always knocking on the door of adding to his ring collection.

Are we really supposed to attribute all of those shortcomings to the fact the Packers haven’t drafted a first-round wide receiver in his 16 seasons? Despite that, Rodgers still had the luxury of throwing to stars like Adams, Jordy Nelson, Randall Cobb, Greg Jennings, James Jones and Donald Driver, who admittedly was at the tail end of his career when Rodgers entered the fold.

If we were to rattle off the best receivers of the Brady era, we’re looking at Randy Moss, overachievers in Julian Edelman and Wes Welker, Troy Brown and Danny Amendola. Rob Gronkowski could be added in there, but that doesn’t change the fact that Brady did more with less compared to Rodgers.

That pretty much settles it.

Though you can argue all day whether Rodgers has more individual talent than Brady, this eye-opening draft stat proves they shouldn’t be mentioned in the same breath as far as all time legacies are concerned.

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