Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers was considered to be one of the top two QB's in the 2005 NFL Draft and could have easily have been the #1 overall selection, coming out of the University of California. Instead, the San Francisco 49ers decided to pick Utah's Alex Smith with the first pick and left Rodgers on the board until the Green Bay Packers picked him with the 24th overall selection of the first round. Rodgers sat behind legendary Brett Favre for his first three years in the league, getting into a grand total of seven games, throwing only 59 passes, completing 35 for 329 yards, one TD and one interception.
Not much of a resume in the NFL over three years, but understandable considering who he was behind on the depth chart. Three years ago, Brett Favre either retired, was released or whatever, but now was gone and Rodgers stepped into the starting role. Three years later, he is considered one of the top QB's in the game and is leading his team into the Super Bowl against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The point is, he has played roughly the same amount of games in three starting season as the Baltimore Ravens' QB, Joe Flacco. Is the difference between the two attributable to his three year "internship" behind Favre?
(Click on the 'Jump'to see the statistical comparison between Rodgers and Flacco)
In both QB's NFL regular season careers, Rodgers has played in 54 games while Flacco has started all 48 regular season games since being drafted by the Ravens in 2008. That's where the similarities between the two begin to split. However, the gap is not nearly as much as one might have expected, although Rodgers has clearly put up more prolific numbers over the course of his career.
Let's look at their career numbers:
Player Games ATT COMP PCT Yards TD INT Rating
Rodgers 54 1,611 1,038 64.4 12,723 87 32 98.4
Flacco 48 1,416 878 62.0 10,206 60 34 87.9
Take out those seven games that Rodgers played in over his first three years before becoming the full-time starter and the stats look like this:
Player Games ATT COMP PCT Yards TD INT
Rodgers 47 1,552 1,033 66.6 12,394 86 31
Flacco 48 1,416 878 62.0 10,206 60 34
Now we see an even more similar comparison, with Rodgers stats still overshadowing Flacco's in all areas, however none more impressive than in the TD passes category. The stats bear out the difference between what at least was a run-first offense (Ravens) versus a pass-first mentality (Packers) over the course of their starting careers. Also significant is the fact that Rodgers threw 136 more passes, yet threw one less interception than Flacco.
Compare their 2010 regular season stats:
Player Games ATT COMP PCT Yards TD INT Rating
Rodgers 15 475 312 65.7 3,922 28 11 101.2
Flacco 16 489 306 62.6 3,622 25 10 93.6
Not a huge difference over the course of the year, other than the overall QB Rating. However, Flacco played the entire regular season while Rodgers missed one game, which most likely would have increased the separation between the two had he played like his "normal" self.
At this point, it's obviously ludicrous to even try to compare the two QB's as Aaron Rodgers is by far the more accomplished passer and is in this year's Super Bowl, although Joe Flacco has played in more career playoff games over the past three years. However, as stated in the title of this post, the question remains as to what benefit would Flacco have realized had he had the opportunity to stand on the sidelines and learn the system, speed and intangibles of the pro game behind a standout veteran QB, such as the late Steve McNair, had he continued to be a proficient QB into Flacco's early years?