Aaron Rodgers Thinks His Super Bowl Window Is Still Open. He’s Wrong.

BY ADAM GREENE

It’s difficult to lay the Green Bay Packers’ 37-20 loss at the feet of Aaron Rodgers and you shouldn’t. Certainly it wasn’t his fault that his defense couldn’t consistently tackle a guy that had been cut by seven other NFL teams. He even had a great game, minus a couple of picks, going 31-of-39 for 326 yards and two touchdowns.

It just wasn’t enough.

After the game, Rodgers told reporters that he thought his team could reload next year (and the coming years) with a real shot.

“The window’s open,” he said. “And I think we’re going to be on the right side of one of these real soon. …That’s the exciting thing. It doesn’t make this feeling any easier, but that is very exciting moving forward.”

He made it to the NFC Championship, sure. His team is significantly better than in years’ past and he’s actually got a competent, NFL-level head coach in Matt LaFleur.

But he’s wrong.

The window isn’t open. This was the Packers’ best shot and when the dust cleared, they were never really in the game.

Rodgers is 36 years old and, for an elite quarterback, that’s not really that bad. He could easily play three or four more years and be productive. What he won’t be, is the guy that stormed the NFL in 2009. His physical tools, as good as they are, are diminishing and will continue to do so.

He’s still good to great on most Sundays, but here’s the problem.

The NFC is just too strong. To get to that “window,” the Packers have to overcome the odds against teams that are just superior talent-wise and will be, regardless of what Green Bay does this offseason.

The 49ers aren’t going away. People want to marvel at their turnaround from a 4-12 team to a 13-3 Super Bowl squad, but Jimmy Garoppolo was hurt in 2018. He’s an NFL starter and you can’t win consistently without one and you certainly can’t do it in the NFC West when you’re playing the Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks.

Speaking of the Rams and Seahawks, they aren’t going anywhere either. The Rams didn’t make the playoffs because of offensive line injuries, a handful of blown defensive plays and a step backward for Jared Goff, which the whole offensive line thing had a lot to do with.

They’ll be back. The Seahawks will be back. Both are better teams than the Packers.

Unless Drew Brees decides to retire, the New Orleans Saints will still be in the mix, as will a Carolina Panthers team a healthy Cam Newton. And that’s not even counting the “surprise team” that will surely pop up next year that didn’t even sniff a playoff spot this season. Watch Bruce Arians bring in Joe Flacco, Teddy Bridgewater or Marcus Mariota and go 12-4. He’s done it before.

A full 16 healthy games from Carson Wentz for the Philadelphia Eagles could uproot the whole conference.

You can’t waste the opportunities when they present themselves. The Atlanta Falcons and Matt Ryan might never get another shot. The Rams and Goff might not either. They had Super Bowl championships right in their grasps and they didn’t get it done. And they had the teams that could do it.

The Packers don’t. They’re good. They’ll be in the playoff conversation as long as Rodgers puts on a jock strap and doesn’t go off the QB cliff, but that window? I don’t see how they fit through it.

And if they did? Then Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs or Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens are waiting on the other side. It’s not happening. The Packers can’t get good enough, fast enough to make it happen. Not even with Aaron Rodgers pulling the trigger.

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