With Career at Crossroads, Can Aaron Rodgers Single-Handedly Save the Packers?

By now you're probably aware that Aaron Rodgers hasn't been right, nor has the Green Bay Packers offense.

Rodgers is the highest-rated passer in NFL history, but he struggled last season without top receiver Jordy Nelson. And although Nelson is back in 2016, Rodgers' numbers have continued to plummet.

He ranks 26th among 31 qualified quarterbacks with a completion percentage of 60.2. His yards-per-attempt average (6.5) also ranks in the bottom 10. An advanced formula at Pro Football Focus reveals he's been the league's fifth-least-accurate qualified passer this season.

According to the same source, he's connected on just six of 22 deep passes, which ranks last among qualified quarterbacks.

Category	Total	Rank
Completion %	60.2	26th
Touchdown %	5.5	6th
Interception %	2.2	18th
Yards/attempt	6.5	26th
Passer rating	88.4	20th
Accuracy %	68.8	25th
Accuracy % (pressured)	46.4	29th
Deep completion %	27.3	23rd

Green Bay ranks 25th in total offense, 17th in points per game and in the bottom 10 in turnovers.

Primarily as a result of that, the 3-2 Packers enter Thursday's game against the division-rival Chicago Bears two games out of first place in the NFC North.

My colleagues at NFL1000 put together a piece Monday that did a great job of establishing what appears to ail Rodgers and the Green Bay offense.

One conclusion Bleacher Report NFL Lead Scout Doug Farrar drew there is the team's offensive game plan under head coach Mike McCarthy is unsustainable, and it has caused Rodgers to lose his mechanical consistency. He doesn't appear to trust a schematically limited offense and is overcompensating as a result.

That could explain why he's become substantially less accurate than in the past, and why both he and the Green Bay offense have taken significant steps backward.

The good news is that if we can see this, so can the Packers. The bad news is these types of scheme- and mechanics-based flaws aren't easy to correct. Even if they have identified the problem, McCarthy and Rodgers can't necessarily just flip a switch.

It doesn't help that they're now forced to play on three days' rest against an opponent that is familiar with them. Matters have been made worse by the fact that running backs Eddie Lacy (ankle) and James Starks (knee) are both expected to miss time.

That leaves the Packers with zero backs who have carried the ball for them this season. They acquired 25-year-old Knile Davis from the Kansas City Chiefs on Tuesday, but the 2013 third-round pick has started just two games in his NFL career and would likely have a limited grasp of the playbook with so little time to prepare.

That means they'll probably have to use rookie Don Jackson heavily, despite the fact the 23-year-old spent the first six weeks of the season on the practice squad.

The Green Bay running game averaged a solid 4.1 yards per carry during the first five games of the year, and according to PFF, the offensive line has surrendered a league-low 27 pressures on Rodgers. But without Lacy and Starks, the Packers may suffer from a lack of balance, which could enable the Bears to pin their ears back.

Throw in that Rodgers' most targeted receiver, Randall Cobb, has been nursing a back injury, and you can see why the offense will have its work cut out for it at Lambeau Field on Thursday night.

While it might not be fair, the reality is this is one of those cases in which a future Hall of Fame quarterback has to place 52 teammates on his shoulders and remind the sports world why he is, in fact, a future Hall of Fame quarterback.

He did it a few weeks ago. Rodgers faced a similar amount of scrutiny just last month after posting abysmal numbers during the first two weeks of the season, and he responded in Week 3 with a four-touchdown performance in a victory over the Detroit Lions.

Rodgers is still Rodgers. He still has the best touchdown-to-interception ratio in league history. He's still a big-game quarterback, with 27 touchdowns to just eight interceptions and a 98.2 passer rating in the playoffs.

This isn't a playoff game, but considering the circumstances, it's as important as any game Rodgers will play in the first half of a season. He has to quiet the critics before the pressure collapses on that locker room.

And no, he doesn't have to do that all on his own. He still has Cobb, Nelson and Week 6 revelation Ty Montgomery to throw to.

Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

Whether he likes it or not, Rodgers has to trust those guys to make plays. Ideally, McCarthy has worked with his quarterback to make changes in order to ensure that he won't shy away from throws that seem obvious. That's because Rodgers has to believe in the plays he's running and the throws he's making.

One of the greatest passers in football history has to stop thinking and start passing. It's a cerebral position, and Rodgers is a great thinker, a top-notch analyzer of defenses. But for a six-year stretch between 2009 and 2014, he threw the ball more effectively than anyone else in the game.

It appears he's suffered from paralysis by analysis of late, but I refuse to believe that raw ability has escaped him.

No, that doesn't just go away. Not after two MVPs, a Super Bowl and five Pro Bowls. Not at the age of 32.

It's time for Rodgers—in prime time at home against a division rival and with everybody counting his team out—to deliver a message.

If he doesn't, it might be fair to start considering major changes for the Packers.

That's how important Thursday night is in Green Bay.

Brad Gagnon has covered the NFL for Bleacher Report since 2012.