Aaron Rodgers: The Best Statistical Start To a QB's Career, Ever

Your first thought when reading this article's headline is WHAT?!  But indeed, when you break down the best starts to a career for QB's, you will realize that what Aaron Rodgers has down since his first career start last fall against Minnesota is that he is not just playing well, he may be playing better than any QB has ever started a career!

Let's get one thing out of the way, don't give me winning is all that counts!  Football is the ultimate team game and winning is a team effort. If you are going to talk about all-time greats or something along those lines, then by all means winning should be weighted more heavily, but I'm talking about the first two years of a career, a mere 29 starts for Rodgers. So that's why we are looking at this statistically... winning is key for Rodgers to be compared to the greats years from now, but he'll need the numbers and he's off to a great start!  Oh, and awards don't play a role in comparisons either because awards often take winning into account which is unfair, but that's a different argument for a different day.

You'd be surprised to see how much worse some of today's best started their careers: 

Drew Brees?  He threw 28 TDs to 31 INTs in his first two years.  

Peyton Manning?  His first year he threw 28 INTs and ended with a 71.2 passer rating.

Rodgers' Predecessor, Brett Favre?  He threw 37 TD's and 37 INTs his first two years, with a 72.2 rating his second season as starter.  

Big Ben? Didn't play a full 16 games until last year actually, but never reached 3,000 yards in his first two seasons or more than 17 TDs.

Philip Rivers? He has some very respectable stats but had only a 60.9 percent completion rate, 44 total TDs to 24 INTs and an 87 passer rating.

How about some older guys?:

Joe Namath? He never posted an actually good season ever... Not once did he have a season passer rating over 75 and threw ~50 more INTs for his career than TDs...just had to throw in the most overrated QB ever.

Joe Montana? Didn't have more than 19 TDs or a passer rating above 88 in his first two seasons.

John Elway  In 10 starts his first year he threw seven TDs, 14 INTs for a horrific 54.9 rating.

Troy Aikman? He threw 36 INTs to only 20 TDs in his first two years...ouch...

Now to the real competition:

Dan Marino only started nine games his first year but put up solid numbers for a 96.0 passer rating, then went to set records his second year with 5,084 yards, 48 TDs to only 17 INTs and a 108.9 rating. Along with 2 rushing TDs, he had 70 total TDs. Interestingly these were the two best statistical years of his career, a good warning for Rodgers!

Kurt Warner was the first QB to ever throw 4,000 yards in his first year, throwing for 4353 yards, 41 TDs and a 109.2 rating. He came down to earth in his second year throwing 21 TDs to 18 INTs, but 63 total TDs is pretty impressive as well. His third year was equally as impressive, but these became the best three years of his career as well...a second good warning for Aaron! 

Rodgers numbers for his career so far are absolutely staggering and right there with Warner and Marino.  In his first season as a starter, he was the second first-year starter to ever throw for more than 4,000 yards (4,038), with 63.6 completion percentage, 28 TDs to only 13 INTs for a 93.8 passer rating, and added four rushing TDs and 207 rushing yards. He's so far this year tacked on 3,579 yards, a higher completion percentage of 65.5, 25 TDs to only seven INTs for a 102.5 rating, along with leading the league for rushing yards as a QB with 283 and three more TDs.  29 starts: 60 total TDs, 20 INTs....

So what's my point? That people need to start realizing what Aaron Rodgers is... a star. Not a good player, not an up and coming player, but a bonified star. You could argue Warner or Marino had better starts and I wouldn't say you are wrong, but you could argue Rodgers is right there, especially if you take into account the pressure that he's been under following Favre. You heard it hear first, Aaron Rodgers is the next decade's Peyton Manning....only with a bigger head start!