Why the Vikings Don’t Need Aaron Rodgers
The Minnesota Vikings have a choice this offseason at quarterback between Sam Darnold, J.J. McCarthy, or finding a way to employ both for another hurrah.
Why the Vikings Don’t Need Aaron Rodgers
Somehow, despite that simple choice, Aaron Rodgers’ name has wiggled into the conversation.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter wouldn’t rule out the Vikings as Rodgers’ next team this week. “My guess would be that he ends up playing,” Schefter said on The Pat McAfee Show Monday. “He’s gonna want to continue playing. I would guess he’ll want to do it at a place that wants him. Here’s a guy that, I think he’s made more money than any NFL player in history right now. So that gives him the ability to sit back and be selective about what he does and doesn’t want to do.”
Then, he delivered the Vikings nugget. “It’s a fluid, moving thing. Is Minnesota gonna lose Sam Darnold, or are they gonna bring him back?” Schefter rhetorically asked.
So, Rodgers-to-Minnesota will remain an offseason talker for at least a month. And here’s why the Vikings don’t need him.
1. He’s Old
Rodgers will turn 42 in December. He has not replicated Tom Brady’s over-40 success, and in fact, unlike Brady in Tampa Bay at this age, Rodgers’ personality has seemed to veer off the rails.
Minnesota employs J.J. McCarthy, a 22-year-old, and teaming up with a player 20 years older just seems bizarre. General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah drafted McCarthy as the youth movement at quarterback. Rodgers is the elderly movement.
Why on earth would the Vikings think backwardly at quarterback after investing 1st-Round draft capital in McCarthy?
Rodgers is 41, and he will not improve at this career stage.
2. He Isn’t Very Good
If one believes Rodgers still has the MVP bravado from 2020 or 2021, he or she is stricken with nostalgia.
Here’s the real story:
Aaron Rodgers,
EPA+CPOE,
NFL Ranking:
2020 = 1st
2021 = 1st
2022 = 20th
2023 = n/a
2024 = 22nd
There’s no delicate way to say it: The guy simply isn’t very good anymore.
3. The Last Guy You Want for J.J. McCarthy’s Development
McCarthy is already known for his eternal optimism and humanitarian spirit. Smushing the youngster together with a conspiracy-fueling and seemingly bitter-at-the-world Rodgers is the strangest pair of bedfellows imaginable.
Rodgers feeds off attention — he yearns to be the center of it — and that’s the antithesis of what a young quarterback needs while developing in a new system.
If Minnesota signed Rodgers, it would become his team, with McCarthy a faint afterthought, at least per all the headlines in a given season.
Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The show features guests, analysis, and opinion on all things related to the purple team, with 4-7 episodes per week. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band). He follows the NBA as closely as the NFL.
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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