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Aaron Rodgers is heading into his final NFL season at 42 with one of the most decorated resumes in football history.
Not everyone is ready to put him in the top tier, though.
Rodgers is a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
Hes awesome.
I dont think he played winning football, Analyst Steve Palazzolo said on the Check The Mic podcast.
I dont think Rodgers has played winning football at the same level as Peyton Manning, Brady, Mahomes, and some of the other elite quarterbacks.
I think hes just a tick below that.
Palazzolo believes Aaron Rodgers struggles to execute during late-game comeback situations and plays too cautiously to avoid interceptions when his team needs aggressive, winning plays.
You look at Rodgers in comeback situations, through his career, he hasnt been great in comeback situations.
Hes like, No, Im not throwing a pick.
But an incompletions the same as a pick if its on fourth down, Palazzolo said in the same podcast.
That is a fair point.
Nobody is saying Rodgers cannot play.
He is the NFLs all-time leader in passer rating at 102.2 and has thrown fewer interceptions than any quarterback in league history.
The numbers are real.
The question is what he does when it matters most.
Safe football won a lot of games (125-77-2) for Rodgers in Green Bay with Mike McCarthy.
It just never won him another ring.
The Super Bowl count is the other thing that comes up every time.
Rodgers has one.
Brady has seven.
Mahomes has three.
Manning had two.
For a quarterback with Rodgers raw ability, one ring in 21 seasons is hard to ignore when youre debating the all-time greats.
The numbers he does have are staggering, though.
Fifth all-time in passing yards with 66,274, fourth all-time in touchdown passes with 527, and a 163-93-1 record as a starter.
Hes also a four-time MVP, one of only two players in NFL history to win that many.
Rodgers confirmed that 2026 will be his last season in the league and that he will reunite with head coach Mike McCarthy in Pittsburgh.
Mannings last year in Denver is the clearest example anyone has of how a quarterback at the end of the road can still go out the right way.
He threw for just 2,249 yards with nine touchdowns and 17 interceptions over 10 games, but won Super Bowl 50 on the back of an elite defense, per SI.
Rodgers hasnt declined to anywhere near that level yet.
The Steelers arent as dominant defensively as that Broncos team either.
But the formula is simple.
Let the defense carry the load, manage the game, and dont make the critical mistakes Palazzolo pointed out.
A deep playoff run would do more for how Rodgers is remembered than anything else he could do at this point.
His last chance to answer the critics starts in September.
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