Packers Will Miss Favre's Mobility

How many people think Aaron Rodgers is less mobile than Brett Favre, other than ESPN.com's Jeremy Green?

Favre was able to scramble and let his receivers get downfield. Rodgers is not nearly as athletic or mobile, but McCarthy must call for some deep balls in order to keep the defense honest.

No, Favre had an outstanding ability to avoid pressure in the pocket, but on the rare occasion he scrambled I was worried he was going to blow out his Achilles. He played with painful bone spurs in his ankle for the past few season, he only had surgery to remove them last season, and he wasn't running anywhere. He ran for a whopping 12 yards in his final season. He broke a lot of NFL records, but Randall Cunningham's career mark of 4928 yards rushing for an NFL QB was never in danger.

The point Green is trying to make is that Rodgers has to throw the ball deep, which is true because then the safeties play back to open up running lanes and short passing routes. But that has nothing to do with Rodgers' mobility.

If it matters, Rodgers has already proven he's much more mobile than Favre. One game against Dallas is a small sample size, but when you're trying to outperform 12 yards rushing, it doesn't take much. Against Dallas, Rodgers entered the game mid-2nd quarter for an injured Favre and ran for 8 yards and a 1st down on the third play he called. It was funny because no Dallas defender was anywhere near Rodgers. They knew Favre wasn't scrambling anywhere and hadn't expected a Packer QB to make any effort to run on 3rd down. Rodgers finished the game with 30 yards rushing, including a long of 13 that eclipsed Favre's season total.

Other QBs will out rush Rodgers next season, but he will be the first Packer QB since 2000 to rush for over 100 yards in a single season.