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Welcome to “Records Week” at SB Nation, where the various NFL team brands across our network are discussing records held by their players or teams. Today, we’re looking at one of the more impressive records that is held by a current member of the Green Bay Packers.
Aaron Rodgers will deserve every penny that he gets in his new contract. That’s the opinion of this writer, as well as teammates like Mike Daniels and members of the media who cover the league. Fundamentally, Rodgers is the most productive passer in the history of the NFL, and he owns a commanding lead over all other quarterbacks in NFL history in the primary statistic that measures passing success: passer rating.
Rodgers’ career passer rating is a stellar 103.8. Sure, that has dipped a bit from his previous high-water mark of 106.0 (which was his career rating after the 2014 season), but it’s still a remarkable number.
In fact, it’s so remarkable that Rodgers is presently the only quarterback in NFL history with a career passer rating in triple-digits.
Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson is in second place, carrying a 98.8 career mark. For a time, however, he had also joined Rodgers above 100, but has slipped in the past two years with season ratings of 92.6 in 2016 and 95.4 last year. Running in third place is Tom Brady, whose rating of 97.6 still comes in six points shy of Rodgers.
The gap between Rodgers and everyone else is astonishing, however. Wilson is a full five points back of Rodgers. Meanwhile, moving five points back of Wilson gets you all the way down to tenth place (Kirk Cousins and Kurt Warner are tied in tenth at 93.7).
If that wasn’t enough, Rodgers still holds the all-time single-season passer rating record, thanks to his MVP season in 2011. That year, he recorded a 122.5 rating, narrowly edging out the previous record of 121.1 set by Peyton Manning in 2004.
Naturally, measuring quarterbacks across eras is a difficult task. Bart Starr’s career passer rating of 80.5 is considered elite for his time, for example (though he did record two seasons with a rating over 100). Still, Rodgers’ success over the course of his career should remain the gold standard for quarterbacks to aim for in the future.