GREEN BAY, Wis. – Aaron Rodgers played 18 seasons for the Green Bay Packers, including 15 years as a starter. He won four NFL MVPs and one Super Bowl.
Before the 2023 NFL Draft, the Packers traded Rodgers to the New York Jets to make way for Jordan Love. Now the starting quarterback for Pittsburgh, Rodgers will lead the first-place Steelers into Sunday night’s game against the Love-led Packers.
“It is just another game,” Rodgers told Packers On SI before the season. “Obviously, there’s energy around it kind of outside of yourself but it doesn’t make or break your career. It’ll be fun to beat them, for sure, because I would’ve beaten every team, and because you’re trying to win all your games. Either way, it’ll be good to see so many people.”
One of those people is Love, who served as a backup for Rodgers’ final three seasons in Green Bay. Here is a statistical comparison between Rodgers through 40 starts and Love as he gets ready for his 40th start.
Completions
Rodgers: 856
Love: 781
Attempts
Rodgers: 1,346
Love: 1,214
Completion Percentage
Rodgers: 63.6
Love: 64.3
Yards
Rodgers: 10,483
Love: 9,176
Touchdowns
Rodgers: 70 (5.2 percent)
Love: 68 (5.6 percent)
Interceptions
Rodgers: 29 (2.2 percent)
Love: 25 (2.1 percent)
Touchdown-to-Interception Ratio
Rodgers: 2.41
Love: 2.72
Yards Per Attempt
Rodgers: 7.8
Love: 7.6
Passer Rating
Rodgers: 95.9
Love: 97.3
Record
Rodgers: 22-18
Love: 22-16-1
While Rodgers leads in the big numbers such as completions, attempts and yards, Love leads in efficiency with a better completion percentage, touchdown and interception percentages, and touchdown-to-interception ratio.
Whatever your opinion on quarterback wins being a stat, they’re almost even entering Sunday night.
This is the ultimate made-for-TV matchup, but this isn’t a Brett Favre-style grudge match, like when Rodgers faced Favre in 2009 at the Metrodome in Week 4 and at Lambeau Field in Week 8.
“It was slightly less charged, I think, the second game, even though he was coming back to Lambeau for the first time,” Rodgers recalled. “There was obviously some people who were not happy that he was going to the hated Vikings, so there was a lot of energy.”
Packers coach Matt LaFleur tried to downplay the Rodgers angle on Monday, and Love no doubt will try to do the same when he talks to reporters on Wednesday.
Rodgers will talk to reporters in Pittsburgh on Wednesday and reporters in Green Bay via Zoom on Thursday.
“We’re playing the Pittsburgh Steelers, who happen to have Aaron Rodgers. It’s as simple as that,” LaFleur said on Monday. “That is for you guys to talk about. Granted, we’ve got a lot of love and respect for Aaron. What he’s done here, he’s a Hall of Famer.
“Our past together, we had a lot of great moments, but this game is not about that. It’s about going to Pittsburgh, Sunday Night Football. Our guys will be jacked up; their guys will be jacked up. It’s about the Green Bay Packers vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers, and that’s for you guys to talk about all those other storylines.”
A third-year starter, Jordan Love has played in six games this season. Here’s how Love’s numbers from this season compare to Aaron Rodgers’ first six games from his third season as the starter in 2010.
Completions
Rodgers: 129
Love: 122
Attempts
Rodgers: 201
Love: 176
Completion Percentage
Rodgers: 64.2
Love: 69.3
Yards
Rodgers: 1,546
Love: 1,438
Touchdowns
Rodgers: 10
Love: 10
Interceptions
Rodgers: 7
Love: 2
Touchdown-to-Interception Ratio
Rodgers: 1.43
Love: 5.00
Yards Per Attempt
Rodgers: 7.7
Love: 8.2
Passer Rating
Rodgers: 89.7
Love: 108.1
Record
Rodgers: 3-3
Love: 4-1-1
While Love leads in most categories, Rodgers got hot down the stretch and led the Packers to a Super Bowl championship over the Steelers. In the eight games he started from Game 7 through Game 16, Rodgers was 183-of-274 passing (66.8 percent), for 2,376 yards (8.7 yards per attempt) with 18 touchdowns and four interceptions (4.50 ratio) and a 109.7 rating.
Completions
Rodgers: 118 (19.7 per game ranks 24th)
Love: 122 (20.3 per game ranks 19th)
Attempts
Rodgers: 172 (28.7 per game ranks 26th).
Love: 176 (29.3 per game ranks 22nd).
Completion Percentage
Rodgers: 68.6 (seventh)
Love: 69.3 (sixth)
Yards
Rodgers: 1,270 (211.7 yards per game ranks 22nd)
Love: 1,438 (239.7 yards per game ranks 11th)
Touchdowns
Rodgers: 14 (8.1 percent is first)
Love: 10 (5.7 percent is eighth)
Interceptions
Rodgers: 5 (2.9 percent is 26th)
Love: 2 (1.1 percent is eighth)
Touchdown-to-Interception Ratio
Rodgers: 2.80 (15th)
Love: 5.00 (10th)
Yards Per Attempt
Rodgers: 7.4 (10th)
Love: 8.2 (fourth)
Passer Rating
Rodgers: 105.0 (ninth)
Love: 108.1 (sixth)
Record
Rodgers: 4-2 (first place, AFC North)
Love: 4-1-1 (first place, NFC North)
Love has played with efficiency this season, which shows up in ranking fourth in yards per attempt and sixth in passer rating. He has completed 69.3 percent of his passes after hitting only 64.2 percent in 2023 and 63.1 percent in 2024.
He’s on pace to throw for 4,074 yards, which would be his second 4,000-yard season, and 28 touchdowns.
“I think he’s playing a pretty high level,” LaFleur said last week.
There are only 15 players on the 2025 roster who were with the team during Rodgers’ final season in 2022.
“I don’t even know if many of these guys played with him,” LaFleur said. “I think that’s for you guys (to talk about). I’m going to talk about how we, just like we do every week, what is our blueprint and what are our keys in order to go to Pittsburgh, which is a damn good football team and a really tough, hostile environment, and try to play our best, because we haven’t put our best yet to date. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Source link
