28. Geno Smith, New York Jets
Last week: 27th
Normally, I would say that any game ending with Geno Smith throwing 41 passes likely means bad news for the Jets, but Geno has been surprising so far this season.
The Jets lost a heartbreaker against the Packers, and the offense simply couldn’t get anything going in the 4th quarter or overtime.
Part of the issue with Geno Smith, and something that could continue to be an issue over the course of the regular season, is the fact that he gets cinderblocks in his shoes at times in the pocket. We saw that he still has some explosiveness on one of his runs in Week 1, but he’s not the most elusive in the pocket. He took four sacks in the loss to the Packers, including a really rough one on the opening play of overtime that ultimately was a drive killer.
The first game Smith played in front of the home crowd on his reunion tour ended in disappointment.
27. Aaron Rodgers, Pittsburgh Steelers
Last week: 17th
I think it’s about time we acknowledged a really harsh reality: Aaron Rodgers doesn’t have it anymore.
There might be games this season where he proves that wrong, but what we saw against the New England Patriots was absolutely inexcusable. Rodgers is a shell of the player he used to be.
Against New England, he was a terrible 23-of-39 passing for just 187 yards, no touchdowns, an interception, and four sacks. The inability to avoid the pass rush was more pronounced than we’ve really seen, even in the later stages of Rodgers’ NFL career.
Rodgers also lost a fumble in this game, and it wasn’t like the Steelers didn’t get a couple of gifts from the Patriots, either. Drake Maye had a bad interception and Rhamondre Stevenson lost a fumble, but the Steelers could only muster 235 total yards of offense.
It’s still early in the season, but you can’t help but wonder if Rodgers is going to retire a year too late.
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