NFL overreaction Week 18: Aaron Rodgers is finished
The Lions finish off Aaron Rodgers and the Packers, the Texans lose by winning, and the Seahawks are the happiest team in the NFL.
Photo credit: Getty Images
Every one of you NFL fans made it through eighteen weeks of football. Only fourteen teams remain, so congratulations if you’re a fan of one of those.
If you’re not one of those fourteen, welcome to Black Monday. May your offseason look better than the last four months have been.
This has to be it for Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay
The Green Bay Packers were so close to running the table and clinching a playoff spot, but the Detroit Lions eliminated just before the opening kickoff impeded that. The Lions came to play and said if we’re not going to the playoffs we don’t want them to go either.
The Packers dropped the season final 20-16 at Lambeau Field, a place in which they’ve been historically dominant in January. And it may not just have been the end of a season, but the end of an era in Green Bay. Aaron Rodgers and Randall Cobb walked off together looking like they wouldn’t put on a Packers jersey anymore. Rodgers’s postgame presser stirred the pot even more.
The NFC North celebrating Aaron Rodgers’ demise pic.twitter.com/8cPeZ2I06J
— Complex Sports (@ComplexSports) January 9, 2023
Even if Rodgers does decide to come back, why to Green Bay? He has no star receivers and not much help anywhere else, and the relationship between him and the organization has been souring the last couple of seasons. Green Bay could have traded him when they had the chance, but they didn’t. And now they’re left out of the playoffs and maybe without their franchise quarterback.
The Houston Texans can’t even lose correctly
The Houston Texans have been awful all season, but at least they had a chance to win something nice for all that losing. Trailing against the Indianapolis Colts by seven points on a 4th and 20, it seemed they’d lock up their fourteenth loss and the first pick of the 2023 draft. But head coach Lovie Smith had other plans.
It’s not often a fan base is furious with their team after a win, but this was an exception. Texans fans were enamored with Alabama quarterback Bryce Young, but the chances of him falling to number two looks pretty slim now with Chicago now able to sell the first pick to the highest bidder.
Lovie Smith winning a meaningless game and knocking the Texans out of the first overall pick on his way out the doorpic.twitter.com/FlH9hwecnn https://t.co/Iocivdrsf9
— Benjamin Solak (@BenjaminSolak) January 8, 2023
Unsurprisingly, the Texans fired Smith. They saw him win one game and said we don’t do that here. Why would this head coaching position be desirable if coaches have such a short leash? Come on, Texans, do something right for once.
Is there a bigger winner than Seattle?
No one expected the Seattle Seahawks to be good, let alone a playoff team, but that’s exactly what they are thanks to them beating the Los Angeles Rams and getting help from the Detroit Lions. In Geno Smith’s first season as a starter in Seattle, he set the franchise passing yardage record over Russell Wilson. Meanwhile, Wilson tanked a preseason Super Bowl contender in Denver and is locked into one of the worst contracts in NFL history.
Don’t let admin get hot. 🤫🔥 pic.twitter.com/dQybxZxbfo
— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) January 9, 2023
Seattle fleeced Denver in that trade. They got a handful of picks from the Broncos, including the number five pick in this year’s draft. That alone would have been enough to make the trade worthwhile, but they went ahead and made the playoffs even though no one expected them to. Geno looks like a real starting quarterback, and they now have the flexibility to get better. How quickly things change in a year.
The NFL is in good hands
Look at the AFC quarterbacks in this year’s playoffs: Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, Trevor Lawrence, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen, and Patrick Mahomes. All of these quarterbacks are under 28 years old. Only one of these quarterbacks is going to make it to the Super Bowl this year, and considering all the all-time talent on this list, that’s a real shame.
Your AFC Playoff Quarterbacks. 🏆 pic.twitter.com/vAgQLOeOZk
— Joe Burrow Fan Club (@JoeyBClub) January 8, 2023
There is a time when everyone has to grow up, and with all the recent retirements, my generation has seen its childhood come to an end. Except for Tom Brady. He might still be doing it in five years.
