These Old Scouting Reports Of Aaron Rodgers Prove That NFL Scouts Are Just Wingin' It

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Aaron Rodgers is a Super Bowl Champion, MVP, the NFL’s all-time career leader in passer rating during the regular season, and previously boned Olivia Munn. He is on the Mount Rushmore of QB’s over the past decade and all 23 teams who passed on him in the 2005 Draft have contemplated locking themselves in their garages with the windows up and the engines on.

The poor thing dropped to the 24th pick in the NFL Draft, 175 picks before Tom Brady was drafted five years earlier. Moral of the story: NFL scouts are about as useful as a Blockbuster Video membership card. Rodgers dropped for a number of baseless reasons: his perceived inability to thrive outside of Cal’s system, a rigid throwing motion, blah blah.

Listen to these blowhards’ assessments pre-2005 NFL Draft, as mined out by For The Win:

NFL Scout: “I think he has a good chance of being a bust. Just like every other Tedford-coached quarterback. Thing I struggle with him is he gets sacked a lot. He doesn’t have great ability to change the release of the football. He’s mechanically very rigid. Brett Favre can change his release point and find different windows. There will be more growing pains with Alex Smith but in the end he has a much better chance to be much better.”

NFC scout: “The guys that Tedford has had, what have they developed into? They’re too well-schooled. So mechanical. So robotic. I don’t know if they become good pro players. I think Rodgers is in that same mold.”

AFC scout: “He’s a system quarterback. 3-, 5-, 7-step guy. Can’t create on his own. Panics under pressure. Gets flustered easy. I don’t think there’s a quarterback in the draft worthy of a first-round pick. I’m dead serious. None of them are worth it.”

Marc Ross, Buffalo: “He’s a little short. The thing you worry about is those (Jeff) Tedford guys. They don’t do anything for a couple years and then they have a good year or two. Who of his quarterbacks has done what they’re supposed to do? None of them. Is he just working magic with great college quarterbacks or just manufacturing guys?”

AFC scout: “I don’t like him. He’s a clone of Harrington and Boller. They all throw the same way. What have those guys done? Nothing. If you take him in the second round, fine. Heady guy. They do a marvelous job of coaching quarterbacks there. I don’t think he’s as good as the top quarterbacks coming out last year.”

We should not weep for Rodgers, but watching him squirm on national television during Draft day makes you feel for the guy.