Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers Reminds Us: Chase Greatness No Matter What Talent Surrounds You

Too often we’ve all have heard – in both sports and business – that a team is only as strong as its weakest link. We are taught that the best teams are loaded, from top to bottom, with the best talent. Often, it is true.

That’s why a graphic I saw during a recent NFL game made me sit up, rewind the game and have a new level of respect for a quarterback I already appreciated. Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers, I learned at that moment, had thrown only two passes in his Hall of Fame career to a player selected in the first round of the NFL draft.

TWO!!

Rodgers—who was a coveted first-round draft pick of the Packers back in 2005 – has thrown an impressive 364 touchdown passes in his 12 years as starting quarterback. It didn’t matter if they were a tight end, wide receiver, running back or full back, only twice has a player who was an elite NFL prospect caught a touchdown from Rodgers. It happened once in 2019, and once in Week Three of this season. And get this—they were both to the same player, tight end Marcedes Lewis who’s only been in Green Bay for three seasons after playing the first 12 years with the Jacksonville Jaguars. That stat is even more startling considering that Baker Mayfield of the struggling Cleveland Browns threw two touchdown passes to a first-rounder before Thanksgiving of his rookie season.

I promise I won’t mention the number TWO again.

There’s no question Rodgers will long be thought of as one of the NFL’s greatest quarterbacks, but every other player in that same conversation has achieved their greatness with seemingly more talent. Peyton Manning had Hall of Famer Marvin Harrison and 6-time pro bowler Reggie Wayne to help him tally 293 touchdowns to players drafted in the first round. Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints has thrown 104 touchdown passes to first-rounders. Yet Rodgers found Super Bowl championship success and the league’s highest honor twice without the highly touted resources that many of his competitors have been afforded.

There’s a huge leadership lesson in the number I’ve promised not to mention again: Rodgers could have made the case that he needed more talent around him to be successful. He could have suggested that he needed better receivers to sustain excellence. But the Greats neither make excuses nor wait for the “perfect” environment to achieve. They beat you with whatever talent joins them for the opening whistle.

How many of us are sitting around waiting until we have a perfect scenario or the full support of our employer before we throw all that we have into becoming the leader we know you can be? Rodgers has gone 12 seasons without the Green Bay front office drafting someone for him to throw to with a first-round upside. Instead, he committed to be his very best and improve those around him.

And he has done so at an incredible level. Year after year. Tonight, Rodgers and his team will face the Atlanta Falcons on Monday Night Football in a game I can’t wait to watch. So far in this young 2020 season, the Packers are undefeated and Rodgers again is playing at an All-Pro level.

Maybe, during the game tonight, he’ll find Lewis for a touchdown. That would make the number…THREE!