The NFL’s best defensive player is on the Vikings, and it’s not Jared Allen.  No, the NFL’s true leader in sacks blows away The Mullet’s measly 10.  The NFL’s best sack artist?  Brett Favre. His 43 takedowns are even more impressive because all of them are mental.  Aaron Rodgers has been sacked more times than anyone else this year.  It’s not even close.  He’s been taken down 25% more than any other quarterback in the league.  And it’s all Brett Farve’s fault.

Ok maybe it’s not all Brett Favre’s fault.  The Packer offensive line deserves some of the blame, and yes Aaron too deserves his fair share.  So it’s only 1/3 Brett Favre’s fault, but with 14.3 sacks each they are now the co-leaders in the sack department.

Have you ever dated a girl too soon after she had been dumped?  She’s not really over the guy, and it’s even worse if they’re still coworkers.  She sees him everyday--he’s doing really well now--and while she’s probably better off without him, she can’t really see that; or at least you don’t feel like she sees that.  In fact, you really like her and want to make this work, you were going to be sure to not make the same mistakes, so you do everything you can to not be him.  He was loud, so you speak softly.  He was a risk-taker, so you are cautious.  But you’re already naturally cautious, and the more you think about not being him, the worse it actually makes you.  He’s in your head without ever trying to be. 

Aaron Rodgers is getting Green Bay’s sloppy seconds and it’s in his head.  He is fighting so hard not to be Brett Favre that he’s become the bizarro-Favre, I half-expect him to show up wearing number negative four next week.  He’s already got a few things in his favor in the anti-Favre competition, namely he’s from Berkeley which is about as far away from Mississippi as possible.  But not all of them are good things, like that cautious nature.  Rodgers sat behind Favre during an interesting time in the legend’s career, it was when Favre was supposed to be the tail-end of his career (in the way that Look Who’s Talking was supposed to be the tail-end of John Travolta’s career) and all Rodgers heard while sitting on the bench was: “Favre takes too many chances…”  We all remember those years--we know the reason that #4 is in the record books for interceptions thrown.  And Aaron clearly internalized that- I’m not going to make the same mistakes he did.  So now that it’s his turn in the pocket, Rodgers is making sure not to make that risky throw and instead he’s holding onto it too long and suddenly he’s sacked.

Just watch Rodgers when he drops back.  Watch him look at the coverage, bounce a little bit, rev up…and not throw it.  He’s not looking for how he can squeeze it in there, because that’s what Brett would have done.  This dilemma is not new.  It’s what Griese dealt with in Denver, post-Elway.  It’s what every quarterback in Miami has dealt with since Marino.  In fact Montana’s pocket presence is probably part of what what motivated Steve Young’s scrambles.  Lord help the guy that has to follow Peyton Manning in Indy, what’s going to do to be the anti-Manning?  Not think very well?  Maybe that’s what Eli’s trying. 

But following a Hall of Famer is not the only way to screw up a QB mentally, throwing a first rounder out there too early can also hurt.  Vince Young needed to bottom out before he came back and just started being himself.  Which is something that never happened for Tim Couch, or David Carr, or the dozens of quarterbacks who became damaged goods after starting too soon.  Hopefully Jamarcus Russell can spend some time on the sidelines and come back better for it, maybe Mark Sanchez might need that time too.  Because as much as you learn from the field, you might learn more from the sidelines.  Of course, you can rot on the sidelines too.  You can pick up bad habits, especially if you’re sitting behind the wrong guy.  But things are even more complicated in Green Bay.  Rodgers sat behind Favre, then had to replace him, all the while trying to figure out what kind of QB he wants to be.  And now, with Favre gone, but still casting a long shadow, Rodgers is just as confused.  And it’s that confusion that’s making him hold on to the ball because he doesn’t want to make the same mistakes as the guy before him- which leads him to make all new mistakes. 

Simply striving to not be the last guy actually can sometimes be good enough.  Heck sometimes it can win you the Nobel Peace Prize.  But eventually, to really succeed, you need to not worry about the guy that came before and instead just worry about yourself.  Will Aaron Rodgers be able to find himself while starting in a stadium that still has a lot of #4 jerseys?  Is he going to know who he is when he faces his girlfriend’s ex twice a year?  These are questions that only Aaron himself can answer, and maybe knowing (hoping?) that he’ll never face Favre again makes it easier.  In fact he has shown improvement since that last game against the Vikings.  But Aaron Rodgers needs to understand that even with Favre out of Green Bay, even when he’s out of the NFL entirely (assuming, you know, he ever does actually leave), that Brett will still be casting a shadow over Green Bay’s QB position.  And hopefully that thought--that he’ll never really go away--will free Aaron up, will make him realize there’s nothing he can do about it.  And we’ll know that he’s learned that lesson when he can finally step forward, out of that shadow in the backfield, and just let it fly.