Aaron Rodgers’ Return Highlights Importance of Division Games

For the next few days as we do not know the status of Aaron Rodgers, the national and local media may criticize the Packers for rolling Aaron Rodgers out there. They might say ‘You have a full season ahead of you and you risk your franchise quarterback?’ That might be the open. What people fail to realize is that a division game matters so much more than other games. Add to the fact, it’s a home division game, and you have your reason as to why Rodgers made a trimpuant return. After next week, the Packers will have one more for the remainder of the year. They’ll have only five division games left all year. They are the most important games of the year.
THat might be hard to understand, but it’s actually pretty easy. Division standings matter for two things in the playoffs – One if you’re battling a foe like Minnesota or Chicago for the division crown. Two, your conference record is the second tiebreaker if you tie the head-to-head matchup, and these teams are all in your conference. But first and foremost, the division tiebreaker is why these games carry more importance than others. If the Packers were playing the New York Jets, do I think Rodgers returns? Actually, no I don’t because it’s a game you can lose early on in the season. Those games matter less. Even though, there will be oodles of hype around New England-Green Bay, the game doesn’t matter much as it’s out of conference.
Rodgers coming back had to do with December and January. This is probably the reason why he might play this week against Minnesota then sit for two games versus Washington and Buffalo. Redskins could be vital for the conference record, but it doesn’t carry the weigh of inside the division. Buffalo can be beat with DeShone Kizer, and like we mentioned, if they do lose that game, it really doesn’t affect things from a tiebreaker perspective. Unless Rodgers’ knee is a goddamn mess, I expect him to play this week despite Minnesota’s fierce defense.
No matter what happens this season, we’ll always remember Week 1. If this year is a fucking dumpster fire, we will always have this game. I’m weirdly thankful for that. There were moments last year against Dallas and Cincinnati where we saw Rodgers’ magic, yet, I don’t think they carry a candle to what he did last Sunday night.
Charlie.