2025 Pre Season Ranke #1, 2024 Pre-Season Rank #1, 2023 Pre-Season Rank #1, 2022 Pre-Season Rank #2, 2021 Pre-Season Rank #2, 2020 Pre-Season Rank #3.  PEAK PERIOD: 2008-12.

The return of another Aaron (Donald) to the NFL knocked Aaron Rodgers off the top overall spot, but this does not change a thing for Rodgers’ Hall of Fame trajectory.

Rodgers announced that 2026 will be his farewell season, and if that is the case, it will end the last stanza of what has been a strange last portion of his career.

Rodgers, who has dated Olivia Munn, Danica Patrick, and Shailene Woodley, was even considered the permanent host of Jeopardy.  It looked like he would cross over into non-sports stardom, but that came crashing down, and he has been involved in more Hollywood feuds (see Jimmy Kimmel) and was thrust into the culture war when it was revealed that he did not get the COVID-19 vaccine and espoused conspiracy theories.  He became much less marketable than he used to be, and in some circles he ranks among the most hated athletes.  

In 2023, after a long and fruitful career with the Green Bay Packers, Rodgers was injured on the first drive with his new team, the New York Jets, and he was underwhelming when healthy in 2024. He did manage to take his third team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, to the playoffs last year, but this was not a Quarterback who looked like he had the skills he did as a Green Bay Packer

None of this will matter.

Regardless of how Rodgers performs in what will be his final season, no multi-time MVP has ever failed to enter Canton, and he has four of them!.  Throw in the Super Bowl win with the Packers, and it is an open-and-shut case, regardless of what happens next.

Notably, (and since we are obsessed with statistical ranks), here is what Rodgers could do in 2026:

An Approximate Value of five will take him over Brett Favre for fourth all-time.  A monster year of 16 (unlikely) will tie him with Peyton Manning for fourth.

13 Touchdown Passes will take him over Peyton Manning for third all-time.

For our rationale for supplanting Rodgers with Donald, see the Aaron Donald bio.