Stop Saying Aaron Rodgers is Good Just Because He Sat on the Bench for Multiple Seasons

Last week, the Green Bay Packers selected quarterback Jordan Love in the NFL Draft, and since then, people have been losing their minds.

It was a shocking decision, considering the Packers already have one of the best quarterbacks of the modern era on their team in Aaron Rodgers, and those in the world of NFL analysis have been dissecting the decision for days. However, the move has also dredged up the old discussion about how Aaron Rodgers had to sit behind Brett Favre for his first three seasons, and frankly, it's time to stop pretending that was some worldly benefit to the newbie gunslinger.

Any time a quarterback is taken on a team with an established starter, people want to discuss how Rodgers benefited from being able to learn from Favre. The discussion is certainly comforting for fans whose team just took a surprising quarterback, and the whole development angle is interesting, but people who think Rodgers couldn't have succeeded on his own are kidding themselves.

Rodgers has been lights out for 11 years now, and guess what? He's probably going to be outstanding next year. His abilities are entirely his own. The ability to drop a dime into a receiver's hands forty yards downfield doesn't blossom out of having to wait to get on the field. It's an innate talent.

People want to claim that the Jordan Love pick is the same as drafting Aaron Rodgers to play behind Favre, but it's not. Rodgers is a generational talent, and you can't learn that just by being around another great quarterback.

Curtis Painter didn't flourish after Peyton Manning left the Colts. Brian Griese won't be a Hall of Famer after assuming John Elway's mantle. Rodgers is a special talent, and if we can't appreciate that he's his own phenomenal player, we're doing a disservice to NFL history.