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After spending 15 years as the Green Bay Packers’ primary starting quarterback, Brett Favre became a member of the New York Jets in 2008.
After spending 15 years as the Green Bay Packers’ primary starting quarterback, Aaron Rodgers became a member of the New York Jets in 2023.
Over the course of that 30-year span, the Packers have had just seven quarterbacks start for them. There were 253 starts for Favre, 223 starts for Rodgers, and a combined 19 spot starts for Matt Flynn, Scott Tolzien, Seneca Wallace, Brett Hundley and Jordan Love.
Now, for really the first time since the Favre era began in 1992, there’s significant uncertainty about what the Packers have on their hands under center. Love is officially taking over for the departed Rodgers. And while he was a first-round pick just a few years ago, it’s fair to wonder about a player who has thrown just three touchdown passes and three interceptions in two NFL seasons.
Love’s performances early in his first offseason as an NFL starter have garnered mixed reviews, and there’s a long way to go.
In the meantime, let’s look at some key numbers indicating just how far the professional football world has come since the Packers last had major quarterback questions when Favre relieved Don Majkowski nearly 31 years ago in September 1992.
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0: Number of Vince Lombardi Trophies that belonged to the New England Patriots when Favre became the Packers’ starting quarterback. They’ve now won six.
5: Number of head coaches employed by the Packers (excluding interim head coaches) since the day Favre took over in Green Bay. When you have a lot of success under center, you typically don’t feel the need to make many changes on the sideline. During the same run, the Raiders have had 14 different head coaches while playing in three different cities.
12: Age of current Packers head coach Matt LaFleur at the time. He still wasn’t even in high school in Mount Pleasant, Michigan.
28: Number of NFL teams at the time. There were six divisions. Los Angeles, Houston and Cleveland had teams, lost teams and got teams back since. The Carolina Panthers, Tennessee Titans, Jacksonville Jaguars, Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans did not exist.
31: Age of Jordan Love’s father at the time. The late Orbin Love didn’t become father to Jordan for another six years. When Rodgers made his Packers debut in 2005, Jordan Love was 6 years old.
37.4: Points per NFL game that season. Games averaged 43.8 points in 2022.
40: Number of starting quarterbacks employed by the Cleveland Browns since the day Favre took over in Green Bay. Again, that’s compared to seven starting signal-callers during the same stretch for the Packers.
93.4: The passer rating that belonged at the time to Joe Montana, who at that point was by a mile the highest-rated qualified passer in NFL history. That distinction now belongs to Patrick Mahomes at 104.7, with Montana buried in 22nd on the list.
526: Number of NFL regular-season Sundays that have taken place since the Packers last had quarterback uncertainty.
11,217: Number of days that have passed since Favre took over for Majkowski.
Non-football America at the time
President: George H. W. Bush
No. 1 song in America: End of the Road by Boyz II Men
No. 1 album in America: Some Gave All by Billy Ray Cyrus
No. 1 film in America: Sneakers starring Robert Redford, Dan Aykroyd
Released the week of Favre’s first start: Nevermind by Nirvana
Of course, there’s a very real chance Love also pans out well. He’s got the skills to flourish as an NFL starter, especially with the right amount of support, and Green Bay has often offered that in terms of organizational stability.
In other words, we could be doing this exercise again in about 15 more years in, say, 2038. At that point, it’d be nearly half a century since the Favre era started.
Stay tuned.
