NFL Notes: Aaron Rodgers, Shedeur Sanders, Cam Ward

Aaron Rodgers

NFL executives are split on QB Aaron Rodgers and what he’s able to contribute moving forward. 

“I talked to one pro scouting director earlier in the month who told me to go back and watch the New York Jets’ Week 15 game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. He said it was all there. Rodgers’s ability to throw and see and think the game at a high level was on that tape. So I took a look, and he wasn’t lying. There were examples where you could see Rodgers couldn’t escape the way he used to, but a lot more where he showed he can still sling it with anyone,“ SI’s Albert Breer wrote.

Breer interviewed another AFC executive who said that Rodgers was on the downside of his career but could contribute starting-level play for another year of his career.

“He’s on the downside,” one AFC exec whose team played the Jets late said. “He still has the flashes of arm talent and accuracy. There’s a depreciation of the mobility that made him great, when he was that two-way, run/pass option player on every play. It’s relegated him to being more of a pocket-passing veteran. Do I think he can start for a year? I do. … He still sees the field well, has football intelligence, the quick release. His arm’s not quite what it was but with the right surrounding cast? Yes.”

Shedeur Sanders

Colorado OC Pat Shurmur is a veteran coach in the NFL and former HC of the Giants in 2018-2019. Shurmur said he’s spoken to all 32 teams about QB Shedeur Sanders and thinks teams should either pick Sanders or WR/CB Travis Hunter if they don’t need a quarterback. 

“Well I’ve talked to all 32 teams and some of them multiple times,” Shurmur said, via PFT. “Some of the teams ought to get an AirBnB out here — they’ve been out here a bunch of times, doing the research on Shedeur for the right reasons. And I’ve told them all this — and I really believe it having worked with him at this level and knowing how he’s going to project to the next level: If you need a quarterback, draft Shedeur. If you don’t need a quarterback, take Travis.”

Shurmur believes that Sanders has proven he has the confidence to be successful in the NFL. 

“Quarterbacks have to have confidence,” Shurmur said. “You’re thrust onto a big stage and it’s third-and-6, and the wind is blowing, and you’ve got to have it — if you don’t have confidence, it ain’t happening. And you’ve been tagged a few times? Some of your guys maybe dropped a couple of balls? You’ve got to be able to stand in there and take it. So, confidence is a huge thing. Being natural at the position is a huge thing. And I just think he has some of the traits that will allow him to be very, very successful.”

Cam Ward

ESPN’s Adam Schefter says that Miami QB Cam Ward will be the first overall pick in the draft, either to the Titans or via a trade with the Browns or Giants.

“Zero chance, zero chance that Cam Ward is going to make it to the Giants at three,” Schefter said. “Just not going to happen. So, I expect that Cam Ward will be the number one pick in the draft, whether that’s Tennessee or Cleveland or the New York Giants making that pick. And this is all part of the process, right? You begin to evaluate all these guys, and teams do deeper and deeper dives into them. From my perspective in talking to more and more people, before the combine, after the combine, and I’m just telling you, the conversations I’ve had have convinced me that Cam Ward will be the number one pick. And, certainly the first quarterback off the board, and certainly, I think, the number one overall guy.”