National Football League

Pro Football 101: Aaron Rodgers ranks No. 59 on the all-time list

Published Dec. 8, 2021 4:41 p.m. ET

By Joe Posnanski
Special to FOX Sports

Editor's Note: Throughout the 2021 NFL season, Joe Posnanski will rank the 101 best players in pro football history, in collaboration with FOX Sports. Posnanski will publish a detailed look at all 101 players on Substack. The countdown continues today with player No. 59, Aaron Rodgers.

To me, this is inarguable: Aaron Rodgers throws the best Hail Mary pass in NFL history.

I don’t know exactly what that says about his greatness as a quarterback, but it surely says something powerful. He’s just so good at the Hail Mary, so much better than other people. It’s like Steph Curry is the best last-second-half-court-and-beyond shooter in NBA history. It’s like Javy Báez is the best tagger in MLB history.

It has to mean something, right?

Rodgers has completed three successful Hail Mary passes in his career, and each one was glorious.

Dec. 3, 2015, vs. Detroit

Sorry, Lions fans. The Packers were losing 23-21 and had the ball on their own 39-yard line with time for only one play. Rodgers dropped back, was chased left, stopped, ran backward to the 23 to avoid one tackler, worked into the clear and heaved the ball from the 36.

"Will it get there?" Phil Simms asked, and it was the right question. Rodgers basically had to throw the ball 70 yards in the air to have a real chance at pulling this off. In the original Hail Mary — Roger Staubach to Drew Pearson against Minnesota in 1975 — Staubach made it clear that he could throw a football only 60 yards in the air (and he actually underthrew the pass, which is why it worked — well, that and probably offensive pass interference).

But Rodgers’ arm is basically unlimited. He easily threw the ball 70 yards in the air and placed it perfectly within the reach of tight end Richard Rodgers, who was somehow left uncovered (sorry again, Lions fans).

Aaron Rodgers celebrates with Packers teammates after his last-second Hail Mary beat the Lions on Dec. 3, 2015, at Ford Field in Detroit. (Photo by Leon Halip/Getty Images)

The thing that strikes me about this particular Hail Mary is that it didn't feel like luck at all. Hail Mary passes, by definition, are lucky plays — as Staubach famously said, you throw the pass, and then you pray. But this one was so perfect, the pass was so outrageous, the catch so uncontested, that it seemed like it worked exactly as planned.

Jan. 16, 2016, vs. Arizona

Seriously, this happened like a month and a half later. This time, the Packers trailed Arizona 20-13 in the NFC divisional playoff with just enough time for one play.

This Hail Mary was not as spectacular or ridiculous — the Packers were on the Cardinals' 41-yard line — but it had its own special charms. Rodgers dropped back and was immediately pressured; the Cardinals were not about to rush three and drop everyone else back the way the Lions had. Rodgers turned and raced out to his left, which always makes it tougher for a right-handed quarterback.

At his own 45 and about to get sacked, he somehow set himself and heaved the ball downfield. There is absolutely no way that a human being under such circumstances can throw a ball 60 or 65 yards in the air, unless that human being is left-handed (see Michael Vick) or Aaron Rodgers.

Rodgers launches a Hail Mary at the end of regulation in the NFC divisional playoff game on Jan. 16, 2016, in Phoenix, sending the game into overtime. (Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images)

The ball sailed deep into the end zone, and somebody named Jeff Janis (who caught 17 passes his entire career — two that season) jumped in front of All-Pro corner Patrick Peterson and pulled it in for the touchdown.

One of the charms of this one was Rodgers’ reaction: He wasn’t jumping up and down and screaming. No, he went up to tackle David Bakhtiari, and his reaction was more like, "OK, obviously that was going to happen. Now the game is tied, let’s go win this in overtime."

By the way, the Packers lost the game in overtime, as Arizona fans will tell you.

Jan. 8, 2017, vs. the Giants

This was on my 50th birthday — not that it matters, but it does make the memory more vivid for me. It happened at the end of the first half rather than the end of the game, and the Packers were up 7-6, so there was no desperation involved.

Instead, there was this sort of inevitability. The Packers were on the Giants' 42, it was fourth down, time for one more play, and I know I wasn’t the only one in America who thought, "Oh, Rodgers is going to hit another Hail Mary pass here."

He dropped back to his own 40-yard line, and the Giants put no pressure on him at all — they had rushed four, but two linemen collided like it was some sort of Three Stooges skit. Rodgers unloaded the pass, and again, as he threw the ball, it seemed destined for glory.

"Rodgers does this better than anybody," Joe Buck said with the ball still in the air.

Rodgers threw the ball about 65 yards in the air, all the way to the back of the end zone, where Randall Cobb had slipped behind everybody else. The ball dropped right to him, and he caught it and got two feet down for the score.

"Unbelievable," Buck yelled, but what made it so absurd was that it was perfectly believable. It was exactly what we expected.

When Rodgers was asked why he’s so good at the Hail Mary, he shrugged. "I just try to throw it as high as possible," he said. Which is a fun answer but not revealing; a magician does not reveal secrets.

As for the rest, Rodgers has won three MVP awards (same as Tom Brady), his 435 touchdowns against 93 interceptions ratio is beyond compare, and his 104 career passer rating is utterly ridiculous, the highest in NFL history for anyone with more than 2,500 passes. I’m not one to put much stock in the passer rating, but it is interesting that Rodgers' is way higher than those of the other Big 4 quarterbacks:

Aaron Rodgers, 104.0
Drew Brees, 98.7
Tom Brady, 97.6
Peyton Manning, 96.5

Could Rodgers be higher on my list? Absolutely. But, alas, quarterbacks (fairly and unfairly) also get judged on championships. Rodgers and the Packers beat Pittsburgh in Super Bowl XLV, but the playoffs have been pure heartbreak for him ever since. Green Bay has not been back to the Super Bowl and is 0-3 in NFC Championship Games against three different teams: Atlanta in 2017, San Francisco in 2019 and Tampa Bay last season.

Rodgers was named MVP of Super Bowl XLV after throwing for 304 yards and three touchdowns in the Packers' 31-25 win over the Steelers on Feb. 6, 2011, at Cowboys Stadium. (Photo by Rob Tringali/SportsChrome/Getty Images)

You certainly cannot blame Rodgers for the Packers’ inability to build a Super Bowl team around him, but when talking about the greatest players in NFL history, the judgments are harsh.

Wherever he’s ranked overall, however, Aaron Rodgers is definitively the best ever at throwing the Hail Mary.

Joe Posnanski is a New York Times bestselling author and has been named the best sportswriter in America by five different organizations. His new book, "The Baseball 100," came out Sept. 28.