Aaron Rodgers is starting, after injuring his shoulder last week vs. the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he has to. He doesn’t have a choice. All week long, Aaron has said the right things, “I feel like I can play, I want to play, I’m not worried about 250 plus starts, I’m a competitor. I don’t need that as extra motivation.” I agree. But by starting, this does two things for Rodgers and the Packers.

One, it makes Rodgers appear as a tough competitor, a leader. Whether he likes it or not, he’s living in a HUGE shadow and he’ll have to do everything he can to overcome the perception (true or not) that he’s injury prone.

Also, Rodgers start here today takes some of the heat off of the coaching staff and management, at least for the time being, that their worst case scenario (Brett to the Jets for Rodgers and rookies) has come true and there isn’t any experience behind Rodgers in case he went down early in the season.

Secondly, if Rodgers is ineffective or getting beat up, the decision to pull him would then be the coaches and not cast Rodgers in a negative light for his inability to actually take the field.

Best case scenario, the offensive line does its job and allows Ryan Grant to spring free for a big run-game thus taking the pressure off of that injured throwing shoulder of Rodgers. But….look for the Falcons to pressure Rodgers and try to get him on the run. It’s hard enough to throw the ball while set up in the pocket but it’ll put a tremendous strain on the shoulder to throw off balance and not mechanically correct. With Rodgers arm weak right now, that could mean a few lame ducks wafting through the air for Falcon’s DB’s to pick easily.
It’s game time, we’ll see.