Football fans love almost nothing more than a good quarterback debate. Who’s the best right now? Who’s the best of all time? Who would you take: this guy or that guy?
And nobody is immune to that. Even some of the best quarterbacks themselves. So maybe it shouldn’t be surprising that none other than Ben Roethlisberger felt compelled recently to weigh in on whether he’d rather have Aaron Rodgers or Patrick Mahomes on his team.
“Well, I would take Aaron in his prime over Patrick now,” Roethlisberger said during a recent podcast, via Yahoo! Sports. “I think Aaron Rodgers in his prime was one of the top few to ever do it — and so is Patrick Mahomes at his prime. Patrick Mahomes is just entering out of his prime, I think.”
Everyone, obviously, has their own opinion when it comes to things like this. And when you’re talking about two of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game, there’s probably no real “right” answer. But it’s worth taking a look at some of the numbers to see how they really stack up.
Right now, there’s no contest. Mahomes is still the best in the game, and Rodgers is, well, not. But this also isn’t Rodgers’ prime anymore, and Roethlisberger said he’d take Rodgers in his prime over Mahomes now. So that’s the better comparison to make.
So what we did here was try to identify Rodgers’ seven-year peak, to be able to compare it to what Mahomes has done during his seven seasons to date. That obviously necessitates leaving out some incredible Rodgers seasons, including the two that yielded his third and fourth MVP awards, but that’s what longevity will do for you.
As Rodgers’ peak, we chose the 2010 through 2016 season. That stretch includes his lone Super Bowl victory and the first two MVP seasons (2011 and 2014), but also a year when he got hurt (2013) and the 2010 regular season itself, which wasn’t one of his better years overall. But that’s somewhat similar for Mahomes, who has missed some time here and there over the last several years and is coming off a pair of comparatively down seasons.
Either way, it makes for a pretty interesting tale of the tape, all things considered.
| Completions | 2,308 | 2,756 |
| Attempts | 3,521 | 4,136 |
| Completion % | 65.5% | 66.6% |
| Yards | 28,026 | 32,068 |
| YPA | 7.96 | 7.75 |
| Touchdowns | 238 | 245 |
| Interceptions | 51 | 73 |
| Passer Rating | 106.4 | 102.3 |
| EPA/Dropback | 0.23 | 0.21 |
| Success % | 49.5% | 52.5% |
| Explosive % | 9.4% | 9.0% |
| 1st Down/Att | 37.5% | 38.8% |
| 3rd Down % | 40.9% | 45.9% |
| Sack % | 6.6% | 4.2% |
| W-L | 73-30 | 88-23 |
| Pro Bowls | 5 | 6 |
| All-Pros | 2 | 2 |
| MVPs | 2 | 2 |
| Conference Titles | 1 | 5 |
| Super Bowls | 1 | 3 |
As you can see from the chart above, Rodgers’ prime years look a whole lot like what Mahomes has done so far during his career. Rodgers missed some time and was playing 16-game seasons rather than 17 and so his counting stats are a bit lower, but on a rate basis, everything looks damn close — even if each quarterback does have some minor advantages over the other in specific areas.
Rodgers had the very slight edge in passer rating and EPA per dropback, while Mahomes had the very slight edge in completion percentage and and slightly larger one in success rate. Rodgers limited interceptions better (including on a per-attempt basis), but Mahomes was better at avoiding sacks. Rodgers created explosives very slightly more often but Mahomes was slightly better at creating first downs and quite a bit better at converting on third downs.
Even their best individual seasons during these stretches (the two years they each won MVP) look remarkably similar.
Rodgers went 26-5 during 2011 and 2014, while Mahomes went 26-7 in 2018 and 2022. Mahomes threw for more yards (10,347 to 9,024) and touchdowns (91 to 83) but Rodgers threw fewer interceptions (11 to 24). Mahomes had the higher passing success rate (54.4% to 52.7%) but Rodgers had a slightly better first-down rate (41.8% to 41.4%). Rodgers averaged more yards per attempt (8.8 to 8.4) and had a better passer rating (117.2 to 109.3) but Mahomes did a better job of limiting sacks (4.1% to 5.9%) and created more explosives (10.9% to 10.6%). They were damn near even in just about every area.
The individual accolades are pretty much exactly even between the two of them. Two MVPs and two All-Pro First Team appearances for each of them. Six Pro Bowls for Mahomes and five for Rodgers, who again was injured for one of those seven seasons, which robbed him of a chance for a sixth that would have tied Mahomes on that front.
In his playoff runs during that 2010 through 2016 span, Rodgers went 9-6, playing almost a full season’s worth of games and throwing for 4,035 yards, 32 touchdowns and nine interceptions. Mahomes has played almost a season-and-a-half worth of playoff games, going 17-4 while throwing for 5,814 yards, 46 touchdowns and 10 picks. Pro-Football-Reference thankfully translates these types of things to per-17 games, and their numbers are nearly identical: 63.3% completions, 7.3 yards per attempt, 4,573 yards, 36 touchdowns and 10 interceptions for Rodgers; and 67.7% completions, 7.7 yards per attempt, 4,707 yards, 37 touchdowns and eight interceptions for Mahomes.
Where Mahomes obviously has the edge is in team success, with the Chiefs winning at a higher rate in the regular season (79.3% of Mahomes’ starts vs. the Packers winning 70.8% of Rodgers’ starts) and a significantly higher rate in the playoffs — and doing so in what is comparatively a tougher conference than the NFC was in the early-to-mid 2010s. For some people, that in and of itself is enough of a deciding factor, even if the numbers paint a somewhat closer picture.
There’s no real wrong way to evaluate these things; what matters to you is what matters to you. It may be the rings and nothing else. It may be the numbers. It may be the memories or just the way it made you feel to watch them play when they were playing at their best. What’s clear is that these are obviously two of the best to ever buckle a chin strap and sling the ball around, and the fact that either of them could even be in the same conversation as the other is impressive in and of itself.
Mahomes obviously has plenty of time left in his career to do even more than Rodgers ever did — to keep chasing Pro Bowls and All-Pros and MVPs and conference championships and Super Bowls. By the time he’s done, there may not even be a reasonable debate to be had here. He may be in an entirely different conversation. That’s certainly what he’s aiming for, and what he’s on track to reach.
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Author: Jared Dubin
June 30, 2025 | 8:25 am
