Packers face playoff push with Aaron Rodgers

After seeing Aaron Rodgers go down back in October against the Minnesota Vikings, it felt like the Green Bay Packers were done. While that may end up being the case come New Year’s Day, there is hope.

Green Bay needed overtime to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Cleveland Browns over the past two weeks. That speaks plenty to how limited the Packers are with Brett Hundley under center. Now, Green Bay will be going from one of the worst quarterbacks to perhaps its best. Aaron Rodgers is back from his broken collarbone.

Looking at the NFC standings, the Packers don’t need a miracle to get in, but they need considerable help. Green Bay sits at 7-6 and outside of the top six seed. They sit a game behind the Atlanta Falcons who are in the sixth slot.

While Rodgers says he’s not coming back to save a team that doesn’t need saving, he’s lying. The Packers absolutely need to be saved and then delivered, something Rodgers is capable of. Per NFL.com:

“I’m not coming back to save this team,” he said to reporters Wednesday. “I’m coming back to play quarterback the way I know how to play it and hopefully we all raise the level of our play collectively and find a way to win these three games.”

Starting this Sunday, it won’t be easy for Green Bay. The Packers have to run the table over the final three weeks of the regular season to have any shot. It begins on the road with the Carolina Panthers. The following contest is back at Lambeau Field against the Minnesota Vikings. They then go back on the road to take on the Detroit Lions.

If the Packers can win all three games and get to 10-6, they have a bunch of scenarios that would get them into the postseason. The most-likely includes the Panthers losing to Green Bay and then also to the Falcons in Week 17. In that scenario, the Packers would also need Seattle Seahawks to either lose one of its final three games, or see the Los Angeles Rams drop a pair over the final three.

Packers in with a chance?

There are ample other ways Green Bay could get in, but then you start getting into unrealistic scenarios. The Falcons own the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Packers, so Atlanta would have to lose at least two games to open the door that way. The Falcons have the Buccaneers on Monday night this week. Though they do play the New Orleans Saints and Panthers down the stretch.

Regardless, the Packers now have a chance with Rodgers under center, something that wasn’t the case even a few days ago.