Rodgers doesn't want to run read-option offense

The Packers were just demolished in the NFC Divisional playoff by a San Francisco team who often ran a read-option offense. But despite watching the Niners' success, Rodgers doesn't believe the read-option will work for his team.

“I think the league is cyclical and things can come back around that were being used 20, 30 years ago. But this too will pass,” Rodgers said on his weekly radio show on 540 ESPN and ESPNWisconsin.com. “Some of the pistol read-option stuff will eventually pass. Now, that may not be for 10 more years.

“The athletic quarterback I don’t think is going to pass at all. I think you’ve seen a trend of more and more guys who can make plays when the pocket breaks down and extend plays, who are also good passers. I think you’re going to continue to see that; we’ve seen a lot of that the last few years especially. . . .

“But I think that as we saw five years ago with the wildcat stuff – it had its success and less and less people are doing it and now. It’s more of the zone-read stuff – reading the end or keeping it and pulling it with a quarterback who has some athleticism. At some point, on some level, they’re going to figure out how to consistently stop that, and then that will make its way up to the NFL. Or, enough for these (quarterbacks), who are going to be franchise guys if they’re not already, may take some unnecessary shots or decide that they’d rather stay in the pocket and throw it then rush the ball 15 times a game. And then you can kind of see it gradually go in the other direction, I think.”

Rodgers has run the ball before but doesn't often. He is definitely athletic enough, but after watching what happened to Robert Griffin III, I don't know if I want him to. He has a great arm that I want to protect. If he was to go down with a serious knee injury, who would replace him? The Packers can't afford to lose him, so playing a read-option may be a gamble that they can't afford.

The only thing that they should care about is to improve defense against the read-option. They lost to the 49ers because of their bad play in those situations, so they need to fix that. They will during the offseason, but if the QB doesn't want to run a specific offense, then the team likely won't make him.