The 2005 NFL Draft was a weird time for Aaron Rodgers. A few weeks before the draft he was projected to go first overall only, after weeks of overthinking and panicking from scouts, he tumbled all the way down to the 24th spot. And to make matters worse, it was all caught on live television.

“You start questioning everything, from where you worked out to how hard you worked, to the people you hung around with to leaving college, it’s very humbling.”

Here’s a great mini-doc about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buw9clApiNM

There were all kinds of reasons why Rodgers tumbled so far down the order. There were doubts over his size and his ability to thrive in a system outside of Cal’s, which combined with a general fear of how much they may have to pay him in the era before Rookie salary caps.

Another big knock against Rodgers were his mechanics. Ron Jaworski isolated some footage of him during draft night, explaining that his ball position meant he couldn’t throw downfield.

Jaworski wasn’t the only one, though. Here’s one unnamed NFL scout, via jsonline.com:

“I think he has a good chance of being a bust. Just like every other Tedford-coached quarterback. Thing I struggle with him is he gets sacked a lot. He doesn’t have great ability to change the release of the football. He’s mechanically very rigid. Brett Favre can change his release point and find different windows. There will be more growing pains with Alex Smith but in the end he has a much better chance to be much better.”

And another:

“The guys that Tedford has had, what have they developed into? They’re too well-schooled. So mechanical. So robotic. I don’t know if they become good pro players. I think Rodgers is in that same mold.”

And the best all.

“I don’t like him. He’s a clone of Harrington and Boller. They all throw the same way. What have those guys done? Nothing. If you take him in the second round, fine. Heady guy. They do a marvelous job of coaching quarterbacks there. I don’t think he’s as good as the top quarterbacks coming out last year.”

A clone of Harrington and Boller! Well, that’s what Packers ended up with, and the rest is history.