Packers QB Aaron Rodgers on the read-option: It will pass

We wrote Wednesday about the cyclical nature of the NFL and how today's innovations almost certainly got their origins in an earlier era. Which is why Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers doesn't think the next great thing -- the read-option -- is here to stay.

Aaron Rodgers thinks athletic QBs are here to stay. The read-option, however, is temporary. (Getty Images)

We wrote Wednesday about the cyclical nature of the NFL and how today's innovations almost certainly got its origins in an earlier era. Which is why Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers doesn't think the next great thing -- the read-option -- is here to stay.

"I think the league is cyclical," Rodgers said during his weekly radio appearance on ESPN Wisconsin (by way of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). "Things have come back around that have been used 20, 30 years ago. But this, too, I think, will pass. Some of the pistol, read-option stuff will eventually pass. Now it might not be for 10 more years. ... But I think as we saw five years ago with the wildcat stuff, it had its success and less and less people are doing it." 

But that doesn't mean Rodgers thinks mobile quarterbacks are a fad.

"The athletic quarterback, I don't think, is going to pass at all," Rodgers continued. "You have seen the trend with more and more guys who can make plays when the pocket breaks down, who can extend plays, who are also good passers. You will continue to see that. We have seen that the last few years, especially the year Robert Griffin had this year, his mobility. Russell Wilson is an athletic guy. Andrew Luck, as well, is an underrated athlete. You are going to see more and more of the top picks being big-time athletes as well, like (Colin) Kaepernick is."

For now, the read-option, like mixed martial arts, looks to have a good future. But it's only a matter of time.

"At some point, on some level, they are going to figure out a way to consistently stop that. Then that will make its way up to the NFL or enough of these guys who are going to be franchise guys, if they are not already, may take some unnecessary shots or decide that they would rather stay in the pocket and throw rather than rush the ball 15 times a game. You are going to see it gradually go in the other direction, I think."

Robert Griffin III would almost certainly agree with this assessment.

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