Reusse: Packers' Rodgers is prototype for today's NFL QBs

Christian Ponder became the quarterback for the Vikings after six games of his rookie season in 2011. He started 35 games over three seasons, threw for 38 touchdowns and 34 interceptions, completed 60.2 percent of his passes and averaged 10.6 yards per completion.

The name "Ponder'' is now used as a punchline among Vikings fans, and disaster is being predicted should he be forced back into the lineup on Thursday night at Lambeau Field.

Tommy Kramer became the quarterback for the Vikings at the beginning of his third season. He had started one game before taking over in 1979 for the retired Fran Tarkenton.

Kramer played 128 games over 13 seasons for the Vikings. He threw for 159 touchdowns and 157 interceptions, completed 55.1 percent of his passes and averaged 12.3 yards per completion.

He was called "Touchdown Tommy'' by Vikings fans and joined Tarkenton and Daunte Culpepper as the quarterbacks honored on the team's top 50 (49 players and Bud Grant) in 2010.

This is not to quibble with that distinction for Kramer; rather, to point to the standards to which NFL quarterbacks are now held.

Kramer's run with the Vikings ended in 1989, mostly as a backup to Wade Wilson. Much has changed in 25 years, including the stigma of throwing an interception.

This is now a pass-first league and the yardage is enormous, but it's based on fantastic accuracy, not "taking a shot.'' The gunslingers are gone, replaced by machines that see all, that see the safety cheating, and are praised for making short tosses to check-down targets.

The Vikings face the NFL's best quarterback in this night game in Lambeau: Aaron Rodgers.

He will soon be 31, and there will be a decline in skills in a few years, but for now, Rodgers brings all you could want in a quarterbacking machine.

Vikings coach Mike Zimmer has spent two decades studying and trying to stall opposing quarterbacks, and this was his review of Rodgers on Tuesday:

"He's obviously got a tremendous arm, he's got great mobility, he gets the ball out fast, he's the best in the league against the blitz, he's got some excellent receivers and now they have a good running game.''

A case could be made the move from Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay in 2008 completed the NFL's transition from gunslinger to machine. Or, that might already have been official dating to the drama in New England in 2001, when take-a-shot veteran Drew Bledsoe returned to health, and the Patriots stuck with Tom Brady and won the Super Bowl.

Favre played in 255 games (with 253 consecutive starts) with the Packers. He threw for 442 touchdowns, 286 interceptions, completed 61.4 percent of his passes and averaged 11.5 yards per completion. He threw a touchdown on 5.0 percent of his passes and an interception on 3.3 percent.

Rodgers has played in 98 games with 91 starts. He has thrown for 197 touchdowns, 53 interceptions, completed 65.8 percent and averaged 12.4 yards per completion. He has thrown a touchdown on 6.9 percent of his passes and an interception on 1.7 percent.

Does this efficiency make Rodgers a better quarterback than Favre? No, but it makes him the absolute prototype of today's machine — of an era when 65 percent has become the standard, when you can see on the ESPN crawl that Rodgers went 22-for-28 for 302 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions and hardly blink an eye.

What has happened with quarterbacking in your time in the NFL, Mike Zimmer?

"If you got one like that, like Green Bay has … it's a pretty good deal.''