Aaron Rodgers says he’s been working on improving deep throws

Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers made sharpening his deep throws a point of emphasis this off-season, according to an interview with Sports Illustrated’s Peter King.

“Tom Brady told me after the ’07 season -- we got to play a little golf, and I picked his brain -- that you should work on at least one or two things every off-season,” Rodgers said in a Q&A on King’s new website, TheMMQB.com.

“So, I took that to heart and picked a few things every year to really try to focus on in the off-season. One year it was ball-handling; I wanted to be really good with fakes. One year it was eye control -- making sure that I looked off every single time I threw.

“This season we went through the cutups in the spring, and one thing that stood out was deep balls. We weren’t as efficient as we had been in the past this year on deep balls, so I really focused on my deep throws -- especially to the left. I was missing some out of bounds. I also lifted heavier and harder than I have in probably six years.”

And evidently, the frost has thawed between Rodgers and former Packers quarterback Brett Favre.

“I was very energized by seeing Brett at the NFL Awards at the Super Bowl, and being able to talk to him for the first time in forever,” Rodgers said. “I think that was a good thing for him and me, for the future of the organization, and hopefully the fans as well. It was a time for healing.

“I definitely had trepidation going in. I just didn’t know how he was going to be. But we talked on the phone the night before, and it was good to talk to him. I knew the second we hung up that it was going to be a good thing. He was joking around, I was joking around. We were remembering some funny old stories, and I just knew that we were both in the right spot mentally.”

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