Aaron Rodgers Is the NFL's Most Annoying Player, According to Fans, and Minnesota Wants Everyone to Know It
IMAGE CREDIT: ALAMY
Aaron Rodgers has heard it all by now: the darkness retreat jokes, the vaccine questions, the “he’s washed” chorus. A new fan survey suggests the criticism isn’t going anywhere. Asked to name the most annoying player in the NFL , 22% of 3,070 fans polled picked Rodgers, putting him well clear of the field heading into the 2026-27 season.
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Travis Kelce came in second at 15%, with Patrick Mahomes rounding out the top three at 11%. After that, the numbers drop off fast: Dak Prescott (7%), Stefon Diggs (6%), and a three-way tie between Deshaun Watson, Tyreek Hill, and Odell Beckham Jr. at 5% each.
The gap between Rodgers and everyone else isn’t close. He beat Kelce by seven points and Mahomes by two-to-one. Whatever fans think of his play these days, he’s still the name that gets under people’s skin.
Most Annoying Player in the NFL: National Results
Minnesota Really, Really Doesn’t Like Him
Break the numbers down by team fandom and the story gets more interesting. Vikings fans named Rodgers the most annoying player in football at 44%, nearly double the national average and the single highest number recorded for any player among any fanbase in the survey.
Bears fans weren’t far behind at 36%, and even Packers fans, the people who watched him win MVPs and lead Green Bay for over a decade, put him at 32%. That’s three of the four NFC North fanbases ranking Rodgers as their most annoying player in the league, which says as much about division rivalry fatigue as it does about Rodgers himself. Seahawks fans (31%) rounded out the top group, a fanbase with its own uneven history with the quarterback.
On the flip side, Ravens fans were the least bothered by Rodgers, at just 9%, followed by 49ers fans (13%) and Bills and Titans fans (14% each). Rodgers has never played a full season for either AFC North or AFC West rival, and it shows. Annoyance, it turns out, is mostly a proximity problem.
Kelce and Mahomes Draw the Rival Vote
The pattern holds for the other two names near the top. Ravens fans rated Travis Kelce their most annoying player at 25%, the highest of any fanbase, a fair reflection of a decade of AFC North and AFC Championship battles with the Chiefs. Dolphins fans (23%) and Jaguars fans (22%) weren’t far behind.
Mahomes, meanwhile, drew his biggest backlash from 49ers fans at 27%, unsurprising given San Francisco’s Super Bowl losses to Kansas City, with Bills fans (21%) and Patriots fans (17%) close behind.
Age and Fandom Habits Shape the Vote
Rodgers’ numbers swing hard by age. Fans 55 and older put him at 30%, more than triple the 8% recorded among 18-to-24-year-olds, a generational split that tracks with how long each group has actually watched him play. Married respondents (28%) were also notably harder on Rodgers than single fans (18%), and fans who watch games live in the stadium (30%) were tougher on him than those who stream games online (23%).
Kelce’s numbers stay fairly flat across age groups, hovering between 12% and 19%, which suggests his reputation problem, real or perceived, isn’t generational the way Rodgers’ is.
Down the list, younger fans (18-24) split their votes more evenly across newer players, including a modest bump for Shedeur Sanders, who topped out at 5% among fans aged 25-34 versus 4% overall.
Methodology
The results come from an online survey of 3,070 self-identified NFL fans in the United States, fielded ahead of the 2026-27 season. Respondents were asked to select the one player they find most annoying from a fixed list of 18 names plus a write-in “Other” option; results are broken down by gender, age bracket (18-24, 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55+), relationship status, primary viewing method (in-stadium, TV, online, or other), games attended per season, and self-reported team fandom across all 32 franchises. Team-level sample sizes ranged from roughly 51 respondents (Jacksonville Jaguars, Tampa Bay Buccaneers) to 241 (Dallas Cowboys), so smaller fanbases carry a wider margin of error than the national topline.
You can find the full dataset here.