By: Rob Kleifield
EAGAN, Minn. — History is framing Isaiah Rodgers' story.
The first to do this. The first to do that. The fastest since …
In Week 3 this season, the 5-foot-10, 180-pound cornerback emerged from the secondary and shadows of his past as the first NFL player with a pick six, a scoop-and-score and two forced fumbles in one game.
He "played out of this world," said Defensive Coordinator Brian Flores, "for the lack of a better term."
Really, there is nothing more on-the-nose to describe the game Rodgers savored Sept. 21 against Cincinnati. He intercepted a pass and sprinted 87 yards for his first career defensive score. Shortly after, he forced and recovered a fumble and dashed 66 yards to the opposite end zone for his second defensive touchdown. Rodgers also rejected a jump ball while on an island against Tee Higgins, who has a 6-inch height advantage, and canceled a 15-yard catch by Ja'Marr Chase with one of his knockouts.
Grizzled vet Harrison Smith suggested an asterisk in the record books since Rodgers did all that in a half.
"What makes this story more interesting is my wife," former Vikings cornerback Xavier Rhodes offered. "She called my phone, she was like, 'Oh my God, I thought he had your record! I was about to get upset, but he didn't. I'm good. All right, I love you,' and she hung up the phone. I'm like, she is something else!"
Rodgers' first goal-line crossing represented the longest pick six by a Viking since Rhodes, who was coincidentally on site for Legends Weekend festivities, traveled the length of the field in Week 11 of 2016.
The three-time Pro Bowl honoree and 2017 First-Team All-Pro Rhodes was hanging in a stadium suite when Rodgers lived out "every corner's dream," gave Rhodes' wife a scare and made his mentor proud.
"He was always willing to learn," Rhodes said of Rodgers, who entered the NFL with the Colts the same year Rhodes went from Minnesota to Indianapolis. "You have some guys that come in the game and think they know it all and think you can't really tell 'em anything, or they would sit there and act like they are listening to you and still do their own thing. But with him, he was a student of the game. He wanted to get better."
Upon their initial meeting, Rhodes said he thought "Isaiah was a great breath of fresh air."
"It's no ego with him. Zero ego. Like, he doesn't have an ego," Rhodes shared repeatedly. "You can go, 'Isaiah, I need you to be the kicker' – 'OK' – and he's gonna do it with a smile on his face. It's hard to find players like that, man. It's hard to find someone that's gonna give it his all no matter where you put him.
"That's why we gravitated to one another because that's someone you need around you," Rhodes said. "That's someone you need in your life, 'cause we're all gonna have bad days, and you're gonna need a guy like Isaiah that's gonna be around you to joke around with you, make you laugh and lift your day up."
Rhodes continued, "You tend to forget [about your blessings in life], but a guy like him, he's always gonna remind you, 'Bro, we're here in the NFL, we're part of the less than 1 percent, let's live it up.' "
Rodgers has shared "office space" with elite cornerbacks such as Rhodes and Stephon Gilmore in his time with the Colts and backed up Darius Slay in 2024 for the Super Bowl Champion Eagles. Additionally, Rodgers has relished elite moments, cribbing a kickoff in his fifth career game, Oct. 11, 2020, and recording his second NFL interception off future first-ballot Hall of Fame QB Tom Brady on Nov. 28, 2021.
His stint with Philadelphia peaked in the playoff run that's revered by the "City of Brotherly Love."
In the divisional round Jan. 19, 2025, Rodgers fastened a loose ball that was fumbled by Los Angeles Rams running back Kyren Williams and executed a graceful spin move to evade danger and stay on his feet at Lincoln Financial Field, which was blanketed with powdery white snow. Rodgers whooshed 40 yards to the L.A. 10, delivering the longest fumble recovery in Eagles playoff history en route to a 28-22 win.
Three weeks later, Rodgers' impact was felt instantaneously in Super Bowl LIX. On his very first defensive snap off the bench, he walked up to guard Kansas City speed threat Marquise "Hollywood" Brown in the slot and matched the receiver's movement. First, he expertly tracked him on a chair route; then, he stayed in phase as Brown drifted back toward the middle of the field; and after that, he planted to mirror the speedster as he stopped on a dime and exploded for the sideline. Despite slipping, Rodgers quickly regained his balance and got up to speed in a jiffy – in the nick of time to deny a pinpoint third-and-9 pass from Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who free-styled in the backfield for about seven seconds (more than twice as long as a defender typically is asked to be sticky in coverage) before hurling the ball.
Rodgers' reaction yelled no siree – like he's done over and again lately.
Five games into his first season as a full-time starter, Rodgers is a Top 4 cornerback in the NFL, according to Pro Football Focus (min. 100 snaps). His 82.2 overall grade is boosted by the top score in coverage (86.1), as well as the first "perfect" game grade (99.9) since PFF started data collection in 2006. According to PFF numbers, he's allowed only 11 receptions on 21 targets for 96 yards, zero touchdowns and a 44.9 passer rating against.
"Personally, I just feel like he's going to do more," Rhodes said. "And once he's (even) more consistent, we're going to have a conversation of him being one of the best Vikings players or DBs they've ever had."
The success was anticipated by people close to Rodgers, like Rhodes, and college teammate Jordin Hamilton, who was a junior at UMass when Rodgers – "this super, super skinny kid" – materialized.
"He may have been all of 5-9, a buck 35 soaking wet, if that," Hamilton said.
"Seriously," Rodgers' good friend to this day emphasized, "he was tiny."
Hamilton said he doesn't think he saw Isaiah, or 'Zay', squat over 185 pounds in the lead up to his freshman season. He remembers training camp that summer vividly, though, because Rodgers was a blur in conditioning tests and zippy on defense, capturing passes left and right – as if he was the target.
"I'll never forget," Hamilton reminisced. "We had Andy Isabella on our team at the same time, who ended up being a second-round draft pick [in 2019]. He was by far the fastest player on our team. And then we're running 40-yard sprints and this new kid is not just beating Andy; he's dusting him. So we're like, 'Hold on, who is this little guy? Like, Isaiah, where are you from? Like, how are you fast like this?' "
Rodgers made a mutual impression on Rhodes.
"I wish y'all would mic him up," Rhodes said excitedly. "I think when he's running, he's laughing. Like, I think he's gifted to that point where he's not running to his full potential. I think he's literally that fast.
"It's like, c'mon bro, stop playing with us," Rhodes quipped. "You're making me look bad!"
Rodgers made more history while chasing Pittsburgh's DK Metcalf across the soft Irish soil. During Metcalf's 80-yard catch-and-run TD in Dublin, Rodgers reached a max speed of 23.32 MPH, which is the fastest by any player in the Next Gen Stats registry (since 2017). Staunchly, Hamilton said, "That honestly wasn't even a shock to me. He by far is the fastest human being that I've ever been in contact with."
Recalling Rodgers' debut camp at UMass, Hamilton stated, "His athletic ability was just superior."
Even then, with ample empirical evidence, some Minutemen weren't sold on the rail-thin cornerback making an early impact. Hamilton noted skepticism – "they were somewhat hating" – from teammates pushing for playing time: They doubted Rodgers' size, ridiculed his technique and reminded of his rank.
Hamilton retorted, " 'Yeah, well guys, he has like eight interceptions in the span of 10 practices. I mean, how many interceptions do you guys have?' So from then on, I was like, 'This guy's gonna be a player.' "
A player, without question. How about — a playmaker.
UMass opened its 2016 season at The Swamp and eased Rodgers into the fray. The Minutemen played Florida tough, falling 24-7 (the Gators leading receiver in that game was former Viking Brandon Powell). By the third game of Rodgers' freshman campaign, he was a starter, putting to bed concerns about his build.
"The plays he was making at his size and his age, I've never seen anybody do that before," said Hamilton, who works for a sports agency now and assists the high school scene, and whose father, Conrad, was drafted in the seventh round by the Giants in 1996 and intercepted Dan Marino as a rookie cornerback.
Rodgers finished his on-boarding year with 40 tackles, seven pass breakups to lead the FBS independent programs (consisting then of Massachusetts, BYU, Army and Notre Dame) and interceptions against Wagner and Troy. It was a buildup to bigger and better. Over the next three seasons, Rodgers plucked nine more picks and recovered several fumbles. He racked 242 return yards on 11 college interceptions, taking three the distance, and emerged as a superstar in the kicking game, amassing an FBS-best 1,295 yards on kickoff returns and housing a 42-yard punt return as a senior. Yup, a playmaker in every sense.
"Nobody expects guys from UMass" to make the kinds of plays Rodgers did Nov. 4, 2017, at Mississippi State, Hamilton expressed, singling out that game, on that stage, as the erasure of any residual suspicion.
In front of an SEC crowd clanging deafening cow bells, Rodgers intercepted two passes. On the first, he jumped a hitch route and cruised 29 yards untouched into the Bulldogs end zone, resembling his cousin Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, a 2008 first-round draft pick who had an inclination for pick sixes. 'Zay' maintained lockdown coverage to nab INT No. 2 on a trick-play deep pass attempted by an MSU receiver.
"By the time he got out of there," Hamilton said Rodgers "knew [the defense] like the back of his hand."
"I believe that even if they wanted to line him up down at nickel, if they needed him to play safety at some point in time, he could have done it," Hamilton elaborated. "Now he may not have been the prototypical looking safety or nickel, but [he could have done it because of] his knowledge of the game."
When Rodgers was ready to swap UMass' logo for an NFL shield, he was already firmly on the radar of Flores, whose pathway from scout to assistant with New England (90 odd miles from campus) drew him to Rodgers making plays in multiple phases, as he was entering his first year as the Dolphins head coach.
Both men had to wait – Rodgers to hear his name late in the sixth round with the 211th selection, and Flores to coach someone he believed was an ascending talent. Historically, good things are well worth it.
"I was all in," Flores said this summer, rehashing his desire to acquire Rodgers in free agency.
"I'm happy we got him," the defensive coordinator added. "He's got a great football IQ and acumen."
Hamilton and Rhodes are elated, too.
"I was talking to him the other day, and I was just like, 'I've had so many people reach out to me about [your playmaking] you would think that my name is Isaiah Rodgers and I was the guy out there doing it,'" Hamilton joked. "I'm just happy for him. I think that truly the sky's the limit for him. I know that people say that all the time when it comes to people's success and things of that nature. But truly, I think that this year for him, whether it's this late in his career or not, I think this is gonna be a major turning point.
"If I could say anything about him, he's the class clown, but the class clown that would get straight A's, which is not typical of a quote-unquote class clown," Hamilton added. "He's always been a guy that makes light of certain situations even when things aren't going the best, and I think that translated over to the field 'cause in order to succeed as a cornerback you gotta have that mentality. Everybody's gonna get caught on at some point in time. It's just all about how you kind of bounce back and react to that."
Hamilton concluded Rodgers has typified that next-snap frame of mind "for as long as I've known him."
Rhodes delineated football's only promise is that it's Not For Long; his joy for Rodgers is heartfelt.
"He's playing lights out," Rhodes said. "It's like, man, it's one of those things where you put in all the work, and now you're starting to see the results. Now you're starting to see everything you worked for, [knowing] all the sacrifices you made. And now you're starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel."
On the heels of his historic NFC Defensive Player of the Week performance, Rodgers responded to a question – What'd Flo' tell you after the game? – with frankness: "I told him, that's why I came here."
"I just knew, once I finally got my shot, whether it was Year 6 or Year 10, whenever that time came, I was going to be the best Isaiah Rodgers I could be," the 27-year-old said humbly. "I just think everything happens for a reason, and I think it's perfect timing for it to be now rather than earlier in my career where I was more of an immature player and don't think I would've meshed [with Flo'] and this system.
"So I think everything is perfect timing," Rodgers reiterated, flashing a radiant smile. "I'm in the right state of mind, and I just want to go out there and make plays like he expects the whole entire unit to do."
