What is Aaron Rodgers’ IQ?
“Football IQ” is the praise coaches and fellow quarterbacks give him; the nearest thing to an IQ number is a Wonderlic 35, a raw score out of 50 that the NFL does not officially release.
No published IQ test result exists for Aaron Rodgers, and the 130 that circulates as his IQ score cites no test. What is documented is a 1310 SAT, an A-minus high school average, four AP NFL MVP awards and a reported Wonderlic score of 35, a record that supports an estimated IQ of about 115–130.
Aaron Rodgers’ estimated IQ
- A reported Wonderlic score of 35 out of 50 from the 2005 draft process: Packers.com’s 2005 draft history (Cliff Christl, April 2, 2025) says Alex Smith scored 40 and Rodgers 35, against an average of 24 for NFL quarterbacks (Sports Illustrated, March 24, 2011). The league does not publish such scores, so it is reported, not official.
- A 1310 on the SAT before he graduated from Pleasant Valley High School in spring 2002, the 90th percentile under the old scoring system (Milwaukee Magazine, August 31, 2012), with an A-minus average (New York Times News Service, February 2, 2011).
- Eligibility to transfer from Butte College to Cal after a single season “because of his good grades in high school” (CBS Sports, September 3, 2015), followed by a major in American studies at Berkeley (CBS News, 2016).
- Four AP NFL MVP awards (2011, 2014, 2020, 2021), the Super Bowl XLV MVP award, the NFL’s best career touchdown-to-interception ratio (4.28, minimum 1,500 attempts) and its lowest single-season interception rate, 0.34 percent in 2018 (Steelers.com).
- A Celebrity Jeopardy! win in May 2015 (NFL.com) and a guest-host run on Jeopardy! whose episodes aired April 5–16, 2021 (Jeopardy.com).
Neither anchor is an IQ test: the 35 is an unofficial raw score on a short timed hiring test, converted with a rule of thumb that a 1999 news report attached to a 33, and a 1310 SAT is a scholastic result from his teens. Football success barely constrains IQ, so the band is deliberately wide, and 130 is its ceiling rather than its middle.
- Born
- December 2, 1983, Chico, California
- Education
- Pleasant Valley High School, Chico (2002; SAT 1310, A-minus average); Butte College (2002); University of California, Berkeley (2003–2004, American studies)
- Field
- American football (quarterback): Green Bay Packers 2005–2022, New York Jets 2023–2024, Pittsburgh Steelers 2025–present
- Draft
- 2005 NFL draft, first round, 24th overall, Green Bay Packers
- Honors
- Four-time AP NFL MVP (2011, 2014, 2020, 2021); Super Bowl XLV MVP; 10 Pro Bowls; four-time first-team All-Pro
- Tests on record
- SAT 1310 (before graduating in 2002); Wonderlic 35 of 50 (reported from the 2005 draft process, not officially released); no IQ test
- Status (September 25, 2026)
- Age 42; Steelers quarterback in his 22nd NFL season, which he says will be his last
- Circulating IQ figure
- 130 (celebrityiqs.com, no source); no published IQ test result
What an IQ of 115–130 actually means
Set the claim aside for a moment. If someone genuinely scored in this range, here is what that would represent.
Average is 100 by construction, and about two-thirds of people fall between 85 and 115. Take the test to place your own score on this scale.
| Score range | Classification | Share of people | What it indicates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 85 – 114 | Average | ~68% | The range most people fall into. |
| 115 – 129 | Above average | ~13.6% | Roughly one person in seven. |
| 130 – 144 | Gifted | ~2% | The threshold most high-IQ societies use. |
| Above 144 | Highly gifted | ~0.1% | Figures above this range are extrapolated from the curve rather than measured. |
Percentages are approximate and describe a normal distribution. The same number means different things on tests with different standard deviations.
Thirty questions gives you a measured position on this exact scale — your score, your percentile and the ability breakdown behind it.
Find out in 30 minutes →Who Aaron Rodgers is
Aaron Charles Rodgers was born on December 2, 1983, in Chico, California, and graduated from Pleasant Valley High School there in spring 2002 with an A-minus average and a 1310 on the SAT, which Milwaukee Magazine put at the 90th percentile under the old scoring system (how SAT scores convert to IQ). Despite those grades and his football record he drew no Division I scholarship offer; the one opening was a walk-on spot at Illinois, which he turned down for Butte College, a junior college in Oroville. In 2002 he led the Roadrunners to a 10–1 record and the NorCal Conference title. Cal coach Jeff Tedford noticed him while recruiting a Butte tight end, and because of his good high school grades Rodgers could transfer after a single season.
At Cal in 2003 and 2004 Rodgers majored in American studies after first wanting communications (CBS News, 2016) and, as a two-year starter, completed 424 of 665 passes for 5,469 yards (Steelers.com). He and Utah’s Alex Smith, both juniors, declared for the 2005 draft in early January. Rodgers waited four and a half hours in the Green Room, and the Packers took him 24th overall on April 23, 2005, after 21 teams passed (Packers.com). Before the draft Tedford told the Miami Herald that Rodgers was “very intelligent,” and Tampa Bay’s Jon Gruden called him “a very astute, well-trained quarterback.”
In Green Bay he sat behind Brett Favre for three seasons, time he credits with teaching him “how to watch film” (Steelers.com, October 25, 2025). The Packers beat Pittsburgh 31–25 in Super Bowl XLV on February 6, 2011, with Rodgers the game’s MVP (24 of 39 for 304 yards and three touchdowns). He was the AP NFL MVP for 2011, with 4,643 yards, 45 touchdowns, six interceptions and a 122.5 passer rating that remains the single-season record (Milwaukee Magazine, 2012), and again for 2014, 2020 and 2021. The Jets acquired him on April 26, 2023 and he played for them in 2023 and 2024; he signed a one-year contract with the Steelers in June 2025 and completed 327 of 498 passes for 3,322 yards, 24 touchdowns and seven interceptions in 16 games (Steelers.com).
Outside football, Rodgers won Celebrity Jeopardy! in May 2015, beating astronaut Mark Kelly and Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary and winning $50,000 for the MACC Fund (NFL.com), and guest-hosted Jeopardy! in episodes that aired April 5–16, 2021 (Jeopardy.com). As of September 25, 2026 he is 42 and listed at No. 8 on the Steelers’ roster in his 22nd NFL season. ESPN reported on May 16, 2026 that he would return on a one-year deal under new head coach Mike McCarthy, who coached him for 13 seasons in Green Bay, and on July 28 he said there is “zero debate” that 2026 will be his last season (NFL.com).
By Elora Mercer, Celebrity Research WriterFigures checked by Leon Falkner, Data & Research AnalystReviewed by Aarav Vardhan, Editor-in-Chief · Last reviewed August 2026
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Aaron Rodgers: the documented record
The estimate above rests on this record. Every entry here is a matter of public fact, which is more than can be said for the number itself.
- 1983Born December 2 in Chico, California.
- 2002Graduates from Pleasant Valley High School with an A-minus average and a 1310 SAT; leads Butte College to a 10–1 record and the NorCal Conference title.
- 2003–04Transfers to Cal after one year of junior college, eligible because of his high school grades; majors in American studies and leaves after his junior season.
- 2005Drafted 24th overall by the Green Bay Packers on April 23; his reported Wonderlic score from the pre-draft process is 35.
- 2011Is Super Bowl XLV MVP on February 6; his 2011 season earns the first of four AP MVP awards, with a record 122.5 passer rating.
- 2015Wins Celebrity Jeopardy! in May, earning $50,000 for the MACC Fund.
- 2021Guest-hosts Jeopardy! (episodes aired April 5–16); the season brings his fourth AP MVP award.
- 2023–24Acquired by the New York Jets on April 26, 2023; plays for them through 2024.
- 2025Signs a one-year contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers in June; throws for 3,322 yards and 24 touchdowns in 16 games.
- 2026ESPN reports on May 16 that he will return to the Steelers for a 22nd season; says on July 28 there is “zero debate” that it is his last; still active on September 25.
Where the 130 figure came from
Following a claim back to its first appearance is the part almost nobody does — and it is what most people are actually asking.
Aaron Rodgers’s IQ score, as search results return it, is really two different numbers. The first is 130, printed by celebrityiqs.com with no test, date or method behind it and a footer calling its scores “not guaranteed” and “for entertainment purposes only” (where celebrity IQ numbers come from). The second is a 35, which is not an IQ at all: it is a reported raw score out of 50 on the Wonderlic, the 50-question, 12-minute test the NFL once gave draft prospects at its scouting combine (for a feel of the format, see the Wonderlic practice test). Bleacher Report calls the Wonderlic “an abbreviated IQ exam,” and footballiqscore.com files Rodgers’s result under “Football IQ Score,” which is how a hiring-test number ends up answering an IQ query.
Tracing the 35 leads to reports, not records. The NFL does not publish Wonderlic results: Sports Illustrated noted in 2011 that scores “are not released by the league and are considered unofficial,” and The Power Sweep, a Packers-focused analysis site, says they are “generally leaked either by the player’s agent or teams after the draft.” For Rodgers the number is consistent everywhere and disputed nowhere we looked. The earliest dated statement we could open is a 2007 remark in The Power Sweep’s 2017 post: asked about the Packers’ roster, Rodgers said he had checked and was “actually disappointed getting 35.” The 2005 newspaper reports and the 2013 Sports Illustrated gallery that Wikipedia cites were not available to us. The league dropped the test from its combine in 2022 (Sports Illustrated, January 5, 2022).
Turning a 35 into an IQ is arithmetic on a rule of thumb. The Wonderlic has a score of 20 intended to represent average intelligence, and a 1999 CBS News report on a Connecticut police-hiring dispute said a 33 was “the equivalent of having an IQ of 125,” while the 21 or 22 typical of office workers and police officers was “the equivalent of having an IQ of 104” (the New London case). Two more raw points on that scale give about 129, which rounds to the 130 celebrityiqs prints, though the site does not say how it got there. The conversion is loose: each raw point is worth roughly two IQ points on this scale, so a small error in a 12-minute score becomes a larger one in the conversion; this site’s Wonderlic score to IQ conversion covers the mechanics. Read as a ceiling, 130 is defensible; read as a measurement, it is not.
Aaron Rodgers’s football IQ is a separate thing, and he drew the line himself. The Power Sweep quotes him from 2007: “There’s a big difference between educational IQ and football IQ.” The praise for the second is specific. Steelers quarterbacks coach Tom Arth said in an October 2025 Steelers.com article, “His football IQ is off the charts”; Rodgers was named by 15 of the 38 quarterbacks Fox Sports polled anonymously in 2024 (three declined) as the league’s smartest; and the NFL single-season record for lowest interception rate, 0.34 percent in 2018, is his. Each describes decisions on a field, not a score, and studies disagree on whether Wonderlic scores track NFL success at all (what a cognitive ability test score predicts at work). Against the site’s other football profiles, 115–130 sits a step above Tom Brady’s 110–125, another Wonderlic-derived band (his reported score is 33); two raw points is a small gap on a 12-minute test, so the bands overlap. Ryan Fitzpatrick, the Harvard quarterback who “crushed the test” with a reported 48 in 2005 (Packers.com), and John Urschel, whose band rests on a completed doctorate, both sit at 145–160.
How we read a number →Wikidata Q302581 is the American football quarterback (born December 2, 1983, Chico, California; no death recorded), not a namesake. Wikipedia: schools, the 2005 draft (round 1, pick 24), MVP years, Jets 2023–2024, Steelers from 2025, the May 2026 return, and an infobox Wonderlic 35 footnoted to a 2013 Sports Illustrated gallery that returned HTTP 404 for us; its Wonderlic article gives the test format and summarizes Lyons et al. (2009).
Steelers page: four AP NFL MVP awards (2011, 2014, 2020, 2021), Super Bowl XLV MVP, 10 Pro Bowls, first in touchdown-to-interception ratio (4.28), the 0.34 percent interception-rate record (2018), Butte 10–1, Cal 424 of 665 for 5,469 yards, a 2025 line of 3,322 yards and 24 touchdowns, listed QB No. 8, age 42. Article: Tom Arth, “His football IQ is off the charts.” Packers.com: 24th pick on April 23, 2005, 21 teams passed, “Smith scored 40 on the Wonderlic test; Rodgers, 35” with no source, and 2005 quotes from Jeff Tedford and Jon Gruden. None reports an IQ test.
May 16: a one-year deal for his second Pittsburgh season under Mike McCarthy. July 28: “Zero debate” that 2026 is his last; NFL.com calls him a 42-year-old four-time NFL MVP entering his 22nd season and says McCarthy coached him for 13 years in Green Bay. The ESPN pages were read through a summarizer.
Fox: 38 quarterbacks polled anonymously on the smartest quarterback; Rodgers 15 votes, Matthew Stafford 12, Kirk Cousins 3; three declined. NFL.com: he beat astronaut Mark Kelly and Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary on Celebrity Jeopardy! for $50,000 for the MACC Fund. Jeopardy.com: show air dates April 5–16, 2021, and “Celebrity JEOPARDY! champion” from 2015. None reports an IQ test.
The Power Sweep: scores are “generally leaked” after the draft; its database uses “reported Wonderlic scores from newspapers like the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the Green Bay Press-Gazette and veteran beat writer Bob McGinn” and lists Rodgers at 35; it quotes Rodgers in 2007 on being “disappointed getting 35” and on “educational IQ” versus “football IQ.” SI: scores “are not released by the league and are considered unofficial.”
celebrityiqs.com “Aaron Rodgers IQ Score: 130”: no test, date or method; “not guaranteed … for entertainment purposes only.” Bleacher Report (page dated June 8, 2018, written after the 2012 season): “Score: 35,” sourcing only positional averages. Wonderlic Test Practice (unaffiliated with Wonderlic, Inc.): “reportedly scored a 35.” Sportskeeda (modified February 29, 2024): “As per multiple reports.” footballiqscore.com: 35, no source (read through a summarizer).
CBS: a 33 was “the equivalent of having an IQ of 125” and the national 21 or 22 “the equivalent of having an IQ of 104,” unattributed. Pitts: scores are “nominally private” but leaked; the study he describes with Brent Evans (apparently Applied Economics, 2017, doi:10.1080/00036846.2017.1412081) found quarterbacks’ Wonderlic scores associated with NFL success but not draft position (abstract paywalled; Pitts’s own summary). Wikipedia summarizes Lyons, Hoffman and Michel (Human Performance, 2009, doi:10.1080/08959280902970401) as finding no significant prediction. SI: the NFL planned to drop the test at its combine.
Crouse: “an A-minus average and an SAT score of 1310” and no Division I scholarship offer. Wilde: the 1310 “put him in the 90th percentile” under the old scoring system; the 2011 season lines and 122.5 passer rating; Super Bowl XLV, 31–25 on February 6, 2011. Kalland: eligible to transfer after one season “because of his good grades in high school.” CBS News: American studies major.
None appears in Wikipedia, Wikidata, the Steelers’ player page, Packers.com’s draft history or the pages that print the 35 or the 130, and we found no interview in which Rodgers says he took an IQ test. Two test scores are on record instead: an SAT 1310 and a reported Wonderlic 35.
Bands used for comparison: Tom Brady 110–125 (Wonderlic-derived); Ryan Fitzpatrick 145–160; John Urschel 145–160 (completed doctorate).
The sources behind our estimate
The figures that circulate for Aaron Rodgers, what we were able to confirm, and where the two diverge.
Two numbers circulate for Aaron Rodgers’s IQ. celebrityiqs.com prints “IQ: 130” under the headline “Aaron Rodgers IQ Score: 130.” The other is a Wonderlic score of 35 out of 50, repeated by Bleacher Report, Sportskeeda, Wonderlic Test Practice, footballiqscore.com and Packers.com. Bleacher Report calls the Wonderlic “an abbreviated IQ exam,” so the 35 reads as an IQ on search pages even though it is a raw hiring-test score.
No published IQ test result exists for Aaron Rodgers. We checked Wikipedia and Wikidata, the Steelers’ player page and Packers.com’s 2005 draft history: none reports an IQ test. Of the pages that print a number, celebrityiqs.com gives 130 with no test, date or method and closes with “The IQ scores posted on this website are not guaranteed. They are for entertainment purposes only.” The 35 appears on Packers.com (no source given), Bleacher Report (sourcing only its positional averages), Wonderlic Test Practice (“reportedly”), Sportskeeda (“As per multiple reports”) and footballiqscore.com (no source), and in The Power Sweep’s database of scores reported in Wisconsin newspapers. None disputes it and none shows a test record. We found no interview in which Rodgers says he took an IQ test.
The circulating 130 sits at the top of our band, not above it: the 1999 CBS report that equated a 33 with an IQ of 125 implies about 129 for a 35 on the same scale, so 130 is roughly what a reported 35 converts to. What fails is the step after it, treating a raw hiring-test score as a measured IQ and the ceiling of a conversion as the middle of the estimate.
Want a number that does hold up? Every figure on this page is somebody’s claim. Take the 30-question test and get a percentile you can check rather than a figure you have to trust.
Aaron Rodgers — frequently asked
What is Aaron Rodgers’s IQ?
No IQ test result has been published for Aaron Rodgers, so his IQ is unknown; the 130 that circulates cites no test. From a reported Wonderlic score of 35, a 1310 SAT and his documented record, this site’s estimate of his IQ level is 115–130, with 130 as the ceiling rather than the midpoint.
Did Aaron Rodgers take an IQ test?
No result from a full-scale IQ test has been published for Rodgers, and we found no interview in which he says he took one. Two test scores are on record: a 1310 on the SAT from high school and a Wonderlic score of 35 out of 50 reported from the 2005 NFL draft process, which the league does not officially publish.
What was Aaron Rodgers’s Wonderlic score?
Aaron Rodgers reportedly scored 35 out of 50 on the Wonderlic in the 2005 draft process, a figure Packers.com repeats and a Packers-focused site quotes him discussing in 2007. The NFL does not publish these scores officially, the average NFL quarterback scored about 24, and the Wonderlic is a 12-minute hiring test, not an IQ test.
What is Aaron Rodgers’s football IQ?
Football IQ is a reputation for reading defenses and making decisions, not a test score. Steelers quarterbacks coach Tom Arth said in October 2025 that Rodgers’s “football IQ is off the charts,” and 15 of the 38 quarterbacks Fox Sports polled in 2024 named him the league’s smartest. Rodgers himself separates “educational IQ” from “football IQ.”
Is Aaron Rodgers intelligent?
The record supports above-average academic ability: a 1310 SAT (90th percentile under the old scoring system), an A-minus high school average, a transfer to Cal after one year of junior college and a 2015 Celebrity Jeopardy! win. Those are not IQ measurements, so the estimate is a band, 115–130, and football success alone does not settle it.
How does Aaron Rodgers’s estimated IQ compare with Tom Brady’s?
Our band for Rodgers, 115–130, sits a step above Tom Brady’s 110–125 because his reported Wonderlic score is two points higher (35 against 33), but two raw points is inside the error of a short timed test, so the bands overlap almost completely. Ryan Fitzpatrick and John Urschel sit higher, at 145–160.
Is Aaron Rodgers still playing in 2026?
Yes. As of September 25, 2026, Aaron Rodgers, 42, is a Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback in his 22nd NFL season, after agreeing in May to a one-year deal under coach Mike McCarthy. He said on July 28 that there is “zero debate” that 2026 will be his last season.
How does my IQ compare with Aaron Rodgers?
You can find out in about fifteen minutes. The IQ Metrics assessment is 30 questions, scored on the same 100-mean scale used throughout this page, so your result and the estimate above are at least expressed in the same units — one measured, one inferred. Once you have a number, the leaderboard shows where it would sit, and how we score and norm it explains the benchmarking.
Where does this estimate come from?
From the documented record rather than a test — the method is named above and set out in full under how we read a number. Compare it against the other athletes profiles, starting with Magnus Carlsen.
- Take the 30-question IQ test — get a measured score and percentile of your own
- Average IQ by country — how the scale behaves across populations
- How IQ Metrics scores its assessment — the method behind our own number
- More on how IQ testing works — reliability, error and what a score can and cannot say
- More athletes profiles — same field, same method
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