GREEN BAY, Wis. – Like a cornerback jumping an out route – something that’s easier said than done against his favorite quarterback – Jordy Nelson answered the question before it had even ended.

“One,” the Green Bay Packers wide receiver replied when he was asked how many pick-six interceptions his quarterback and best buddy Aaron Rodgers has thrown in his NFL career.

Then, a pause. Not to contemplate what a truly astonishing statistic that is – and when compared to other quarterbacks, including a host of Pro Football Hall of Famers, it really is incredible – but to add an asterisk.

"And a half,” a smirking Nelson continued, referring to Rodgers’ interception in Sunday's season-opening win over the Seattle Seahawks, in which defensive tackle Nazair Jones took a Rodgers interception back 64 yards for an apparent touchdown, only to have it nullified by penalty. “Because he didn’t catch that D-lineman.”

Yes, thanks to an illegal-block-above-the-waist penalty on Seahawks defensive end Cliff Avril and an unnecessary roughness flag on cornerback Jeremy Lane -- and a Frostee Rucker illegal use of hands penalty that wiped out Arizona Cardinals cornerback Patrick Peterson's 100-yard pick-six on Rodgers in the 2015 NFC divisional playoffs -- ex-Tampa Bay Buccaneers safety Tanard Jackson remains the answer to a trivia question:

Who is the only NFL player to return an Aaron Rodgers interception for a touchdown?

Jackson turned the trick on Nov. 8, 2009, snaring a deflected fourth-and-12 Rodgers pass and returning it 35 yards late in the fourth quarter of the Packers’ 38-28 loss to the previously winless Bucs. The throw, which caromed off the hands of receiver Donald Driver with the Packers down 31-28 after blowing a 28-17 lead, came 4,444 pass attempts and 138 games ago (including playoffs).

“It’s an unbelievable number,” Nelson admitted.

According to ESPN Stats & Information, since Rodgers ascended to the Packers’ starting job in 2008, 80 quarterbacks have thrown at least two regular-season pick-sixes. The most during that span: Philip Rivers (19), Drew Brees (18), Eli Manning (15), Peyton Manning (15), Carson Palmer (15) and Jay Cutler (15).

No quarterback in NFL history has thrown more interceptions that were returned for touchdowns than Rodgers’ predecessor, Brett Favre, who retired in 2010 having thrown 31 regular-season pick-sixes and four more in the playoffs – including three in a 2001 NFC divisional playoff loss at St. Louis.

Yes, Favre threw more pick-sixes in one game than Rodgers has thrown in his NFL life.

According to Pro-Football-Reference.com, not far behind Favre are two Pro Football Hall of Famers (Dan Marino with 28 and John Elway with 18) and two more quarterbacks who will likely join them in Canton (Peyton Manning with 27 and Brees with 26).

It stands to reason that Rodgers, who has thrown only 73 career regular-season interceptions and has an NFL-record career interception percentage of 1.6 percent, would have a limited number of pick-sixes. He enters Sunday night’s NFC Championship Game rematch with the Atlanta Falcons just two regular-season touchdown passes shy of 300 for his career, making it a safe bet that he’ll reach the 300-touchdown plateau faster than any other NFL quarterback.

He’ll also be the first to reach 300 touchdowns with fewer than 100 interceptions, and given that he threw 109 touchdown passes against only 20 interceptions the past three years, he has a shot at getting to 400 TDs before he reaches 100 INTs.

But there has to be more to it than Rodgers simply being turnover-averse, right?

“Pick-sixes usually happen when you miss inside on an out ball, or [throw] behind a guy on a zone coverage where a guy’s looking right at you,” Rodgers explained to ESPN. “I don’t feel like I’ve thrown that many really terrible picks, and a lot of times pick-sixes, you couldn’t see a guy or you miss badly with a throw. I just haven’t had many of those.”

But why? Nelson cited Rodgers’ natural arm strength, meticulous preparation and “God-given ability” to see the field unlike other quarterbacks, so he “sees things, it seems, before they happen.” Quarterbacks coach Alex Van Pelt, who played nine NFL seasons mostly as a backup with the Buffalo Bills and threw only one pick-six – in 1997, against the Packers – hypothesized that Rodgers merely throws fewer risky or errant passes than, say, he did.

“If I’m playing in a season and throw 20 interceptions, maybe three of them go back for touchdowns,” the self-deprecating Van Pelt said. “He’s throwing five interceptions, so the likelihood of them going back are less.”

In the end, Nelson, Van Pelt and offensive coordinator Edgar Bennett agreed that Rodgers’ decision-making is the biggest factor.

“I think it’s really a combination of everything,” said Bennett, who was Favre’s teammate for five seasons and has been on the Packers’ coaching staff since 2001. “I believe No. 1, it starts with Aaron as far as his decision-making – his decision-making, his complete understanding of the offense and what we’re trying to get done. You go back over the years, he’s made some really good decisions with the football. I think he’ll continue to do that.”

Added Nelson: “I think he is smart with what he does. If it comes down to holding the ball too long or throwing a pick, he’ll hold the ball too long to protect that because you can live off that. You throw interceptions and pick-sixes, then you’re obviously really hurting the team. If you throw it away or take a sack, we live to play another down. For as many touchdowns as he throws compared to his touchdown-to-interception ratio and everything else, he’s doing something right. Maybe he’ll tell you the secret because I don’t know it.”

One aspect of Rodgers’ decision-making that’s fair to question, though, is what he does after he throws an interception that has the makings of a pick-six. Perhaps the best aspect of Rodgers’ obsession with avoiding interceptions, which dates back to his eighth-grade season for the Chico Jaguars, is that he rarely is in those situations, because his competitiveness overtakes his sense of self-preservation.

“I’m pissed in the millisecond after,” Rodgers said. And then? “Oh, I’m making the tackle. I’m not letting the guy go. I’m going to get him – 100 percent. I’m 100 percent going to get him. I’m taking an angle and I’m going to get him.”

Or at least try – even if that’s not the smartest thing for him to do. While Nelson teased his friend for not being able to catch a defensive lineman from behind on Sunday, Rodgers believes that if Avril hadn't pushed the QB – and if he hadn't heard the commotion created by Lane and Packers wide receiver Davante Adams wrestling on the turf – he would have caught up to Jones before the goal line. From the moment Rodgers realized the ball had been picked off, he said he began calculating the geometry it would take to catch Jones.

“I got pushed in the back and I got back into alignment and thought, ‘If I catch him, it’s going to be on the goal line. What’s the angle and what do I have to do to get this guy down?’” Rodgers said, adding that NFL rules protect him from blindside blocks as long as he’s not moving directly at the interceptor. “I’m not going to run toward him, because when you run toward him initially, that’s when you get ear-holed. As long as you’re not moving [directly] toward the ball, they’re not really allowed to touch you.”

Asked if his coaches really want their two-time NFL MVP to take that risk when it’d be safer to simply let the defender go and then lead the offense to a touchdown on the ensuing drive, Rodgers shook his head: “I don’t see the risk. I don’t care what they want. I’m going. I’m trying to make the tackle.”

Reinforcing Rodgers’ reasoning is how he tripped up Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher in the 2010 NFC Championship Game in Chicago, when Urlacher caught Rodgers’ pass at the Bears’ 6-yard line and had nothing but brownish-green grass between him and the end zone before Rodgers tripped the linebacker up at the Chicago 45. The Bears ended up punting instead of scoring a momentum-changing 94-yard touchdown, and to this day, the play remains “a top play for me in my career,” Rodgers said.

Rodgers, whose recall for plays is legendary, pointed to two other examples: a pick by New Orleans Saints cornerback Jason David in the third quarter of a 2008 game at the Superdome (Rodgers knocked David out of bounds at the 3-yard line, and the Saints scored two plays later), and an interception by Chicago cornerback Charles Tillman in the 2010 regular-season finale (Rodgers slowed Tillman down enough to allow teammate Bryan Bulaga to make the tackle).

“My thing is, if I at least slow him down a little bit, I think we’re going to get him,” Rodgers said. “So, ‘Don’t look too athletic, and then slow him down a little bit.’”

Told of Rodgers’ philosophy, Nelson smirked again. Thankfully, he said, Rodgers rarely has to atone for such mistakes, because good luck convincing him he’s wrong.

“A switch flips in his head and he becomes very pissed off. He doesn’t want it to score. He doesn’t want it to be on him,” Nelson said. “Probably not [smart] if you think about it, but that’s the competitor he is. And you’re not going to be able to control that. Do you risk one play for a whole season? Probably not the smartest thing. But he’s gotten away with it.”

Editor’s note: Jason Wilde covers the Green Bay Packers for ESPN Wisconsin and hosts Wilde & Tausch with former Packers offensive lineman Mark Tauscher weekdays on ESPN Milwaukee and ESPN Madison.