Aaron Rodgers is just another guy who couldn’t take the Jets to the Promised Land. That will be his legacy in New York.
Aaron Rodgers said the other day that he wants to play in 2025. It certainly won’t be with the New York Jets if he does.
Rodgers has played 2024 like a washed-up quarterback, ranking 24th out of 32 qualified passers in Total QBR (52.0) with 15 touchdown passes, seven interceptions, and a career-low 6.4 yards per attempt in a 3-7 season.
After all, he is 40 and turning 41 soon. Hamstring, knee, and ankle injuries affected his diminishing skills. He was coming off an Achilles surgery last year after he went down in the season opener.
It’s fair to say that Rodgers wouldn’t have been great in his first year with the Jets, even if he hadn’t been injured and out for the year in Game 1 vs. the Bills. The offensive line wasn’t that good, and his skills started to diminish in his final season with the Green Bay Packers when mobility betrayed him. The Packers let him go, and now the Jets are finding out why.
There’s another issue. Rodgers hasn’t exactly been a Jets team leader. His unusual personality isn’t magnetic; he can create distance with players rather than bring them together. If that’s not enough, Rodgers creates distractions, as he did when pondering in public about being Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s vice president running mate. He also traveled to Egypt this summer rather than participating in the team’s June mandatory minicamp.
The Jets happily looked beyond what I’ve just described in exchange for a proven, experienced quarterback who knew how to win. Rodgers thought he could transform the Jets, but he hasn’t, and the Jets still look lost.
While “looking lost” needs to change, it’s doubtful that Rodgers will. He is who he is, and he is set in his ways, including wanting to have things his way–something that’s unlikely if the team does a full leadership reset that many expect in this town. The team already fired Robert Saleh as head coach, and Jeff Ulbrich, his replacement, has no chance of returning. GM Joe Douglas has lost more than twice the number of games he has won during his tenure, and if that isn’t walking on thin ice, I don’t know what it is.
The problem now is this: few successful teams have a job opening at quarterback. The Indianapolis Colts could be an option, and the New Orleans Saints could take a gamble. The Minnesota Vikings might have an opening if J.J. McCarthy can’t recover from knee surgery. But in the end, Rodgers may have no choice but to retire.
As for New York, Aaron Rodgers is just another guy who couldn’t take the Jets to the Promised Land. That tagline will be his legacy in New York.
