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After the New York Jets lost to the Seattle Seahawks last Sunday, people are pointing their fingers at star quarterback Aaron Rodgers for the disappointment of the offense's failures this season. Even with some discussion of the Jets benching Rodgers, one who complimented the 40-year-old signal-caller was former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick.
Speaking about Rodgers, Belichick was on the podcast “Let's Go,” where he told Jim Gray his thoughts on the quarterback's struggles this season and how it could be an anomaly. He said that he wouldn't be surprised if Rodgers were to “rebound” next season and have another good season added to his resume.
“[Rodgers] could easily rebound from that and be ready to play and have a good year next year,” Belichick said on the podcast. “You look at all the quarterbacks in the league that are kind of on their second teams, and they’re doing pretty well, Russell Wilson and Geno Smith and [Sam] Darnold, Baker Mayfield, you go right down the line, [Matthew] Stafford for that matter, Jared Goff. These guys that switch teams, they get in a different system, things are a little bit different for them, maybe they learn some things from whatever it was their previous experiences were. It changes. When a guy has a long career and a good career, sometimes, one season is just a bump in the road. It’s not necessarily the end of the road.”
Rodgers would not hold himself fully accountable after the loss to the Seahawks, saying he is to blame “sometimes” for the struggles since there are 11 people on offense at once for New York.
Bill Belichick speaks on possible matter involving Jets and Aaron Rodgers
Still, there has been speculation from the football world about the organization moving on from Rodgers, which was also discussed by Belichick in talking about the right time to do such a matter.
“I think that’s one of the toughest things to do as a coach in professional football, is to figure out when that right time is or isn’t,” Belichick said. “One thing you run into sometimes with players as they age in their career is the injury factor. And sometimes players can have an injury at the later point in their career and make it look like maybe it’s an age problem when actually it was an injury problem, and then once that injury clears up, then there’s a lot more good football left in that player.”
“And I think that was kind of the case with Rodney Harrison,” Belichick continued. “Rodney Harrison in San Diego was really a tough football player. He is very, very competitive. So he played through an injury, didn’t have a great year. And then when we signed him at New England he was healthy and he had multiple great years and helped us win Super Bowls.”
The Jets quarterback would even cite the wind on multiple missed throws in the loss to Seattle, where overall, he threw for 185 yards to go along with two touchdowns and one interception. Talking about the season as a whole, he's thrown for 2,627 yards, 19 touchdowns, and eight interceptions.
At any rate, New York is 3-9, which puts them third in the AFC East as they face the Miami Dolphins next Sunday.
