The New York Jets' marriage with Aaron Rodgers looked great on paper. A future Hall-of-Fame quarterback joining a team stacked with talent on both sides of the ball sounds like a recipe for a deep playoff run.
The Jets, though, always find a way to mess it up. Trading for Rodgers in 2023 made sense after Zach Wilson's disastrous sophomore season. However, the organization treated him like a golden boy, hiring offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett and signing veteran wideouts Allen Lazard and Randall Cobb solely because they're his friends from his Green Bay Packers days. This was a preview of how New York's Rodgers experiment would go.
More recently, the team traded for six-time Pro Bowler Davante Adams, another old friend who's still skilled, but past his prime. This was after firing head coach Robert Saleh and demoting Hackett, moves that clubs typically make once they're out of playoff contention. The Jets, though, hoped that these moves would create a spark.
Spoiler alert: they haven't. Despite its best efforts, New York has not been able to recapture the vintage Rodgers magic. The four-time MVP completed 22-of-35 passes for just 151 yards in Sunday's 31-6 loss to the Arizona Cardinals, and Adams caught six passes for just 31 yards. Now at 3-7, the squad's dwindling playoff hopes have all but vanished.
Even more troubling than Rodgers' stat line were his postgame comments, via The Athletic's Zack Rosenblatt.
“Yeah, I don’t know,” Rodgers said when asked why the team came out flat despite a mini-bye week after beating the Houston Texans on Thursday Night Football in Week 9. “Good question. I’m not sure. I don’t have an answer for you, sorry.”
If one of the greatest players to ever lace the cleats can't explain why the Jets can't buy a two-game win streak, then it's time to blow it up.
Jets must move on from Aaron Rodgers after this season
Rodgers is having one of his worst seasons after rehabbing from tearing his Achilles in '23, which ended his campaign just four plays in. The 40-year-old's mobility, accuracy, and decision-making have all suffered. His 62.4 completion percentage would be the second-worst of his career if the season ended now, while his 2.14 touchdown-to-interception ratio (15 TDs, seven INTS) would be his worst. He's also been gun-shy at times, as he attempted just two passes over 20 yards in the air against the Cardinals, both incompletions.
It's hard to believe that Rodgers has declined this much, and that disbelief shows in the team's play, via WFAN's Boomer Esiason.
“I hate to say, it’s like Aaron Rodgers has completely sucked the air out of the building,” Esiason said on WFAN’s “Boomer & Gio.” “And I think so many guys are deferring to in their minds. In their minds, in my mind, he is a first-ballot Hall-of-Fame player, one of the great quarterbacks when he was in his prime that we have ever seen.”
It's hard to win in the NFL without the quarterback playing at a high level, even with big names like Garrett Wilson, Breece Hall, Quinnen Williams, and Sauce Gardner on the roster. Rodgers' decline, while unavoidable, is difficult to deal with emotionally for a team starved for success. Once again, it's helpless as it marches toward the darkness.
“Very few people throw the ball like him. And I used to say that Dan Marino, Joe Namath and Aaron Rodgers all threw the ball significantly different than everyone else, like we’ve never seen anything like it,” Esiason continued. “And I will go to my grave still thinking that those three players were that special when they were throwing the ball. And how they looked at throwing the ball was just so natural and amazing.”
This season doesn't erase Rodgers' greatness in Green Bay, but it does confirm that those days are behind him. An example of the Jets' vibes being detrimental is how Pittsburgh Steelers wideout Mike Williams caught a game-winning touchdown right after being traded from New York. The veteran has always been a reliable target when healthy, but he and Rodgers never got on the same page.
Regardless of whether Rodgers plays next year, New York must cut bait and commit to a full rebuild. This was supposed to be an “all-in” year, and it's resulted in another lost season. The Jets, who have the longest playoff drought in North America, will likely keep losing in the near future. However, the only way to climb out of the abyss is by changing the culture brick by brick, growing into a new era of accountability rather than excuse-making.
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