The Jets apparently don’t want Aaron Rodgers next year, and Rodgers reportedly doesn’t want the Jets. So who will want Rodgers?
The people have spoken. And the answer is no one.
Of more than 18,000 who responded, only 6.6 percent would want Rodgers on their favorite team next year, if their favorite team was looking for a starter in 2025.
That means 93.6 would not.
While fan opinion isn’t directly relevant to football decisions, football decisions at times are motivated by anticipated fan reaction. Will the fans get excited enough to renew season tickets, buy jerseys, and otherwise open their hearts and wallets in response?
For now, it’s going to be a hard sell. Even with the emerging excuse that Rodgers is more banged up than anyone realizes, he’ll be 41 soon. His best days are behind him, and most fans are ready to put him in the rearview mirror.
Tuesday can’t get here soon enough.
That’s when Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers will speak to Pat McAfee and A.J. Hawk, barring a change in Rodgers’s regular schedule. With no Rodgers appearance on the bye-week Tuesday, when the Jets fired G.M. Joe Douglas, there will be much to discuss when Rodgers next discusses all things Jets.
Until then, the pot will be stirred by unnamed sources. And with Jets sources leaking nuggets like owner Woody Johnson suggested benching Rodgers and a growing sense that the Jets don’t and won’t want Rodgers back next year, Rodgers (or someone close to him) is pushing back. On Saturday, a report emerged that, while Rodgers wants to play in 2025, he doesn’t want to play for the Jets.
At the bottom of an article from Ian Rapoport of NFL Media resides another piece of news aimed at boosting the perception of Rodgers’s remaining abilities.
The suggested narrative is that he’s not struggling because he’s lost his high-end skills. He’s struggling because he’s more injured than anyone realizes.
“As for Rodgers, he’s been banged up this season, fighting hamstring, knee and ankle injuries while being off and on the injury report,” Rapoport writes. “How injured is he? It’s unclear. . . . One source explained that Rodgers has resisted getting scans done, not wanting to reveal the severity of his injuries out of fear of having to come off the field. He has insisted that he keep playing.”
Rapoport notes that Rodgers suffered a hamstring injury in Week 4 against the Broncos. (Coincidentally or not, that’s the game that sparked the meeting at which Johnson suggested sending Rodgers’s hamstring — and the rest of him — to the sideline.) The current narrative is that he hamstring injury “was believed to be a particularly significant one"; however, Rodgers did not appear on the Week 5 report with a hamstring problem. (The hamstring eventually was disclosed prior to Week 8.)
This leak seems to be aimed at creating the impression that Rodgers still has it, despite all indications to the contrary. Also, the report could be laying the foundation for Rodgers to tap out at some point between now and Week 18, citing his cocktail of chronic injuries.
And now we play the waiting game until Tuesday with McAfee and Hawk and Wednesday with the New York media. Will Rodgers downplay the situation? Or will he unload the way he did in July 2021 with the Packers?
Our guess is the former. Rodgers needs to attract a new team next year. Taking a public dump on his current employer could make prospective employers shy away from eventually being the target of his ire.
It could be the next shot in the cold war turned hot between the Jets and quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
Days after reports emerged that Jets owner Woody Johnson suggested benching Rodgers after a Week 4 loss to the Broncos, Dianna Russini of TheAthletic.com reports that Rodgers, who said 10 days ago that he wants to play in 2025, does not want to play for the Jets in 2025.
And so the foundation is fully in place for Rodgers’s two-pronged, post-bye media blitz. Pat McAfee and A.J. Hawk will ask Rodgers about it on Tuesday. Rodgers will grumble and mumble about media leaks before possibly saying something substantive on the question of whether he wants to keep playing for the Jets, in the future or now. Then, on Wednesday, he’ll have his usual press conference, where he might (or might not) be asked pointed and repeated questions about recent developments and reports.
Regardless, it’s becoming more and more clear that it’s over for the Jets and Rodgers. The only remaining question is whether he’ll be placed on injured reserve, whether he’ll be benched, whether he’ll play out the string, and whether he’ll be cut.
With the Giants releasing Daniel Jones, Rodgers might want the same thing — if they’re thinking about benching him. Maybe, in what would be his final act as de facto G.M., Rodgers can get receiver Davante Adams released too.
Earlier this week, we posed the question of whether Jets owner Woody Johnson would bring back Rex Ryan to coach the team. While whether Woody would do it isn’t known, the other half of the equation is.
Rex would come back in a heartbeat.
During his weekly appearance on ESPN New York’s Bart & Hahn, Ryan brought up his desire to coach the team again without a question on the topic. Instead, Ryan was talking about Dan Campbell’s impact on the Lions as the face of the franchise, in cooperation with the rest of the front office, when he pivoted to his not-so-secret ambitions.
“I had a vision for the team and we weren’t gonna take any shit,” Ryan said. “And that’s exactly how Dan Campbell is. And that’s what I think, the other thing is, too, get a guy that connects with the fan base and all that. That’s why I want to be the next coach of the Jets.”
Ryan added that he hasn’t spoken to Johnson about the returning, that Johnson won’t commence the search until after the season ends.
Eventually, the discussion turned to the balance between keeping the nucleus of the current roster in place versus “blowing this whole thing up.”
“I look at it this way,” Ryan said. “Blow it up? We’re gonna blow the opponents up. There’s way too much talent on this team to play the way we’ve been playing. Period. Period. And how hard can you get a guy to play? . . . . That’s the thing. Like, nobody’s seen a team gonna play the way — as hard as this team’s going to play in the future, trust me. If I’m the guy. Trust me.
“And that’s gonna be it. That’s what gonna separate me from all these other guys you’re gonna bring in. Your [Jon] Grudens, your whoever, whatever. Give me a break. They ain’t fu — they ain’t New York Jets. I’m all about the Jets. . . . .And the great thing is — here’s the great thing. Yeah, you get a second chance at it and that doesn’t happen very often. Well, when it does it’s usually special. And so we’ll find out if I get that chance or not. If not, I hope they have one hell of a guy in place ‘cause I still wanna be a fan of the Jets. I still wanna be, but you know when I look around I know nobody’s better than me. So we’ll see. We’ll see what happens.”
Before making his fairly subtle and nuanced pitch to return, Ryan provided a full-throated defense of Johnson, explaining that he gives the front office and coaching staff whatever they want in order to win and that his involvement in football decisions is no different than the involvement by other owners with other teams.
“Woody Johnson was awesome,” Ryan said. “I can just tell you firsthand from my perspective, he was fantastic. You know what he’s guilty of? He’s guilty of giving you what you want. And that’s exactly what happened with this group. He gave them exactly what they wanted. You’re convincing him that all you need is a quarterback? Well, he gave you a quarterback. The one that you picked. He gave you everything that you asked for.
“This man wants to win in the worst way. That’s what I can tell you about Woody. . . . From my perspective, he was fantastic. Fantastic. . . . He wasn’t the one [who] told you to go get Aaron Rodgers. You told him to go get Aaron Rodgers. And so that’s what he did. And it never worked out. But at least he fired his gun. Why? Because he wants a championship.”
Rex also made a strong case for interim G.M. Phil Savage to be the General Manager going forward.
Ryan coached the Jets for six years, leading them to their most recent playoff appearances, in 2009 and 2010. They went to back-to-back AFC Championship games, and they haven’t been back to the playoffs since then.
Could they do better that Rex? Given the current state of the team and Johnson’s reputation as an owner who is influenced more by outside voices than sound football principles, maybe not. Could they do worse? They pretty much have in the decade since Rex was fired.
Again, it all might trace to Johnson. It could be that Rex was able to manage Johnson better than other coaches have managed him.
Whatever the reason(s) for the team’s struggles since Rex left, the reality is that Rex wants to come back. Will Woody welcome him?
What did Woody want?
That’s becoming the de facto narrative from some of the reports that have surfaced in the aftermath of the news that Jets owner Woody Johnson suggested the benching of quarterback Aaron Rodgers after a Week 4 loss to the Broncos.
Rich Cimini of ESPN.com has an item that confirms the basic news, but that couches it as something that had different interpretations based on the different perspectives of the people who heard Woody’s words.
One source who attended the meeting said, per Cimini, that that remark was “said in jest in a provocative nature.” Another source said Woody wasn’t joking. Another source made this point: “If Woody really wanted Rodgers benched, he would’ve been benched.”
I disagree. Woody would have wanted the benching to happen in a way that would allow him to hide behind the football people who made the decision. It’s one thing for Woody to make the sole decision to fire the coach (especially when people were prone to think Rodgers wanted it). Woody would not have wanted his fingerprints on the move to bench Rodgers.
(Also, while it might be good in the short term for the Jets to push the idea that, if Woody wanted Rodgers to be benched, he’d be benched, that confirms plenty about the extent to which owners who pretend not to stir the pot have a giant ladle at the bottom of the stew.)
Through it all, the Jets haven’t issued a statement denying the reporting. And Johnson has said nothing himself.
The one to watch is Rodgers. The Jets are off this week. He’ll next be talking on Tuesday to Pat McAfee and Wednesday at his press conference. Whatever he says — and does — about this will be very significant.
Much of that will hinge on what he believes. And it could be that those who have mobilized to push the “Woody was joking” message are playing to an audience of one. The one who wears No. 8.
Jets owner Woody Johnson suggested the benching of quarterback Aaron Rodgers after a Week 4 loss to the Broncos. What will Rodgers do about it?
He presumably could do nothing. Take it. Dismiss the story as fake (it’s not). Accept Johnson’s likely position that it was a joke (if it was, it wasn’t funny).
Or he could put Johnson on the proverbial island, with others who have dared to say or do things Rodgers didn’t like. Friends, family, former employers. Now, his current employer.
Beyond that, Rodgers could decide that his cocktail of chronic injuries will keep him from playing after the bye week. The deeper message to Woody would be, “Go ahead. Play Tyrod Taylor.”
There’s also a chance Rodgers will decide he wants out. To be released. To leave the team, and perhaps to land with a contender that needs a quarterback. (Whether any contender would want him is a different issue.)
It’s hard to imagine Rodgers doing nothing. Remember, Rodgers gave up $35 million in compensation when he joined the Jets in 2023. On the surface, no strings attached. But, c’mon, Rodgers knew that would get him a seat at the table for big moves. He also surely expected it would insulate him against Johnson suggesting, seriously or in jest, that the delicate genius should be given a hard shove to the sideline.
Stay tuned. At some point, Rodgers will make a move. Surely, Rodgers won’t let Woody get away with that. If Rodgers does, what’s the world coming to?
The New York Jets are, have been, and likely will continue to be a dysfunctional mess. With the dysfunction beginning at and emanating from the top of the organization.
The trickle-down has plenty of employees leaking out all sorts of information. It’s been a constant problem, predating Aaron Rodgers’s December 2023 rant regarding the “chickenshit” nature of Jets personnel serving as unnamed sources.
It’s human nature to be tempted to share secrets. For employees in a properly functioning organization, the circumstances override human nature. For those who are stuck in a hot mess, the only way to push back is to speak out.
On Tuesday, a bombshell leak emerged on the same day G.M. Joe Douglas was fired. The obvious dot-connecting is that Douglas personally provided the information as retaliation for his firing. However, that development also provides perfect cover for someone else to green light the gangrenous notion that owner Woody Johnson suggested benching Rodgers.
Look for more and more leaks to emanate from the Jets. The combination of motivated current and former employees and local and media constantly looking for more, more, and more will lead to more and more leaks. More and more unfortunate stories. More and more embarrassment. More and more problems.
And, for our purposes, more and more intrigue.
George Steinbrenner rehired Billy Martin. More than once. So why can’t Woody Johnson bring back Rex Ryan?
This isn’t a report that the Jets owner will hire the former Jets coach. No one at this point knows how Woody will go about rebooting his failed football operations. But there’s a belief among some who know how Woody operates that, given the current state of the team, he might decide to try to recapture a little of the (almost) glory days, when Rex got the Jets within sniffing distance of a Super Bowl.
It’s not just crazy spitballing. First, who else would take the job? No one with options will opt to work for Woody. For Rex, who has been there and done that and might want to go there and do that again, there’s no one else clamoring to hire him to be a head coach. It’s a perfect fit.
Second, Rex did well with the Jets. Far better than his successors. None of the coaches hired since Rex was fired have even made it to the playoffs.
Let’s see how it plays out. But there’s one way for it to play out that has Rex resurrecting his coaching career by returning to New York and taking the reins of the Jets, all over again.
It might not be successful, but it would definitely be interesting.
It looks like Sean Payton got the last laugh.
More than a year after Payton criticized the hype surrounding the Jets and body-slammed offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett in comments to Jarrett Bell of USA Today, a loss by the Jets to Payton’s Broncos sparked a report, emerging on the same day G.M. Joe Douglas was fired, that Johnson was ready to pull the plug on the Aaron Rodgers experiment.
As first reported by TheAthletic.com and confirmed by PFT, Johnson suggested benching Rodgers after the Week 4 loss to Denver.
Although Johnson was talked out of it, the disclosure becomes the first shot in the previously cold war regarding Rodgers’s future with the team. Recently, we’ve surmised that, even though Rodgers has said he wants to play next year, there’s no guarantee the Jets will want him back. It seemed that, even before this development, they wouldn’t.
It’s now fair to ask, based on how he responds to the leak regarding Johnson’s idea to bench him, whether Rodgers will want to keep playing for the team at all in 2024.
Last year, Rodgers railed about the leaks in the Jets organization, after reports emerged that quarterback Zach Wilson was reluctant to play after he’d been benched and the team wanted to un-bench him.
“I think it’s chickenshit at its core, and I think it has no place in a winning organization,” Rodgers said of the leaks.
That’s what he said about a leak that wasn’t about him. What will he say about a leak that puts Rodgers in the crosshairs?
He won’t have a press conference this week, because the Jets are on a bye. He has an instantly-available platform with Pat McAfee, and the next question becomes whether Rodgers will dial in tomorrow and address both the firing of Douglas and the news that Johnson wanted to bench him.
Even though Rodgers has struggled, it’s a silly idea. In a Week 3 win over the Patriots, Rodgers was starting to look like his old self, after many months of barely playing. To think Johnson was ready to make such a stunning move after the very next game highlights how impulsive and short-sighted he can be.
This time, Johnson messed with the wrong Marine. Rodgers won’t take it. What will Johnson do when Rodgers fires back? Demand that he return the jar of honey from the queen’s garden? Cut him?
Rodgers would surely welcome that, now that he knows the boss wanted to put his butt on the bench.
So, basically, get your popcorn ready. For as bad as the Jets’ season has been, things could soon be getting good.
That said, don’t be surprised if the Jets try to muster a cleanup on aisle 8 by suggesting that Johnson was joking. And, like the supposed joke Dolphins owner Stephen Ross once told coach Brian Flores about paying him $100,000 for each game he lost, we’ll have a very hard time finding the punchline.
Six weeks to the day after the Jets fired coach Robert Saleh, owner Woody Johnson fired G.M. Joe Douglas.
Why now?
It seems to be, on the surface, a do-something/do-anything move by Johnson. A wild swing at a piñata that might or might not even be hanging nearby. A pound of flesh for a frustrated fanbase. A gesture from a frustrated billionaire who has become one of the worst owners in professional sports.
Really, what will an interim G.M. do at this point? What can an interim G.M. do?
Whatever Phil Savage does, the guy who was just fired set a high bar. As Rich Cimini of ESPN.com noted today, Johnson said upon firing Saleh that the 2024 Jets have probably the best roster in his 25 years as owner.
The only benefit comes from having no pretenses or pretexts when scoping out potential replacements. Instead of sneaking around behind Douglas’s back while he still has the job, the fact that the Jets are looking for a new G.M. will be out in the open. The search can begin in earnest, now.
And so it is. The Jets are looking for a new G.M.
Who will they want? The better question might be who will want them?
Sure, there are only 32 of those jobs. But anyone with options will opt for another team. A better team. A less dysfunctional mess.
And that’s the way it will be until the one person in the organization who can’t be fired is no longer the person making the big decisions.
Jets fans won’t like to hear that. Oh well. Every fanbase has something that they know in their hearts is a problem, and that they can’t do anything about it.
So they just get mad when someone else says it out loud.
