Aaron Rodgers aims to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
That’s true even if the New York Jets can’t find a way out of an early-season spiral that saw them drop to 2-3 and fire head coach Robert Saleh on Tuesday. Hey, that’s true even if he didn’t complete his next pass to the New York Jets, or even if he never became one in the first place.
His 18 seasons in Green Bay, marked by four MVP trophies, a Super Bowl championship and 475 regular-season touchdowns, have long convinced him of that. he’s a legend.
Nevertheless, the legend is compared to the legend. Levels of greatness matter, especially when compared to Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, and Rodgers’ decision to leave the franchise late in his career is also moot.
In 2023, the 39-year-old Rodgers left Green Bay for New York in pursuit of the Super Bowl. He followed in the footsteps of Manning, who moved from Indianapolis to Denver in 2012 before turning 36, and Brady, who moved from New England to Tampa Bay in 2020 at age 42.
Manning and Brady both won a Super Bowl, made the playoffs in other seasons, and largely changed the direction of their new franchise, if not its hard-to-define “culture.”
They finished strong. They proved to be more than just an original franchise.
Rogers, well, the jury is still out.
Opening night and last year’s season-ending injury delayed the schedule. Five weeks into the season, the Jets look like the Jets of old. Their two wins have come against inferior New England and Tennessee teams. They looked lethargic when they lost to Minnesota and aging QB Sun Darnold in London.
As a result, Saleh lost his job.
“This is one of the most talented teams the New York Jets have ever assembled,” team owner Woody Johnson said. “I wanted to give my team the best opportunity to win this season.”
How much is this at Rogers? How much is it? How much can we reasonably expect him to change? They are the Jets, after all. Dysfunction was particularly common during the Johnson administration.
Well, the offense was bad – only two touchdowns against four turnovers over the past two weeks. The offensive line had trouble dealing with the hard counts that Rodgers is known for and was too prone to false starts. And Rodgers…was totally fine by his standards. His success rate (61.0 percent) and interception rate (2.2 percent) this season are near career worsts.
Rodgers made headlines when he skipped the mandatory mini-camp in June, citing a trip to Egypt as a “bucket list”. The Jets fined him $50,000, which Rodgers ignored. Some of the criticism leveled at Rodgers may have been unfair. How important is it really?
Well, Manning and Brady wouldn’t have done that. When Manning arrived in Denver in his first season, the NFL was locking out workers. He rented the Colorado Rockies’ facility to train and then organized practice sessions for the players himself. Brady, on the other hand, came to Tampa in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. He gathered players at local high school fields to get reps.
That’s not the only way to make your mark on your new team, but none of the systems Rodgers employs have yet paid off. He defended himself on the Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday, declaring he had nothing to do with Saleh’s firing.
“I am outraged because those accusations are clearly false,” Rogers said. “It’s interesting how much power people think I have.”
Rogers’ words here are worth taking seriously. There is no indication he caused the firing of the head coach. But the Jets brought him in because of his power. It wasn’t just throwing passes and running the offense. It was about leading a young team and teaching an organization that wasn’t winning how to do it.
Much of the story about Rodgers’ later years in Green Bay is that the organization let him down by not providing him with the final pieces needed to win the next Super Bowl. That may be true. But here we are in New York. The green of the grass may be a different color, but it is certainly not greener.
New York is headed for a reboot. new coach. A new approach.
There’s still a lot of season left, but Aaron Rodgers is still Aaron Rodgers, a supremely talented player and a proven champion.
But if he wants to prove his second act is in the same class as Manning and Brady, now is the time to start delivering.
Not all of his legacy is at stake here, but some of it certainly is.
