Aaron Rodgers says despite Jets' disappointing season, he wants to return in 2025

Antwan Staley, New York Daily News on Nov 13, 2024

Published in Football

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NEW YORK — The 2024 season hasn’t gone how Aaron Rodgers or the Jets would have liked it.

With seven games remaining, the Jets are 3-7 and have lost six of their last seven games.

Despite that, Rodgers says he hasn’t changed his mind about playing in 2025.

“Yes, I think so,” Rodgers said on Wednesday.

Rodgers, 40, has one year left on his contract, with a salary cap of $23.5 million. After a disappointing season, would the Jets want to run it back with Rodgers?

This season has been a nightmare for Gang Green. They began the year with Super Bowl aspirations after Rodgers returned from the season-ending Achilles tear he suffered a year earlier, but that hope has not translated into victories.

Because of that, Jets owner Woody Johnson fired coach Robert Saleh and made defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich interim coach on Oct. 8 following a 2-3 start to the season. Ulbrich then demoted offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett and made passing game coordinator Todd Downing the offensive play-caller.

Gang Green even acquired Rodgers’ buddy from Green Bay, Davante Adams, in a trade with the Raiders. But the team has continued to struggle.

Since Ulbrich has taken over, the Jets have lost four of five games and are tied for last place in the AFC East. However, they are only two games out of the seventh and final wild-card spot.

“You kind of just see the moves you make and you know where we were at and you think that we’re you’re making the right things to take that next step,” Jets wide receiver Garrett Wilson said. “So we had hype here because we thought we had put in the work. We thought we had filled all our holes.

“I would say that’s more to the outside world where they let that play into it. At the end of the day, I could say what I want, but we are what we are and we are 3-7. So it doesn’t matter.

“I don’t look at this as a losing team, whatever it may be, but the reality is that’s what we put on field film.”

Rodgers certainly has played a role in the Jets’ offensive struggles. In 10 games, Rodgers has thrown for 2,258 yards, 15 touchdowns, and seven interceptions.

The Jets have also one of the worst offenses in the league, ranking 26th in yards (298.5) and points scored per game (17.7).

Out of the qualifying quarterbacks, Rodgers is 24th in total quarterback rating (52), sandwiched between ex-Jet and current Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith and Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.

Rodgers has made 33 consecutive starts without throwing for at least 300 yards, which dates back to his time in Green Bay. During the last 20 years, only ex-Jaguars quarterback David Garrard (39 from 2005-08) and former 49ers and Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith 35 from 2005-09 had more prolonged droughts, according to The Associated Press.

With the Jets likely to have a new head coach next season, they could decide to cut bait with Rodgers, but that would be expensive. If Gang Green outright releases Rodgers, they could have around $100 million in dead money on the books, according to Over the Cap. Even if Rodgers does retire, the Jets would have $49 million of dead money on the books.

The biggest problem with getting rid of Rodgers would be who the quarterback would be moving forward. If the season ended today, the Jets would pick eighth in the 2025 NFL Draft, likely putting them out of play for Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders and Miami’s Cam Ward.

Currently, the Jets have 44 players under contract and releasing Rodgers would limit the salary cap space the team would have in free agency. Not to mention, the Jets could potentially be in rebuild mode and be starting over again.

“I’m not playing as well as I would have liked to play, for sure,” Rodgers said. “The beauty in this game is it’s a team game. The frustrating part is if you’re a great competitor, you hold yourself to a standard and it’s not unrealistic and I haven’t, I haven’t reached that standard this year.”

The Jets acquired Rodgers in a trade with the Packers in April 2023. He missed all but four plays of his first season with the team after tearing his Achilles, and the team finished 7-10 and missed the playoffs for the 13th consecutive season.

Gang Green is on the verge of doing that again unless they can go on a magical run during the season’s last two months. However, Rodgers said he has had fun the previous two years despite all the adversity.

“You know, it’s been it’s been actually a really beautiful couple of years for me in in totality,” Rodgers said. “But it’s obviously been frustrating with the football part.”

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