The Green Bay Packers haven’t thought about Aaron Rodgers for a while now, but he continues to be at the forefront of all of the narratives surrounding the Jets.
The New York Jets were supposed to be prepping for a Super Bowl run right around this time.
They were the talk of the offseason — and both local and national media — were buying in.
Aaron Rodgers was the missing piece. The Jets had one of the top defenses in the NFL, an offensive roster loaded with young talent at key skill positions and a solid coaching staff that included Rodgers’ former OC in Green Bay.
The front office even accommodated Rodgers by bringing in players he was comfortable with and lobbied for, like Allen Lazard and Randall Cobb.
The Jets signed Dalvin Cook despite having a bevy of talent in the backfield. They quite literally, were going all-in for 2023.
And then came Week 1, after all of the hype and anticipation, Met Life Stadium erupted as Aaron Rodgers led the New York Jets onto the field.
And just a few minutes later, everything changed. On his fourth snap as the Jets savior Rodgers had his third dropback and was pressured just as he was the first two. This time, Bills pass rusher Leonard Floyd got a hold of him and wrestled him down with Rodgers’ left foot catching on the turf and his Achilles tearing in the process.
The four-time Most Valuable Player initially got up to his feet and then sat back down.
Rodgers was carted to the locker room after a trip inside the blue medical tent. He was shown in a walking boot on his way to X-rays on the broadcast.
NFL Writer Takes Major Shot At Former Green Bay Packers QB
In a scathing piece published on Wednesday for The Ringer that is gaining plenty of buzz on social media, NFL writer Nora Princiotti made some bold claims aimed at Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets.
Princiotti opens her piece with a paragraph about Rodgers’ recently announcing earlier this week on the Pat McAfee show he wont recover from the Achilles injury in time to play this season.
“To be clear, nothing about this is surprising. Since it will not happen this season, Rodgers will most likely return to football activities with no restrictions at offseason practices in April, which puts him almost exactly in line with the recovery timeline the medical community he so resents considers typical for athletes returning from Achilles surgery. The update here is that the 40-year-old quarterback is not a medical marvel, and the 1 little extra percent of inspiration, it turns out, was less relevant to Rodgers’s return than the rates at which fibroblasts release collagen proteins and at which those proteins organize themselves into the tightly packed bundles that make up a strong tendon. What a shock.”
She then goes on to talk about the former Green Bay Packers’ star and how he kept changing the narrative around his injury, primarily through his appearances on the Pat McAfee Show, giving the Jets hope and optimism time and time again, before ultimately back tracking.
“The fact that this story has been covered breathlessly for months stems primarily from Rodgers’s unparalleled ability to make himself the NFL’s main character. Within days of his injury, Rodgers had made a series of bold and attention-grabbing pronouncements about his intention to return, including that it would “shock some people” and also something about the healing powers of dolphin sex noises. He has spent much of the season weaving a dramatic comeback narrative, from McAfee’s bully pulpit and other friendly confines, without ever having to back it up.”
She points to a moment after the Week 9 loss to the Chargers, where Rodgers was picked up on a hot mic telling Los Angeles safety Derwin James, “Give me a few weeks,” presumably when asked when he’d be back on the field.
“He backtracked two days later on McAfee’s show, claiming that he said so “tongue in cheek,” Princiotti said.
“It’d be nice to be able to be back in a couple weeks,” Rodgers said. “That’s probably not anywhere near a realistic timeline. It could be a few, it could be a lot. It’s more of a phrase that didn’t have a specific timetable. I said it smiling, joking.”
Princiotti continued to lay out the contradictions.
“The following week, though, he told NBC’s Melissa Stark that his goal was to return in mid-December. Days after that, he disputed that report, again on McAfee’s show, even though he was the source of it. The pattern has always been entirely transparent. Rodgers makes a big claim when he’s got the spotlight on him, like on that Sunday Night Football broadcast, then retreats or says he was just kidding when pressed on it—when he’s even pressed at all.”
Did Aaron Rodgers Ruin The 2023 New York Jets?
Green Bay Packers
Dec 3, 2023; East Rutherford, New Jersey, USA; New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers (8) watches warm ups before a game against the Atlanta Falcons at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
This all feels a bit intense and unfair, coming from an objective point of view.
Sure, from the moment the Green Bay Packers moved on from Rodgers and he joined the Jets, he’s been one of the biggest stories in the NFL.
The injury only intensified the narrative.
Most rational NFL fans viewed Rodgers’ various attempts to say he may return this season as cautious optimism, but hardly put much weight into what he was saying.
But Princiotti believes Aaron Rodgers put the spotlight on himself, promised hope for an unprecedented return — and in turn — ruined the New York Jets season.
“Some portion of maintaining a strong relationship with Rodgers seems to depend on justifying his distorted reality, and the Jets spent the past three months indulging his comeback bid at the expense of trying to salvage their season. The team anointed Rodgers its savior in the offseason and, when he went down four snaps into its first game, decided keeping him on that pedestal was more important than attempting to save itself.
This is all pretty silly, but mostly harmless. What’s not is how the Jets have treated the quarterback position since Rodgers’s injury. While they’ve been feeding the ESPN-industrial complex, they completely tanked their very real chances to be a playoff team by continuing to keep Wilson as their starting quarterback for the majority of the season.
Do not be gaslit into thinking there’s a reasonable justification for this. When Rodgers got hurt, it was widely assumed that they’d make some kind of stabilizing move at the position. Probably nothing flashy, but not nothing. The most they did was add Trevor Siemian to the practice squad.
They didn’t need great quarterback play to compete for a playoff spot, not in this murky AFC. It’s a clear testament to defensive-minded coach Robert Saleh that the team still appears to be playing hard, with a defense ranked third by DVOA and a special teams unit ranked fourth.”
Sure, hindsight is 20/20, but at the time, Wilson showed promise and he’s even flashed in a few of the games he’s started. The Flacco situation is an outlier. Teams across the league are scrambling to find a capable signal caller with starting quarterbacks injured more than any other season in recent memory (at least it feels that way).
“So they will try again next year—after an offseason in which Rodgers told McAfee he hopes to provide some input on personnel moves. If he stays healthy in his first season after his 40th birthday and gives New York average play, it should be a good team in 2024. But this didn’t have to be about next year so soon, and maybe it wouldn’t have been if the Jets hadn’t been so willing to buy what Rodgers was selling. They wanted a savior. What they got was scammed.”