Doug Farrar 

Spoiler alert: the Jets’ painful Aaron Rodgers era isn’t going to get better

The four-time MVP quarterback arrived with ambitions of transforming a moribund franchise. But they’re no better off than under his shaky predecessor
  
  

Aaron Rodgers leaves the field after a dispiriting defeat to the New England Patriots.
Aaron Rodgers leaves the field after a dispiriting defeat to the New England Patriots. Illustration: Adam Glanzman/Getty Images

The Aaron Rodgers era, which never really began in New York, is officially over.

Last season after eight games, the New York Jets were 4-4 with Zach Wilson at quarterback, and a defense led by head coach Robert Saleh and defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich that at least kept the team in games, until everything fell apart during the second half, and the Jets finished 7-10.

It was automatically assumed that when Aaron Rodgers, a four-time MVP and future Hall of Famer, returned from the torn achilles that cost him all but four snaps in 2023, things would be much better.

Spoiler alert: Things are not much better. In fact, they’re worse than they were under Wilson, a quarterback who rarely looked like he belonged in the NFL. After their 25-22 Sunday loss to a New England Patriots team whose own head coach, Jerod Mayo, agreed with the idea that his team was playing “soft” after a Week 7 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Jets are 2-6, at the very bottom of the AFC East.

Whatever’s worse than the “soft” descriptor for an NFL team, and there aren’t many more grievous insults to levy, that’s where the Jets are now.

Saleh was fired after a 2-3 start, which now seems like much happier times. Ulbrich’s promotion to interim head coach has affected the defense, the team’s strength, in profoundly negative ways. And Rodgers is going to run out of people to be angry with sooner rather than later.

The fact is that Rodgers will be 41 in December, and it’s starting to show. Even his opponents feel bad for him. “Hate to see him go out that way,” said the Patriots’ Davon Godchaux after Sunday’s game. “He definitely don’t look the same. He kept moving back there – shit, I could run him down and catch him. He don’t look mobile at all.”

Godchaux, it should be noted, is no Noah Lyles. He is a 330lb defensive tackle who ran a 5.27sec 40-yard dash at the combine in 2016. He’s probably even slower now.

Then again, Rodgers completed 17 of 28 passes for 233 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 111.2 in the Patriots loss, so it wasn’t all on him. But the trade for Rodgers before the 2023 season, which was supposed to presage a Jets quarterback era that hasn’t existed since Joe Namath’s salad days in the late 1960s, has been a complete and utter wash. The last time Rodgers topped 300 passing yards in a game was in Week 13 of the 2021 season.

That’s a not-so-subtle reminder that even in his 2022 season, Rodgers was no longer the quarterback he once had been.

The Jets took a serious chance on a declining quarterback with a capricious mind who is quick to blame others for his problems, and they caved into his desperate need for organizational control, bringing in players who were his friends rather than assets and a (now former) offensive coordinator who was derided by his peers. Now, they’re paying the price with a lost season, and some serious questions to answer soon. Rodgers signed a revised three-year, $112.5m contract with the Jets in 2023 that includes $75m in guarantees. If Rodgers is on the roster in 2025, he carries a salary cap hit of $23.5m, which isn’t the worst thing in the world. But if Rodgers wants to be on the roster and the Jets disagree, the Jets would have to eat $49m in dead salary cap to absorb his absence.

“I’ve been in the darkness,” said Rodgers after the game. “You have to go in there and make peace with it.”

The Jets should listen: it looks like they’re going to be in there long after Rodgers has left the building.

MVP of the week

Jameis Winston, QB, Cleveland Browns. Let’s start with this: Winston defending Deshaun Watson as a person pretty much tells you everything you need to know about him off the field. But it’s tough to argue with the effect he had on the field after taking over from Watson. In a 29-24 win over the high-flying Ravens on Sunday, Winston completed 27 of 41 passes for 334 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 115.3. Every time Lamar Jackson and the explosive Baltimore offense put points on the board, Winston was there for yet another ridiculous throw to keep things in check. His 23-yard touchdown pass to David Njoku in the third quarter was but one example.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Winston game without a few ups and downs. On the play before his game-winning touchdown pass to Cedric Tillman, Winston threw a pass in the general direction of receiver Elijah Moore that should have been intercepted by Ravens super-safety Kyle Hamilton, which would have effectively won the game for Baltimore.

All in a day’s work for the only quarterback in pro football history to throw at least 30 touchdowns and 30 interceptions in the same season. But there’s no question that Winston gives the Browns more at quarterback than Watson ever could.

Video of the week

A rather easy decision.

Sunday’s game between the Washington Commanders and the Chicago Bears was between the first two picks in the 2024 draft – Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels. When Daniels was able to go despite the rib injury he suffered in Week 7, the hope was that the game would live up to the hype. It did.

Both players have shown a lot so far, but Daniels has been setting himself apart all season long. The Commanders, who finished their 2023 season with a 4-13 record, already have more wins than that in 2024, and their 6-2 record places them atop the NFC East. Daniels may have already wrapped up the Offensive Rookie of the Year award; at this point, it’s more about whether he should be considered a favorite for MVP. If that were to happen, Daniels would be the second rookie to grab MVP, joining Jim Brown in 1957.

As for the Bears? Next time you’re in a Hail Mary situation, guys, it may be good to have any defenders in the end zone as the ball comes in. At least we know what Bears cornerback Tyrique Stevenson was going instead:

“The game ain’t over until zeros hit the clock. Can’t take anything for granted. Notes taken, improvement will happen,” Stevenson wrote on X after the game.

Stat of the week

85 passing yards. From Week 4 through Week 7, Jared Goff performed at a level that matched some of the greatest quarterbacks in history. Goff became just the fourth quarterback in NFL annals with a passer rating of 140.0 or higher in three consecutive games (Detroit had a Week 5 bye).

So, what are we to make of Detroit’s 52-14 thrashing of the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, when Goff completed 12 of 15 passes for just 85 yards? Perhaps the Lions don’t need their quarterback to be great or prolific to succeed, which is a frightening thought for the rest of the NFL. Part of the story was that Goff didn’t throw a lot because he didn’t have to. The Lions started in Tennessee territory on five of their 13 drives.

How often has a team scored 52 points in a game when their starting quarterback has thrown for 85 or fewer yards? The answer: Never. The last time any other team came close was … the Lions on 26 September 1954. Detroit beat the Chicago Bears 48-23 despite Hall of Fame quarterback Bobby Layne completing four of 16 passes for 84 yards. Layne had a viral infection and a temperature of 102 degrees, and was replaced by Tom Dublinski in the first half.

Elsewhere around the league

-- On Sunday, the Atlanta Falcons and Tampa Bay Buccaneers played a tightly contested game for control of the NFC South that ended 31-26 in Atlanta’s favor. But is that how it should have ended?

With 7:27 left in the first half, Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins threw a pass to Kyle Pitts, who rumbled downfield for what may or may not have been a 49-yard touchdown. Just as likely, Buccaneers safety Antoine WInfield Jr punched the ball out of Pitts’s hand just before the tight end reached the end zone. If the ball didn’t break the plane of the end zone before it was out, it would have been a fumble.

The play was reviewed and upheld as a touchdown by referee Shawn Hochuli’s crew, and Mission Control in New York City. But as Fox Sports analyst and former NFL VP of Officiating Mike Pereira explained, there was no true end zone angle to study, so there was no way for a conclusive overturn to happen.

It’s shameful that a multibillion-dollar industry like the NFL doesn’t have the technology in place for instant and accurate reviews, but that’s the way the ball bounced for the Bucs.

-- Meanwhile, the Indianapolis Colts and Houston Texans battled for bragging rights in the AFC South, and it could be said that Colts head coach Shane Steichen never gave his team a fair chance in what ended with a 23-20 Texans win.

It’s understandable that Steichen chose to start Anthony Richardson after the quarterback had missed the previous two games with injury – you want to see what your first-round youngster has going for him. But when Richardson completed only two of 15 passes for 81 yards and asked for a breather in the third quarter, perhaps he should have been replaced by Joe Flacco for more than one play. It was Flacco, after all, who lit up opponents when Richardson was out.

Richardson may someday be a great quarterback, but the results from a pure passing perspective have been less than stellar for the 2023 fourth overall pick who missed all but four games in his rookie season due to injury. And Steichen should have made the change to keep his team in the game. If you’re out of hope for a crucial division win to mean anything, it’s a process. If you’re coming into such a game at 4-3, with a real chance to win with your backup quarterback – who is playing far better than your starter – it should be something else. We can wait and see if this decision hamstrings the Colts’ postseason opportunities down the road. Especially as the Texans have already swept them this season in two games with Richardson at quarterback.

-- When the Philadelphia Eagles’ offense was last really humming, it was the 2022 season, and Nick Sirianni’s team went all the way to the Super Bowl. The difference in that season, compared to every season since? Sirianni, and the aforementioned Steichen, who got his current gig on the strength of that season as the Eagles’ offensive coordinator, used quarterback Jalen Hurts’ rushing ability as the bridge between the passing game and the running game without Hurts.

It hasn’t happened a lot since that magical season, but it did in Philly’s 37-17 win over the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday. Not only did Hurts run 10 times for 37 yards and three touchdowns, but that amplified the efforts of Saquon Barkley, who gained 108 yards on 22 carries. The 2022 Eagles were able to foil defenses with 11 personnel (one tight end, one running back, three receivers), which is a lighter personnel, both in the run and pass games, because of the threat of Hurts as a runner. The Eagles rolled with mostly 11 personnel in this game to Hurts’ benefit – he also completed 16 of 20 passes for 236 yards, one touchdown, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 132.5. The Eagles have been more up-and-down this season than their 5-2 record would indicate, but the standings pass no judgment, and perhaps this is an indication that Philly is back in that schematic saddle.

 

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