Executive VP & General Manager Candidate: Jon Robinson

Edition #764

☀️ Good morning ☕

There’s going to be a lot of talk about Aaron Rodgers and whether he returns to the Jets in 2025. The season has been a disappointment but when you look at it, the Aaron Rodgers we got in 2024 is largely the Aaron Rodgers we should have expected.

His final year in Green Bay he completed 64.6% of his passes for 3,695 yards, 26 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.

This year he’s completed 62.5% of his passes for 3,255 yards, 23 touchdowns and 8 interceptions.

Chances are we’ll see a better Aaron Rodgers in 2024 than the one that convinced us to trade for him following the 2022 season. So as a franchise we have to expect that we got what we should have expected, and if that wasn’t good enough we shouldn’t have made the trade.

As the season winds down we’ll get more clarity on the Rodgers situation. I’m still trying to work out whether having Rodgers is an advantage or a disadvantage when it comes to hiring the next GM, which is what we’re talking about today.

⚫ The Jets announced that they have completed a GM interview with former Falcons GM Thomas Dimitroff. Which is fitting because he was on my list to cover this week. Dimitroff was the GM of the Falcons between 2008-2020 and twice won NFL Executive of the Year. Under his rule the Falcons won multiple division titles, went to the playoffs regularly and got to the Super Bowl too. He drafted the likes of Matt Ryan and Julio Jones. We’ll talk more about him later this week.

🟢I touched on it yesterday but having seen the stats it’s even more impressive. The Jets offensive line allowed Rodgers on average 3.18 seconds to throw the ball, the longest he’s had this season. 3.18 seconds is a ridiculous number for the NFL.

⚫ Let’s continue with the love for the offensive line. Rodgers was pressured on 16.7% of his dropbacks, the second lowest total of the season.

🟢 That performance didn’t go unnoticed. "I want to say one more time, the offensive line had an outstanding game. I had all day to throw” said Rodgers “Big shout out to the big boys. I'm going to love them up on the bus."

⚫ Qwan’tez Stiggers made his first start in the NFL against the Jaguars, so a massive congratulations to him. He played both defense and specials, and he was fine with that "It's not hard [to balance] at all," he said. "Wherever they need me, I'm going to ball. Go out there on defense and make a tackle. If they need me to run out on special teams, I can do that. Need me to block on kickoff return? I can do that, too. Whatever they need, I'm going to be there."

🟢 Controlling the football is a big part of football games. Look at the time of possession breakdown for the Jets. In the first half they held the ball for 8:52, in the second half that almost doubled to 16:44.

⚫ When you look at the EPA Allowed/Play, the Jets defense has well and truly fallen apart. Having been consistently a top-10 unit under Saleh, they’re now ranked 23rd in the NFL on defense. They’re 15th on offence.

This is the first profile we’ll be able to produce knowing that an interview has already been set. So far we’ve looked at a number of the top candidates, but we’ve not touched on former Titans GM Jon Robinson, who will be interviewing with the Jets soon.