The Aaron Rodgers Question

Edition #744

☀️ Good morning! ☕

When the Jets first traded for Aaron Rodgers, I had a lot of reservations. One of them was whether he’d be in it for the long-run. Well on Wednesday he confirmed that he “thinks” he wants to play in 2025 and that the Jets 3-7 start hadn’t altered his mindset "Not really, not for the negative," he said. "Not really, no.".

But do we want Aaron Rodgers to return?

The Jets are at a crossroads this season. There will be a new GM in charge, there will also likely be a new Head Coach with Jell Ulbrich going 1-4 since taking over. A new approach, a fresh voice and a start over is probably in order.

Although we all know the sway of Aaron Rodgers, who backed Jeff Ulbrich on Wednesday by stating: "I feel like he's done some really good things," Rodgers said. "I think Brick is an NFL head coach, whether it's here moving forward or down the line. I mean, he's a leader of men and I'll stand by him. I'd love to play for him until the end. So have a lot of love and respect for him."

The Jets have backed themselves into a corner with the Aaron Rodgers move, and it’s going to be interesting to see how they work themselves out of it.

The official website had a lot of interviews so quick throws today is basically quote central. All quotes have come from the official site unless stated.

🟢 Sauce Gardner was speaking about the influence of Rodgers - "We all look at him as a leader," CB Sauce Gardner said. "We know what he's about. I know how much he helped me this offseason, how much he helped the whole defense, offense, special teams. ... He's a leader and leaders find ways to bring others with him." - considering Sauce has regressed, I’m not sure how much Rodgers helped him with his actual game.

⚫ Earlier this week Sauce spent time on social media clapping back at reporters on his missed tackling, and while these are all humans and they’re more than welcome to have an opinion, it’s never a great look to argue semantics when your Championship season is sitting in burned ruins. Sauce acknowledged that "Me being a leader of the team, of the defense, I can't be on social media with my emotions, saying certain stuff, and I know better, My coaches know that I know better. My teammates know that I know better, and I just got to be better.”

🟢 There’s been a lot of talk about energy, but Sauce doesn’t believe that’s an issue. For him it comes down to execution - "People can say we need to bring the energy, we need to bring the energy," he said. "But it's like, it's not really the energy. Energy is something that you have leading up to the game. When you get in that game, it's execution. You're gonna fall back to your level of training, gonna fall back to your level of practice and the plays that you make. That's what creates energy. That's what really creates energy. So I'll be seeing certain stuff and hearing stuff, 'we got to bring the energy.' It's not about that. Ballers gonna ball. When you get on the field you're going to ball. That's what we get paid for. That's what everybody expects."

⚫ Garrett Wilson however is on course to have a career year - "He's the quarterback, man, he's the catalyst" Wilson said. "You're always looking at your quarterback to see what the plan is, how we attack these dudes. He's never been in this position before, 3-7, either. We're all figuring it out together."

🟢 Wilson is all too aware that there aren’t any second chances now. It’s very likely the Jets will be sat at home watching the playoffs this year, unless they can win all 7 games remaining on their schedule - "You can't go back," he said. "I need to find a way to play my best football over these final 7 games. That is how I am look at these last 7 at least. I got to do what they are asking of me and play as the best version of myself. And do my part in helping them win games. We have to fix what we got to fix and get better now."

⚫ How do the Jets get back on track against the Colts this weekend - "I think it's a return to fundamentals, a return to basics," Rodgers said. "It's a wakeup call for all of us. When you lose the way we've lost this year, you've kind of got to check the process. What is your process during the week? And if it's not resulting in the performance you want, then you've got to make alterations. That's how you win Monday through Saturday doing all the extra things so that when it comes to Sunday, you can play free."

🟢 The Jets have one of the least explosive offences in football right now and Rodgers believes that the line need to block better and the run-game needs to get going before downfield options open up - "If we want to take shots downfield, we've got block it up up front. We do that, we have a chance," Rodgers said. "We have to keep the quarterback clean, run the ball a little more effectively and maybe a little more, so we can get some of those action passes."

⚫ It was announced yesterday that Former Buccaneers and Raiders head coach Jon Gruden has signed a multi-year deal with Barstool Sports. Gruden’s name had started appearing in connection with the Jets job, and that terrified me. Fortunately that seems to have now been squashed with this move.

🟢 Following the injury to Harrison Butker, the Chiefs signed Jets kicker Spencer Shrader from their practice squad. Shrader hit both field goals last week against the Cardinals but for some reason the Jets only elevated him from the practice squad for the game rather than moving him to the active roster permanently. Apparently the Jets tried to convince Shrader to stay but he elected to go to Kansas City. I’m not sure that makes a ton of sense for him long-term. He’ll be replaced by Butker as soon as he’s healthy whereas if he kicked well with the Jets the rest of the way, he probably earns the full-time gig over Greg Zuerlein who has been horrible this year and landed on IR.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way.