Jets still living in Aaron Rodgers' past instead of his present
Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers leaves the field after a loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday. Credit: Lee S. Weissman
The Jets aren’t starting a quarterback anymore. They’re starting a resume.
That’s what interim coach Jeff Ulbrich essentially admitted on Monday when he said the Jets would be sticking with Aaron Rodgers despite the mounting visual and statistical evidence that the now 41-year-old player is slipping down the steep back side of his once remarkable career.
“That’s obviously part of every conversation regarding Aaron,” Ulbrich said when asked how much Rodgers’ pedigree played into this decision versus his most recent performances. “He’s done amazing things. He’s done legendary things. Hall of Fame things in this league. That is always a part of the conversation. Always.”
No one can deny that. Throughout his career he’s been one of the best passers to ever play the game, a savant when it comes to analyzing schemes and reading defenses, and a gritty, tough, athletic football warrior who has gutted through many hits and harms. And one day after he decides to retire all of that will be honored with a bust in Canton, a street named after him in Green Bay and his No. 12 retired by the Packers.
But those attributes are past tense.
The Jets should be living in the present and, in some ways, the future. Hoping that Rodgers can muster enough of his former greatness at timely moments to somehow give this team “the best chance to win,” as Ulbrich said, is, at this point, more of an homage than a game plan.
“We have great belief in Aaron, we really do,” Ulbrich said the day after he wavered just a flinch in that steadfastness and admitted he might consider a change at the position. “After assessing [Sunday’s] game I thought there were moments in the first half where you saw Aaron Rodgers. I thought there were moments even in the second half where you saw Aaron Rodgers.”
The Jets need more than moments, though. They need consistency. At this point, Rodgers can’t deliver that.
“I’ve seen enough evidence on tape of him still being capable of playing high-level football for us,” Ulbrich added in his defense of the decision.
We all have. About two decades’ worth of them. But when the Jets have needed it the most, when the team has had the ball in the hands of the offense late with a chance to score to either tie or take the lead in a game this season, Rodgers and his highlight reels are 0-for-5. Sunday was the latest of those incidents.
Rodgers is no longer prolific. He had 77 career games with 300 or more passing yards when he joined the Jets. He still does.
He has thrown three touchdown passes in a game 83 times, but just once for the Jets.
He has thrown for under 200 yards in a game five times this season and in each of the last three games. It’s the first such three-game streak in his career as a starter.
“It’s disappointing,” Rodgers said of Sunday’s loss. “I mean, what else can you say? We’ve had a lot of chances in these situations, a lot of these games come down to one play and whether you make it or miss it.”
Not a lot of makes lately.
There is a certain level of Jets-iness to the fact that the team desperately needed a competent backup last season and didn’t have one, so they spent $12 million in the offseason to add one on a two-year deal and now aren’t using him.
Then again, there isn’t much of an advantage in turning the show over to Tyrod Taylor now. He’d probably be a little more elusive than Rodgers (although the old guy flashed his footwork a few times on Sunday) and likely would be more aggressive taking the downfield chances that the risk-averse Rodgers normally eschews. It would be change for the sake of change, not toward developing a player or improving next year’s team.
The Jets always could do what the Giants did and have their third-string quarterback leapfrog everyone. But there is no indication practice-squadder Adrian Martinez is ready for that kind of responsibility.
When he was asked whether he intends to stick with Rodgers as the starter this week, before he gave his reasons for it, Ulbrich first gave a simple two-word answer Monday: “I do.”
It sounded more like a wedding vow than a coaching decision. Maybe it was. For richer or poorer in the standings, in sickness and health on the injury report. Let no man put Rodgers and the Jets asunder.
So it’s Rodgers to the end. An end that feels closer with each passing week.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.