Aaron Rodgers tries to help negotiate Jets-Haason Reddick mess
Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers answers questions from reporters during training camp on Tuesday in Florham Park, N.J. Credit: Noah K. Murray
As the Jets and Haason Reddick continue posturing in a contractual standoff that is now entering the fourth week of having him AWOL from training camp, there seems to be very little contemplation from either entrenched side to give the smidge of leverage that could get the edge rusher in a green and white uniform.
Reddick won’t show up without a new deal, and the Jets won’t talk about a new deal unless he shows up.
Reddick requested a trade on Monday, and general manager Joe Douglas said the Jets are not going to trade him.
Might You-Know-Who be coming to the rescue?
Again?
Yes, Aaron Rodgers seemed to be offering his services as a peace broker between the two sides on Tuesday when he spoke with reporters and strongly hinted that Reddick will soon be receiving some kind of message — A call? A text? A New Age telepathy? — from him that could bridge what seems to be a considerable lack of communication between the player and the organization.
In fact, Rodgers tried out his pitch in front of the cameras.
“I think as players we always first try to side with the player because you know what it's like to be a player,” he said. “Obviously, we'd love for him to be here but, you know, we don't judge him for trying to do what's best for him.”
Then he added:
“I think what's best for him is to be a Jet because this is going to be a fun ride.”
Not bad. Warm, understanding, optimistic, disarming. We’ll see if it works.
It’s certainly a better spiel than anyone else in the organization has been able to muster. That’s probably because getting the chance to play with Rodgers is about the only selling point the Jets have right now. This isn’t a place with a well-envisioned rosy future beyond Rodgers’ tenure, you might have noticed, and his time in New York is decidedly limited. So too, depending on how this season plays out, could be the head coach and general manager stints. Why would any player want to be stuck here sifting through the pieces of his eventual departure on the back end of a long-term deal?
This isn’t the first time Rodgers has had to come in and be the potential closer on deals that the general manager and front office are supposed to be hammering out themselves. Last year, it took a few words from Rodgers to get running back Dalvin Cook to sign as a free agent during training camp.
OK, maybe that’s a bad example of things working out for the best. Cook and Rodgers were never even on the field at the same time and after his snaps decreased to a glaring pittance the running back was released. And Rodgers’ other recruitments haven’t fared much better, from Allen Lazard and Randall Cobb to offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett. He’s still more than occasionally working on getting the Jets to trade for Davante Adams if you haven’t noticed. Rodgers doesn’t get everything Rodgers wants.
Meanwhile Douglas issued his statement on Monday saying the Jets have been “clear, direct and consistent with our position” since the trade discussions began in March; head coach Robert Saleh, the one who answers questions publicly on a daily basis, declined on Tuesday to say what that position entails; and just about everyone else in the building is humming along to the same tune of this not being a distraction and how great the defensive end depth is even without Reddick.
It all points to a topsy-turvy organization that time and again needs to have its quarterback — not its head coach or its general manager or even its owner — step in to try and clean up business messes.
Yes, this is a mess. Yes, this is a distraction. One of the Jets’ own doing, too. There is no way Douglas should have made a trade for Reddick knowing that he’d want a new contract without a concrete deal in place and pens uncapped ready to sign it. Did Reddick’s camp renege on some kind of verbal handshake agreement or recognize that the completed trade from Philadelphia to the Jets gave them newfound negotiating powers? Maybe. But that’s why contracts are signed, to avoid such spectacular blowups.
Even Rodgers seemed to appreciate the absurdity of the situation in which a player requests a trade from a team he was just traded to less than five months earlier without ever putting on the helmet of that new team.
“There's always new things in the league,” the 20-year veteran said with a wry smile.
And now that he feels he needs to inject himself into the middle of another such episode, he’s also having reinforced yet again a lesson we’ve known for some time in these parts: There’s always new things with the Jets, too.
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.