Aaron Rodgers must go if Jets want a quality successor to Joe Douglas
Aaron Rodgers #8 of the Jets reacts during the first half against the Indianapolis Colts at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Joe Douglas made hundreds of moves, decisions, calls, signings, picks and trades during his six years with the Jets. Probably thousands when you count the ones he didn’t act on or determined not to pursue. Some were subtle, some were blockbusters. More were bad than good, which is why he’s now the former general manager as of Tuesday.
But there is one signature acquisition he made for which he’ll always be remembered, the one that will serve as his professional epitaph with this organization.
He’s the guy who brought Aaron Rodgers to the Jets.
In a career of big swings, and with a willingness to desperately aim for the fences in the more recent years of his tenure, flailing wildly at any name who had even a chance of helping the team end its (soon to be) 14-year playoff drought, it is the trade that landed the future Hall of Fame quarterback in April 2023 that stands far beyond all the others.
Had he connected on it, he’d still be serving in his former role right now. It turned out to be a whiff. The final strike. Would everything have been different had Rodgers not torn his Achilles four plays into his first game with the team? Hard to say. Probably. But he did. And neither Rodgers nor the Jets have ever truly or fully recovered from it.
Oh well. At least Douglas went down hacking.
So now it will be up to his eventual replacement to clean all of this up, plot a course forward for the organization, and answer the biggest question facing the Jets at this very moment:
What are they going to do with Rodgers?
He’s under contract for next year and if they get rid of him — or even if he retires — the Jets will be on the hook for about $50 million in dead money. If he stays, an option that becomes less appealing with each Jets loss while he’s on the field, his cap number will be almost $24 million. All of that because Douglas kicked the contract he wound up giving Rodgers when he arrived here so far down the road that some of the money he is earning is actually on their books into the 2029 season. Rodgers will turn 46 that season, by the way. He probably has a better chance of being elected President of the United States in 2028 (30-to-1 odds on one of those wacky betting websites if you are a wagering sort) than Jets quarterback by that point.
None of this would have mattered if the Rodgers trade and subsequent reworking of the deal had been successful. It would have been worth all of it. All those problems would have simply been shredded into ticker tape for the big parade. Now they’re being left on top of the otherwise empty desk in the big office in Florham Park. Well, the second-biggest office anyway.
Rodgers, of course, has always maintained a desire to stick around. As recently as last week he was still of the mindset that he’d like to play — and play for the Jets — in 2025.
The irony here is that his affinity for the team and the area represent the exact opposite issue the Jets faced the last time they brought in a mercenary quarterback with a Canton-caliber resume from Green Bay. Brett Favre couldn’t wait to get out of here and after one season with the Jets he wound up sprinting to Minnesota where he played two productive years and led one playoff run. Rodgers? He’s surrounded by friends — including his football soul mate Davante Adams whom Douglas traded for just last month — and an entire building that throws rose petals on the ground wherever he walks. He’s cozy. Why would he want to go anywhere else or do anything else?
For Woody Johnson’s decision to dismiss Douglas to work, though, the Jets basically have to start over. The entire rancid house has to be cleaned out no matter what the folks have done in the past. They’ve had an interim head coach since October. Now they have an interim general manager. They need to recognize that they have an interim quarterback, too. Everybody is an interim. Everybody except, of course, Johnson.
That’s the only way to sell this unappetizing job to the candidates who, frankly, may not exactly be lining up to take it. The next general manager has to have the power to do what needs to be done and scrub the organization of its mistakes, recent and long-term. Convincing a fan base that has waited more than a half century for a championship shot of that necessity is easy. Convincing the owner who has overseen roughly half of that stretch, who has gotten antsy waiting for another trophy, might be more difficult. That will be one of the biggest challenges facing whoever eventually gets this title. Starting from scratch is not a standard in the Johnson songbook. But it must be done, and that cannot happen as long as Rodgers has a locker in the complex.
Douglas will forever be the guy who got Rodgers. That’s his legacy.
His replacement, to be successful, will have to become known as the one who gets rid of him.
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.