Jets show poise in response to Aaron Rodgers' noise
Jets GM Darren Mougey, left, and Aaron Rodgers.
The brief marriage between Aaron Rodgers and the Jets was, by just about any logical metric, a disaster. Or, as one of the parties involved recently described it, a “debacle.” Neither the player nor the team came close to achieving any of the goals that brought them together.
That Lombardi Trophy in the lobby which Rodgers walked past just about 24 months ago is still lonely even as this Sunday will mark the two-year anniversary of an introductory news conference that felt surreal at the time and has only become more dreamlike with time.
Just about everyone who had a hand in the process has since lost their job, team owner Woody Johnson being the obvious exception. There simply were no victors.
Yet somehow the Jets have managed to pull off a bit of a comeback recently. They’re winning the divorce. They are coming out of the breakup looking better than their estranged. And they are accomplishing it by doing something that does not come naturally to the organization:
Nothing.
In the opposite of the “All Gas, No Brakes” philosophy that long echoed through the hallways of the facility, gracing T-shirts and banners and digital displays, these new Jets believe that not every jab requires a retaliation, not every argument needs a clapback, and not every statement has to be delivered in all caps with exclamation points.
Head coach Aaron Glenn and general manager Darren Mougey have gone from “AGNB” to “BBD” — Boring By Design — and so far it’s working. The new acronym probably won’t appear on any new sportwear, but if it does, it will undoubtedly be in very tiny letters.
In his return to “The Pat McAfee Show” late last week, Rodgers publicly ranted about how insulted he was by the brevity of the meeting he had with the team when he was told of his imminent release over the winter, insinuated that Glenn had gone “rogue” in telling him the relationship was over, and wondered aloud why the team would not want to pick his world-class brain for ideas on how the entire organization can improve.
“There are a lot of great dudes there,” Rodgers said. “But there are obviously things that need to get fixed over there.”
The Jets? They didn’t refute any of it. Didn’t respond with a statement. Acted as if they barely noticed it. Shrug.
Then on Monday when the topic of Rodgers’ rantings came up during Mougey’s predraft news conference, he didn’t engage at all.
“I understand the question, but I’m just going to talk about the team, the draft, and the Jets players,” he said.
Such whining used to reflect poorly on both Rodgers and the Jets. Now it only sticks to one of them.
For all we know, Mougey is doing touchdown dances behind closed doors and Glenn is tossing darts at photos of Rodgers. Publicly, though, they are refusing to let even a little bit of this messy situation appear to get to them. That’s been their strategy since they took over. Glenn was fed up with questions about Rodgers before he was even asked one and Mougey just pleasantly deflects.
It’s as if the last two years — and all that was said and done during that time — never even happened. In a way it didn’t. At least not for Glenn and Mougey. So why would they want to muddy themselves in the muck that resulted in the vacancies they filled?
Finally, the Jets are being run by grown-ups. Sane, sensible adults.
It’s a conscious change. Mougey even chuckled about it during his conference in a throwaway line that few may have noticed. When discussing whether he would be open to moving up or back in this week’s draft, he said: “Everyone says the same thing. A lot of nothing. Like you’ll hear today.”
We did. It was deafening.
Now, this “strong, silent type” act only works when both personality traits are firing in conjunction. Having no comment is one thing, having no competence is another. Mougey and Glenn have the benefit of being undefeated as of this moment, so they get a pass. It’s a temporary one, though.
At some point, they need to explain to us — reporters, fans, everyone who has any level of interest in the team or the sport — the thinking behind the decisions they are making. They can’t just keep swatting the inquiries away like annoying gnats.
They’ve gone and named Justin Fields their starting quarterback. Why? What do they see in a player who has a 14-30 record in the NFL to make them think he can do better here? Later this week, they’ll make their first draft picks together. There are going to be some difficult decisions looming with other very popular players, too, including Sauce Gardner, Garrett Wilson and Breece Hall.
Shrugging those off as simply doing “what is best for the team” isn’t going to cut it, especially if the team is not doing the best it can for us.
For now, though, staying mum is a refreshing play. It won’t get them starring roles on “Hard Knocks” or generate passion on the morning sports debate shows, but the Jets have had enough of that excitement over the past two years to last another two decades. Maybe being below the radar can help them get above .500.
As for Rodgers, that chapter in Jets history is now not only officially over but eulogized (briefly) and buried.
The team’s go-to line regarding the end of the era is they decided to head “in a different direction.”
You can say that again.
Or, better yet in this case, be like these new Jets and just say nothing at all.
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.
