Aaron Rodgers' Jets tenure, in a word: Failure
Aaron Rodgers of the Jets reacts in the second half against the Los Angeles Rams at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, Dec. 22, 2024. Credit: Jim McIsaac
There were a lot of expensive words spent describing Aaron Rodgers’ arrival in New York, most of them bold and hopeful and flowery. The quarterback certainly earned that vocabulary and sent those of us who chronicled his first few months here digging deep into our Roget’s to keep up with the crescendo of hype that accompanied him right up to that glorious flag-waving entrance at MetLife Stadium in September 2023.
The lasers!
The fireworks!
The crowd!
What a moment that was.
Too bad it wound up being Rodgers’ greatest as a Jet.
His two-year tenure provided the bluster, optimism and, yes, even the controversy promised when such a larger-than-life star shows up at the doorstep of a lower-than-laughable franchise. There was a Playbill full of supporting castmates whose careers suddenly revolved around this star, those who gained extended life and benefits from his aura (Allen Lazard, Randall Cobb, Nathaniel Hackett) and those whose reputations and legacies were scorched by it (Joe Douglas, Robert Saleh).
But the wins?
They never came.
There were five of them with him as the starter, six if you generously count the one in which he tore an Achilles four plays in.
It’s why in the end, as the Jets officially announced on Thursday that they are going in a “different direction” at quarterback moving forward, there is one simple word that can fully encapsulate this hectic, never dull, illuminating, bungee-cording chapter in team history.
It was a failure.
Rodgers’ stint fulfilled some of the peripheral objectives of making the Jets culturally entertaining and prime-time regulars. He sold jerseys and tickets better than just about anyone before him.
Those are the parts team owner Woody Johnson undoubtedly was referencing when he wanted to “personally” thank Rodgers and said he will “forever be grateful” for the time Rodgers spent with the Jets in the statement announcing the move on Thursday.
“From day one, he embodied all that it meant to be a New York Jet, embraced our fans, and immersed himself in our city,” Johnson said. “That is what I will remember most when I look back at his time here.”
But he was all rizz, no reward. Rodgers never came close to achieving the real reason he was brought here: to win a Super Bowl. The Jets didn’t even sniff the playoffs during those two seasons.
Rodgers was supposed to save the Jets. Instead, he was a lifeboat with a hole in the hull, an oasis with a polluted pond.
Not all of it was his fault. That 2023 season will forever be one of New York sports’ great What Coulda Beens, a year that might have altered the way everyone involved is now forever perceived, had Rodgers’ Achilles withstood that first hit. It didn’t happen that way, though.
It’s bad enough that this epoch wasted all of our time on the outside. What’s worse is that it wasted some of the prime years of those on the team.
From young players such as Sauce Gardner, Garrett Wilson and Breece Hall to veterans such as C.J. Mosley, Solomon Thomas and Tyler Conklin, Rodgers represented their best chance at winning with the Jets. Now they have to wait and see if they can stick around long enough for another opportunity.
There is some good news, though.
It’s over now.
The Jets can move on, and they’ll do it under the auspices of a duo that already has made the clear-eyed decision to end the most dysfunctional relationship in franchise history.
“It was important to have this discussion now to provide clarity and enable each of us the proper time to plan for our respective futures,” new head coach Aaron Glenn and general manager Darren Mougey said in their joint statement.
It was their first big decision running the Jets. It was the right one.
Thomas Edison insisted that none of his experiments in inventing the light bulb were failures. “I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work,” he said.
If he were running the Jets, Rodgers would have been 10,001. It’s time to try 10,002.
Whoever plays quarterback for the Jets in 2025 won’t have the Hall of Fame resume Rodgers brought here, won’t have the gravitational pull that Rodgers had on everyone, and certainly won’t provide the kind of hysterics and hyperbole that Rodgers did.
There will be more 1 o’clock kickoffs, fewer debate segments on television. We may even have to go back to using regular ol’ Dollar Store diction to describe this team and this season.
That’ll be fine. In the long run, the Jets almost certainly will be better for it.
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.
