Aaron Rodgers, Jets mark new year with same old ending
Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers (8) looks to pass against the Buffalo Bills during the first half on Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Orchard Park, N.Y. Credit: AP/Adrian Kraus
FLORHAM PARK, NJ -- Aaron Rodgers arrived here as a Caesar on a chariot, trumpets blaring and banners waving.
It was April 26, 2023, and the Jets held his introductory press conference in an auditorium filled with reporters and cameras – not to mention coaches, executives and players – all hoping to catch a glimpse of his first official moments with his new team.
For an organization that had experienced so many laughable media gatherings in the past which served more as omens than overtures, from Bill Belichick’s about-face resignation to Adam Gase’s swirly-eyed welcome, that afternoon was the pinnacle of positivity.
There was even a round of applause when owner Woody Johnson spoke.
Fast-forward to Wednesday – yes, it has been fast, although not necessarily forward – and the vibe was completely different. Instead of the air of a conqueror, he was reduced to yet another vanquished would-be Jets savior.
Standing in the middle of a locker room about to be ravaged by regime change, preparing for the final game of a miserable season, Rodgers hosted what might have been his final regular season interview session. There was no need to bring the event into a larger space like the auditorium since only three television cameras and microphones were there to record it and less than a dozen other reporters asking questions. The entire group could have fit in the back of a decent-sized van.
The coach and general manager who welcomed Rodgers and posed beside him as he held up that crisp number 8 jersey for the first time weren’t there for this occasion, not because they were busy working in the building, but because they had long ago been fired.
And the answers Rodgers provided? They were nothing like the ones 615 days earlier when he spoke of adding Super Bowl trophies, changing cultures, and wanting to stick around for years to come. These were reflective and resigned. They were delivered in hushed, somber tones. His manifesting had met its match.
New Year’s Day is supposed to usher in a fresh beginning. This one in 2025 at One Jets Drive had the pall of an ending. A disappointing, discouraging, deflating ending. No matter how much Rodgers tried to smile and spin it as a positive experience, as “the best two years of my life,” it finishes as an abject failure for all involved.
It felt like the second time this season a New York quarterback has delivered a preemptive farewell address signaling a still-pending official departure. Daniel Jones bade his goodbyes and issued his thank-yous a few days after he was benched, the day before he asked for and was granted his release from the Giants in November. Rodgers likely won’t take his leave that quickly, but his performance on Wednesday – coupled with those on the field throughout this season and his lack of them last season – told us what he did not explicitly state: His tenure here has run its course.
Garrett Wilson told Newsday he remembered the buzz he felt on that April day when Rodgers was introduced. Wilson wasn’t there in person for the event (he was away on vacation at the time) but he and the rest of his teammates were certainly monitoring the festivities.
“I was really excited to get Aaron here,” Wilson said.
On Wednesday Wilson wasn’t there for the commencement address either. He had been in the locker room but packed up his stuff and called it a day before Rodgers arrived and spoke. Soon enough both of them will be on vacation again.
But first, having won just five games with Rodgers as his starting quarterback (including the one where he played just four snaps) Wilson will be on the field Sunday for what might be Rodgers’ final game, not just as a Jet, but as an NFL player.
“It could be,” Wilson said of his 41-year-old teammate. “I’ll definitely keep that in mind while I am out there playing and make sure I am giving it my all. I’m sure if you ask him he’ll tell you it went by fast. You have to keep that in perspective.”
One of the collateral effects of Rodgers’ inability to right the Jets is the toll it has taken on younger players like Wilson. Sunday might be his last game for the Jets, too. Wilson already described last season as the worst of his life (providing a poetic polarity to Rodgers’ insistence on it being among the best two of his) and has groused about the Jets having losing in their DNA this season.
Wilson pushed back on the idea he wants out. “I see stuff on social media,” he said of speculation over his future that could include a trade demand, “but at the end of the day I haven’t said anything about it, I haven’t spoken about it.”
He didn’t directly say he wants to be back either, though.
“I’m being where my feet are at,” he said of his approach to Sunday. “Every game I go out there I feel blessed. This is what my younger self told himself he was going to be doing and I just always have to approach it like it’s my last down and my last game, approach it with that energy.”
There is sure to be a plenty of that last-game energy flowing from a lot of folks at MetLife Stadium on Sunday when the Jets face the Dolphins. From coaches as well as players.
But, perhaps most of all, from the quarterback.
It will be very different from the fevered excitement which accompanied Rodgers’ arrival just about 20 months ago. It won’t be recognizable compared to the peak of optimism as he ran through the tunnel carrying the American flag four months after that.
It will probably be a lot like Rodgers’ mood on Wednesday:
A little wistful. A little melancholy. And probably a little relieved that this chapter in everyone’s football existence is reaching its inevitable conclusion.
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.
