Aaron Rodgers deserves on-field blame for Robert Saleh's firing

Aaron Rodgers did in fact get Robert Saleh fired.

Oh, it may not have been with an ax-wielding phone call to Woody Johnson or in some sort of tirade to avenge his pal and offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett’s honor as many assumed when news broke of the change on Tuesday. It wasn’t that way at all according to Rodgers himself, who spoke on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Wednesday and tried to dispel those speculative narratives that have been percolating about discord between the two men.

Between the trip to Egypt during mandatory minicamp that became an issue and the stiff-arming of the hug attempt that we all saw during the one great height they reached together there was certainly enough smoke to suggest Rodgers might want Saleh gone. And there are dozens of other instances from the past year and a half that illustrate how much power and influence Rodgers holds in organizational decisions. The quarterback says he was not behind this particular call though, and it is something the owner said as well, so we’ll take that for what it is worth. At the very least they have their stories straight, which is not something the Jets always manage to accomplish.

But there is the other aspect of this for which Rodgers is sinfully guilty as charged and that is as the quarterback of a team that is underachieving and has struggled in two straight losses, mostly because of his play.

In the end, that is what got Saleh fired.

Rodgers even confessed to that crime on Wednesday.

“We need as players to take accountability for what has happened,” he said in this weekly ESPN appearance. “I think that’s the thing that hits you, too, in the moment, is if I had played better on Sunday this doesn’t happen. As somebody who takes a lot of pride in their performance that was the main sentiment for me [Tuesday]. Obviously my heart goes out to Robert because of how much I respect him and care about him, and then the disappointment of poor play that could have avoided a situation like we had.”

So it was Rodgers! But also Breece Hall. And Garrett Wilson. And Hackett and the offensive line. And Quinnen Williams and Sauce Gardner and even Greg Zuerlein. This wasn’t a coup by Rodgers as a vendetta. It was “Murder on the Orient Express.” Spoiler: Everyone had a hand in it.

Rodgers, though, is the one whose mere presence in the locker room and on the field was supposed to save jobs. He’s the player brought here to change perceptions. Instead he’s already cost the head coach his gig and returned the Jets to their familiar place as league punchlines.

While it is too late to save Saleh, the good news is that the remaining Jets still have time to save themselves. Obviously that begins with Rodgers playing better, but in meetings among the rest of the roster on Tuesday and in media availabilities on Wednesday many of the veteran leaders stressed a word that has been conspicuously absent for much of the past few years: Accountability.

“As a group we haven’t been producing and Coach Saleh took the fall for that,” tight end Tyler Conklin said.

Punter Thomas Morstead said the firing is a reminder that “we hold each others’ careers in our hands.”

They also said Rodgers was at the forefront of those sentiments when the players-only meeting took place on Tuesday shortly after news of this change in leadership rippled through the building.

“It’s on us right now as players to really take accountability,” Rodgers told McAfee. “The players are the ones out there playing. We need to be accountable for our performances, all of us, myself first and foremost. We’ve got to fix that part.

“Great coaches have great players,” Rodgers continued. “That’s part of it. Obviously they add their own personality to it, they add their own flair and style and leadership qualities and vision for the team, saying the right thing at the right moment, creating a player-led team that has the freedom to hold people accountable but the restrictions and boundaries to keep some of the stragglers in line. That’s an important part of it. But first and foremost at the core of every great team is accountability, so we have to be accountable to each other about our performances and be better. Always.”

If the Jets can turn this season around, the great irony will be that this lesson on accountability that Saleh never seemed able to or willing to enforce in his three-plus seasons as head coach was only learned by his sudden departure. Maybe that is his parting gift to this organization.

For that to happen, though, the Jets need to improve. Rodgers most glaringly needs to improve. He knows that. The last two games he has looked washed up, damaged more and more by every hit he takes. It is not the Rodgers we are used to seeing win four MVPs for the Packers, but at 40 years old maybe it is the Rodgers we should get more accustomed to. His time with the Jets may wind up being a coda to Willie Mays’ tenure with the Mets, a sad ending to a Hall of Fame career.

If that’s the case and this experiment that the Jets (and Saleh) concocted fails miserably, then everyone will pay the consequences. So far it’s only been Saleh who has felt the repercussions, but now everyone is on notice. Even interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich, who gets this career shot of a lifetime and must rely on what is left of Rodgers to cash in on it.

“It’s not something I worry about,” Rodgers said of the narratives that have him as Brutus to Saleh’s Caesar. “I care about teammates. I care about winning. I’m accountable to myself and my organization, my teammates.

“I gotta play better. I will.

He may have scoffed at allegations he had the power to insist Saleh be fired. But he certainly had the power as a quarterback to help Saleh stay.

He just didn’t use it.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

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.