Aaron Rodgers era turned out to be another lost cause for Jets

Aaron Rodgers, speaking in the Jets’ locker room in late September, said one of the team’s biggest challenges would be how it handled success. The Jets were 2-1 at the time.

Rodgers has described what’s happened since then as “very stunning.”

Interim coach Jeff Ulbrich had only one title then, defensive coordinator. He remembers driving home after the Jets dominated New England, 24-3, in their Thursday night home opener to get to 2-1 and thinking the team was “about to start rolling.”

But the Jets didn’t go on a roll. Instead, they plummeted. It was stunning how fast the bottom dropped out from underneath them.

The Jets went from 2-1 with Super Bowl dreams to 4-12 with no playoff games for the 14th consecutive season and a massive overhaul set to begin.

The most disappointing Jets season in recent memory — if not franchise history — will end Sunday at MetLife Stadium against the Dolphins. It also could be Rodgers’ final game as a Jet, if not his NFL career.

The anatomy of the Jets’ collapse is one for the ages.

Robert Saleh was fired. Nathaniel Hackett was demoted. Davante Adams was acquired. Haason Reddick’s holdout ended. Mike Williams was traded. C.J. Mosley suffered a season-ending and career-threatening neck injury. General manager Joe Douglas was dismissed.

Oh, and the Jets will be using their fifth kicker in the finale.

“We have gone through a lot this year,” Rodgers said. “We have gone through coaching changes and operational changes and schedule changes and players in and out. It has been a trying time. I think we have dealt with a lot of adversity.”

They have lost seven games by six or fewer points. The defense plummeted, too. The Jets lost a franchise-record six games when leading in the fourth quarter.

Their biggest challenge turned out to be how they handled adversity. Not well, to say the least.

“The fact that we are where we’re at is pretty damn disappointing for everybody,” tight end Tyler Conklin said.

Ulbrich believed this would be a special team. That was a popular feeling shared throughout the locker room.

On the flight home after the Jets’ Week 1 loss in San Francisco, Ulbrich recalled someone saying “over and over again that when we get to 2-1, watch out.”

The Jets have gone 2-11 since then, including 2-9 since Ulbrich replaced Saleh.

“It didn’t work out the way that we envisioned, anticipated,” Ulbrich said. “When you don’t meet the expectations, especially when you have a roster like we did and the talent that we had acquired here, it’s hard, it’s really hard.”

Now uncertainty and change reign for the Jets. They will have a new GM, a new coach and, in all likelihood, a new quarterback.

Rodgers, Adams, Reddick, Mosley, Conklin, D.J. Reed, Tyron Smith and Allen Lazard are some of the players who likely won’t be back next season. There are questions about whether Garrett Wilson (especially) and Breece Hall want to sign their second contracts with the Jets. The constant losing and how this season has gone in particular has taken its toll on Wilson.

Rodgers acknowledged that this could be the last game in his 20-year Hall of Fame career. Even if he decides to keep playing, the Jets might not want him back.

Rodgers, who needs one touchdown pass to become the fifth NFL quarterback with at least 500, seemed as if he was saying farewell to the Jets this past week. He expressed “gratitude” and called his time as a Jet “the best two years of my life.”

They certainly weren’t his best two years of football.

When Rodgers was acquired in 2023, he talked about the Jets’ trophy case “looking a little lonely.” He wanted to add to their one Super Bowl trophy. Those dreams were shattered in Week 1 when he tore his Achilles tendon.

Excitement built for his return this season. It’s been a colossal letdown.

Rodgers won at least 12 games five times with Green Bay. This is the first time he has lost at least 12 in a season. He played the “what-if?” game with some of the Jets’ narrow defeats and said things might be different if they had pulled a few of them out.

“There’s a lot of opportunities for us to kind of at least steer this thing in the right direction — whether or not we turned it all the way — but we didn’t make the most of it,” he said. “That’s why we’re here talking about this and are cleaning our stuff out of here pretty soon.”

Notes & quotes: The Jets placed Sauce Gardner (hamstring) on injured reserve. They signed defensive lineman Bruce Hector to the active roster and elevated cornerback Tre Swilling and offensive lineman Zack Bailey from the practice team for the final game . . . The NFL fined Rodgers $11,255 for unnecessary roughness for a late hit out of bounds after throwing an INT at Buffalo.

By Al Iannazzone

al.iannazzone@newsday.comAl_Iannazzone

Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.