Aaron Rodgers on Jets' shake-up: 'I take that very personally'

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — The firing of Robert Saleh and demotion of offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett has been weighing heavily on Aaron Rodgers.

“I take that very personally,” Rodgers said Thursday. “That’s what I can control. I have the ball in my hands every play. Obviously, it’s been on my mind with a heavy heart for the last few days for sure.”

Rodgers has not played well the last two games. He threw three interceptions in Sunday’s loss to Minnesota. Two days later, Saleh was let go. On Thursday, interim coach Jeff Ulbrich stripped Hackett — Rodgers’ close friend — of his play-calling duties and gave them to Todd Downing.

“When you make a change on the offense it’s a mirror that’s held up for all of who played,” Rodgers said. “We all feel terrible about the opportunity that we had that we squandered that led to Robert getting fired and Hack getting demoted. If I played better, this doesn’t happen. If we play better on offense this doesn’t happen.”

Cornerback Sauce Gardner was “shocked” when he found out Saleh was dismissed. Garrett Wilson said, “It hurts.”

Gardner called Saleh a “great coach” and “a true leader” and said he changed his life. He also said it’s the players’ fault that Saleh is no longer the coach and they’re still playing for him.

“We are grown men that get paid millions of dollars,” Gardner said. “We should be able to be held accountable. We should be able to correct ourselves and the mistakes that we make.

“What we’ve been saying, ‘We’re doing it for him, still,’ ” Gardner added. “That’s just what it is. We’re still doing it for him because we know everything that he did was out of the kindness of his heart to help the team, to make the team better.”

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.