The Jets will move on from quarterback Aaron Rodgers. But Rodgers reportedly didn’t want to move out.
Steve Helling and Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post report that Rodgers “pleaded” with the Jets to keep him, and that in the final conversations with the team’s new regime “aggressively urged” the franchise to give him another year, or even two.
In the end he reportedly accepted the decision “like a man going to the gallows.”
We’ve got no reason to dispute the accuracy of the report. But it sounds out of character for the coolly detached Rodgers to pivot to desperation. He just doesn’t seem like the type to ever plead or urge or walk away with his tail tucked between his legs.
Implicit in the report is that Rodgers had decided to play in 2025, at least for the Jets. The question now becomes whether he finds a match with another team that might be interested.
In the end, that’s the question. Will someone else want him? And will he want the team that wants him?
With two bad seasons tacked onto a stellar career in Green Bay, Rodgers might not want to play for the sake of playing. He might want to ensure that 2025 will be better than 2023 and 2024.
The Steelers continue to make the most sense for Rodgers. First, the Steelers have to decide that Rodgers makes sense for them. If they don’t, will he choose to play for a team with a tougher path to contention? Or will he wait for a quarterback on a high-end Super Bowl contender to suffer a season-ending injury? (Even then, said contender might not call.)
In the end, his NFL playing career might conclude the same way Bill Belichick’s NFL coaching career did. With a whimper fueled by a lack of interest that the man at the center of the discussion will find confounding, but that everyone on the outside will understand.
It’s well documented that the Aaron Rodgers experience can be exhausting. Do his skills justify the distractions? While he can still play, it’s possible that the cons now outweigh any lingering pros.
In a last-ditch effort to parlay the Aaron Rodgers trade into a playoff berth, the Jets sent a third-round pick to the Raiders for receiver Davante Adams.
And with the Jets announcing that Rodgers won’t be back, it’s just a matter of time before they issue a similar thank you! (now leave) statement regarding Adams.
His original contract with the Raiders contained a pair of bloated, phony-baloney years on the back end, aimed at driving the annual average at signing to $28 million. For 2025, his compensation package spikes to $36.15 million. There’s no way the Jets will pay that to Adams.
He’ll stay only if he dramatically reduces his pay for the coming season. Why would he? He left the Raiders to partner up with Rodgers. With Rodgers gone, there’s no point in taking less to stay with a team that’s stuck in a perpetual Groundhog Day rebuild.
If Adams declines to re-do his deal, he’ll be cut. And he’ll become a free agent for the first time in his career, able to pick any other team for the coming season.
It makes sense for him to see what Rodgers does. Assuming that Rodgers’s next team (if there even is one) is willing to bring Adams to town, too.
Look at it this way. If there’s a team that will embrace the Aaron Rodgers experience, why wouldn’t that team also be on board with Adams? Especially if the Steelers (who should be Rodgers’s first choice) sign Rodgers. They need help at receiver, and Adams would provide it.
There’s still a chance that Adams will go his own way. And AFC contenders like the Chiefs, Bills, Ravens, Texans, and Chargers could be at the front of the line.
Regardless, now that Rodgers has gotten the heave-ho, it’s just a matter of time before Adams joins him as both a former Packer and a former Jet.
Jets coach Aaron Glenn decided, along with G.M. Darren Mougey, to move on from quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
So what’s next for the Jets at the most important position on the team?
They have Tyrod Taylor and Jordan Travis under contract for 2025. They presumably will explore other options.
During Friday’s PFT Live, Rodney Harrison had a suggestion — trade for Hendon Hooker.
A third-round pick in 2023 who was a rising star at Tennessee until he tore an ACL during his final season, Hooker has been stuck behind Jared Goff in Detroit. For the postseason, Hooker was bumped out of the No. 2 spot when Teddy Bridgewater returned after a season of coaching high-school football.
New Jets coach Aaron Glenn, who has been the defensive coordinator in Detroit for all of Hooker’s NFL career, knows Hooker as well as anyone. If he’s got “it,” Glenn will know.
Of course, if the 27-year-old Hooker has “it,” the Lions will know, too. Rodney suggested that the Lions are perhaps trying to keep Hooker’s skills and abilities under wraps while they possibly plot a future transition from Jared Goff to Hooker.
We’ll find out what Glenn and the Lions think about Hooker, if the Jets call the Lions about trading for Hooker — and if the Lions say “no way.”
That happened 19 years ago, when Sean Payton left the Cowboys to become head coach of the Saints. He called the Cowboys about trading for then-unknown Tony Romo. The Cowboys refused. During the next season, Bill Parcells benched Drew Bledsoe for Romo. And the rest is history.
We’ll see if history repeats itself, if/when the Jets call Detroit and if/when the Lions hang up the phone.
If Aaron Rodgers wanted to move on from the Jets but wanted the Jets to make the first move, he has gotten what he wanted.
Rodgers will never admit it. He’ll say he wanted to stay. He’ll say they chose to ask him to leave. (At least they said “thank you.”)
It allows Rodgers to spray paint himself as the victim, giving him not only motivation but also an avenue for sticking it to the Jets if/when he thrives with a new team and the Jets continue to be, well, the Jets.
He still hasn’t said anything since Sunday’s report that the Jets will be cutting him. He’s remained silent since the report emerged that they told him both to ditch the weekly Pat McAfee appearances and to fully commit to the entirety of the offseason program.
That’s smart. His potential suitors are watching and listening. They need to think he won’t be a problem, before offering him a spot on the team for 2025.
He’ll have options. He can still play at a high level. But he’ll want to play for a team that he strongly believes will contend.
The Steelers continue to be the best choice. Maybe the only choice. Unless he chooses to wait for a starter with a contender to suffer a serious injury.
In 2023, when he was one of the starters who suffered a serious injury, there would have been plenty of options. In 2024, not so much.
That ultimately could be his plan. Spend the offseason in Egypt or Peru or wherever and then wait to see if the same football gods that popped his Achilles four plays into the 2023 season will part the clouds on a potential fairytale ending with an in-season ACL tear for a franchise quarterback on a short-list Super Bowl contender.
Enter Rodgers. Exit a champion. Unless the Steelers want him, waiting for the planets to align this way seems to be the best play.
After the news was reported late last week, the Jets have formalized it with an announcement:
They are moving on from Aaron Rodgers.
The team’s new head coach Aaron Glenn and new General Manager Darren Mougey released a joint statement saying that the club met with Rodgers last week and informed him that he will not be back in 2025.
“Last week we met with Aaron and shared that our intention was to move in a different direction at quarterback,” Glenn and Mougey’s statement reads. “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. We want to thank him for the leadership, passion, and dedication he brought to the organization and wish him success moving forward.”
Team owner Woody Johnson also had a statement in the team’s announcement.
“I personally want to thank Aaron for his time at the New York Jets,” Johnson said. “His arrival in 2023 was met with unbridled excitement and I will forever be grateful that he chose to join us to continue his Hall of Fame career. From day one, he embodied all that it meant to be a New York Jet, embraced our fans, and immersed himself in our city. That is what I will remember most when I look back at his time here. He will always be welcome, and I wish him only the best in whatever he chooses to do next.”
Rodgers played just four offensive snaps for the Jets in 2023, suffering a torn Achilles in the Week 1 matchup against the Bills on Monday Night Football. He returned in 2024, playing all 17 games for the club. But the season ended with a disappointing 5-12 record.
Rodgers, who turned 41 in December, completed 63 percent of his passes for 3,897 yards with 28 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in 2024.
The Jets are likely to release Rodgers with a post-June 1 designation, spreading out the cap hit.
Pittsburgh is the early betting favorite to land Rodgers, with Las Vegas, San Francisco, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Indianapolis the next teams up. The Rams and Giants are also in the mix from a betting odds perspective.
