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Aaron Rodgers missed chance to send message to teammates about what his coach calls “Phase Me”

The biggest, and most unlikely, story of the week came from the Jets, where quarterback Aaron Rodgers capped his “bullshit that has nothing to do with winning needs to get out of the building” offseason by skipping the two-day mandatory minicamp.

It sparked a debate between those who thought it was a big deal and those who made a big deal out of complaining about those who thought it was a big deal. Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner, for example, said this on X: “Are y’all really making a big deal because a 15+ year HOF QB missed 2 days of practice after being with the team all throughout Phase 1, 2, & 3 of OTA’s??”

Of course, it’s not just practice. It’s mandatory minicamp. The centerpiece of the offseason program. The two days (the Jets reduced it from three) that everyone is required to be present.

It was also the last two days of the offseason program. And it culminated in an important message to the locker room at large. On Wednesday, coach Robert Saleh addressed the significance of the weeks between the end of the offseason program and the launch of training camp.

“We’ve always called the next part — so, after this, is Phase Me,” Saleh told reporters. “You’ve got Phase 1, 2, 3, now Phase Me. And it’s the 40 days off and it’s a great opportunity for the individual player to be selfish to himself. It’s a great opportunity to create separation on the competition with the way they approach the offseason. You can go to the beach and party and drink, or you can hit the gym and hydrate. There’s different ways everyone approaches these next 40 days. And you can gain ground on your competition, you can separate from your competition, or you can lose your entire ’24 season with the way you approach these next 40. So the message is to be deliberate and to attack this thing and to put yourself in position to be great in ’24.”

When communicating that message, is it better to have a 15-year Hall of Fame quarterback present to reinforce it? Is it better if he hasn’t already started “Phase Me” by putting himself ahead of the team and missing the mandatory minicamp?

If Saleh’s message is as important as he says it is, who better to reinforce it than the guy who has been doing this for 20 years?

“It’s not a half the time thing, it’s not a sometimes thing, it’s not a most of the time thing, it’s an every time thing. If you want to be a winning organization, and to put yourself in position to win championships and be competitive, everything that you do matters.”

That’s what Rodgers said in January, just before he said that “bullshit that has nothing to do with winning needs to get out of the building.”

Many tried to downplay Rodgers’s absence by saying it will have nothing to do with the football season to come. While there won’t be a bright-line connection, little things can make a dotted-line difference.

Beyond the fact that Rodgers wasn’t there for two days of practice during which something might have happened on the field that could be built upon later, Rodgers wasn’t there to hammer home the significance of devoting the break to making more gains, not pissing away the gains that have been made.

“It’s not a half the time thing, it’s not a sometimes thing, it’s not a most of the time thing, it’s an every time thing. If you want to be a winning organization, and to put yourself in position to win championships and be competitive, everything that you do matters.”

We won’t know whether Rodgers could have sent the message more effectively than Saleh did. We won’t know whether the Jets would have been better inspired to do all the right things during the break, if they’d heard it from Saleh and from Rodgers. And if the Jets struggle when camp begins and/or the season starts, it won’t be obvious that Rodgers’s absence from mandatory minicamp contributed to it.

Regardless, at a time when he could have delivered an impassioned plea to teammates to put the team above themselves over the next 40 days, Rodgers put himself above the team. And if you think that has no impact on the team, you really need to think again.