The Green Bay Packers are preparing for their playoff matchup with their first-year starting quarterback Jordan Love playing as well as any signal caller in the NFL, but his predecessor spoke to the media on Monday and shared his plans for the future.
Aaron Rodgers initially left the Packers with a plan to play a season for the Jets and then potentially retire.
The longtime veteran QB has contemplated retirement several times throughout his career, but has proven he can still play at a high level when healthy.
In his last season as a NFL starting quarterback in 2022, Rodgers threw for 3,695 yards, 26 touchdowns and a passer rating of 91.1.
While those numbers don’t trump his back-to-back MVP seasons in 2020 and 2020, where the former Green Bay Packers gun slinger threw for over 4,000 yards in both years with 48 touchdowns and five interceptions in 2020 and 37 touchdowns and four picks in 2021. He finished with a QB rating of 121.5 in 2020 and closed 2021 with a rating of 111.9.
Aaron Rodgers chose the New York Jets because the roster clearly looked like a young, emerging offense with rising superstars like Garrett Wilson and Breece Hall and a defense that had the talent to be one of the top units in the NFL.
He believed he could win his second Super Bowl in the Big Apple, but four plays into his first game in the classic green Jets uniform, Rodgers tore his Achilles and ended his season. Instantly, the Jets seemed like everything they had planned and hoped for was gone. They bet all their chips when they traded to obtain Rodgers from the Green Bay Packers.
They didn’t attempt to sign a proven veteran QB even though there were plenty to choose from (just look at Joe Flacco leading thee Cleveland Browns to the playoffs), but instead relied on Zach Wilson who flashed from time to time, but struggled mightily for the most part as he has done since the Jets drafted him in 2021.
Rodgers attempted to serve as a mentor to Wilson while injured, but the former BYU QB started 12 games and finished with 2,271 yards, eight touchdowns, nine interceptions, 46 sacks and a passer rating of 77.2.
For the second year in a row, the New York Jets benched Wilson, demoting the former No. 2 overall pick to QB3. Tim Boyle who started under center for the Jets’ Week 12 matchup against the Miami Dolphins, while Trevor Siemian was moved to the backup role.
Boyle was replaced by Siemian after two starts, and the career backup finished the season for the Jets.
Former Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers Plans To Play Several More Seasons For New York Jets
The 40-year-old quarterback also acknowledged Monday he first thought he could be one and done after he was traded to New York last April. But thoughts of staying for multiple seasons were sparked as he began having fun “and kind of falling back in love with the game.”
And then it gets taken away,” Rodgers said. “So this is not a one-year (thing) in my mind. I mean, obviously, it’s a ‘What have you done for me lately?’ And I’m going to have to go out and prove I can still play at a high level.
“But I’d like this to be more than just next year.”
So do the Jets, who finished 7-10 and missed the playoffs for the 13th consecutive year — the longest active drought among the major North American professional sports leagues.
“It kind of hit me last night after the game, just feeling like a lost year,” Rodgers said. “And that I missed out on obviously a lot of opportunities, just thinking if I’d had been out there, things would have been a little different.”
Owner Woody Johnson opted not to part ways with either coach Robert Saleh or general manager Joe Douglas, assuming the season would have been different if the former Green Bay Packers star remained healthy.
Aaron Rodgers was viewed by many in the organization going into the season as a missing piece for the Jets to return to respectability — and the playoffs.
Rodgers, Saleh and Douglas will all get the chance to reward Johnson’s patience next season.
“We’re all going to be on the quote-unquote hot seat next year,” Rodgers said. “It’s going to be an important year for all of us and I love that. I mean, I think that’s fantastic. We should approach that every single year — it’s a ‘what have you done for me lately?’ If you have a down year, a bad year, there’s going to be people calling to move on, and especially when you’re 40 years old.”
But after a remarkably quick recovery from his torn Achilles in Week 1, Rodgers believes he can still play at a high level and thinks he will remain with the Jets beyond 2024.
The immediate focus, however, is righting the ship next season.
“So, I’m going to go out there and play as well as I can. And obviously, if I have the season I know that I’m capable of having and we have the success I know we’re capable of having, then all that stuff takes care of itself.”
