The first 10 games of the Aaron Rodgers-New York Jets reboot can fairly be assessed as a failure.
A Jets team that had Super Bowl aspirations is 3-7 and not in the playoff picture. Rodgers is producing career lows in yards per attempt (6.4) and touchdown-to-interception ratio (15-to-7) with a completion percentage (62.4%) that is among the worst of his career.
This is not working.
But Rodgers seems ready to back down. He was asked on Wednesday if this season’s results had changed his previously expressed thoughts about wanting to play beyond 2024.
“Not really, not because of the negative,” Rodgers said. “No, not really.”
When asked to clarify whether he wants to play again in 2025, Rodgers had this to say:
“I think so, yes.”
So Rodgers seems ready to try again, which begs the question: Do the Jets want to try again with Rodgers next season?
Rodgers, who suffered a torn Achilles tendon last season, will turn 41 in December. Your arrow is not pointing up. If he decides not to retire, the Jets would face a pick in the third year of his three-year, $112.5 million contract. Save it and carry it. a salary cap of 23.5 million dollars. Or release it and take it a capital blow of 49 million dollars that could be split over the course of two seasons — 14 million dollars in 2025 and 35 million dollars in 2026.
The reasons why Rodgers wants to return are obvious, at least on the financial front. The football reasons are less so. Rodgers has four MVPs and a Super Bowl ring and is five years away from joining Canton from the moment he retires. His football legacy is assured.
He joined the Jets under the presumption that the pairing would offer a chance at a second Super Bowl ring. Those dreams have been dashed for this season, and there is little indication that another run next season would produce the desired results.
So will Rodgers feel the same way this offseason as he faces the prospect of another successful NFL season? We’ll have to wait and see. But for now, he is ready to fulfill the rest of his contract.
If that’s true, the ball will go directly into the Jets’ court.