If Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets plan to stay together after this season, they certainly have an interesting way to show it.
The Jets’ veteran quarterback pontificated again on Tuesday about his future with the organizationafter journalists asked them how they should interpret previous comments made about a possible release. The most notable responses might have been the shortest, when a reporter mentioned Jets owner Woody Johnson:
Reporter: Do you think Woody wants you to come back?
Rodgers: You should ask Woody.
Reporter: Have you and Woody had any conversations, Aaron, about the future?
Those cold comments came a day after Rodgers directly attacked an earlier report that Johnson had allowed his teenage sons, Brick and Jack, to influence his team’s football decisions, notably rejecting a trade for wide receiver Jerry Jeudy. due to a low level of Madden. classification.
During his usual appearance in “The Pat McAfee Show” on MondayRodgers alluded, with a smile, to being freed by a teenager:
“I have a first time for everything and there have been a few of those this year. I’ve never been freed before. Being freed would be the first time. Being freed by a teenager would also be the first time. I’m open to everything. I find the comedy in everything this. If that happens, it’s a great story.”
Rodgers is currently wrapping up his second season with the Jets, a tenure that has seen the team go 4-11 with him under center after he missed all of last year with a torn Achilles tendon.
Very little has gone as planned for the Jets since they brought him in, even though the franchise gave him no shortage of control by bringing in his preferred teammates (e.g., Davante Adams, Allen Lazard). And now that Rodgers is 41 years old, there’s not much reason to expect improvement next year.
If the Jets release Rodgers after this season, they would incur $66.2 million in dead money, costing them $49 million in cap space. They could also make a post-June 1 release, which would cost them $21 million in 2025 cap space and $28 million in 2026, per on the cover.
It’s still a tough decision to release a player you bet would take you to the promised land, especially when giving up means a significant cost on the personnel side. Publicly, Rodgers does not bet one way or another on what the team does:
“I think anything is really possible, whether it happens or not… I think there will be some decisions that will want to be made the day after the season or a couple of days after the season. I’m just not naive, it’s not 0% in me opinion. I don’t think it’s a high percentage.
“I’m pretty open to everything right now and I understand that there are a lot of things that can happen. On January 6-7, they could say, ‘We want you to come back next year,’ but they could easily just say, ‘We’re going to take a different direction,’ whatever that looks like, so again, I’m open to everything, understanding everything that’s possible, and I’m looking forward to those conversations.”
That said, he also had the tone of someone ready to say goodbye after a chaotic summer camp:
“I have nothing but gratitude for the Johnsons and everyone I’ve met here and everyone who brought me here. Obviously it hasn’t been as successful as we thought it was going to be, but I’ve made a lot of good friends here. I had a lot of really special moments. I had some really tough ones too, but there was no animosity, no matter what happened, whatever they decided.”
The Jets have two more games this season, the first a trip to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday and then a home game against the Miami Dolphins in Week 18. We’ll see if those end up being the last games of Rodgers’ Jets career . but the wind blows in a direction according to the tone at the moment.