This isn’t how the Jets’ season was speculated to go.
They weren’t speculated to be 3-7, clinging to worsening playoff odds in Aaron Rodgers’ return from an Achilles tear.
They weren’t speculated to be a bottom-third offense, averaging solely 298.5 yards and 17.7 factors per sport with weapons reminiscent of Breece Corridor and Garrett Wilson and, as of 4 weeks in the past, Davante Adams.
They usually definitely weren’t speculated to be the topic of an ESPN deep dive exploring what’s gone flawed for Rodgers and the Jets.
However that’s the place they discover themselves.
On Wednesday, three days after a 31-6 loss to the Arizona Cardinals dropped the Jets’ playoff likelihood to 14%, based on NFL Subsequent Gen Stats, ESPN revealed a long-form characteristic titled “Inside Aaron Rodgers’ complicated relationship with the Jets.”
In it, creator Tim Keown writes concerning the dynamic between Rodgers and his teammates, and the way Rodgers’ “ongoing torment of ‘bringing guys along’ and ‘being a better leader’ and ‘setting the tone’ always carries an undercurrent of superiority, a verbal pat on the head.”
“They talk about the nagging injuries and the shaky offensive line and the inability to sustain a running game,” Keown wrote. “They’re all lighting candles at the same altar. They say it’s a team game. They’re all in it together. One man can’t change a culture overnight. Mostly, though, they speak of him like he’s a famous piece of art.”
The 5,000-word report is the results of Keown spending three weeks of follow and 4 video games across the Jets and Rodgers, who turns 41 subsequent month.
“The driving force in me wanting to play my best is not wanting to disappoint him,” rookie working again Braelon Allen mentioned of Rodgers, based on ESPN. “There are challenges, especially with how particular and detailed he is within the scheme. He expects everyone to be where they’re supposed to be when they’re supposed to be there. It’s a lot, you know?”
The Jets acquired Rodgers, a four-time MVP, in a commerce with the Inexperienced Bay Packers earlier than the 2023 season, hoping to finish a playoff drought that dates again to 2010 and a championship drought that goes again to 1969.
They entered final 12 months with Tremendous Bowl aspirations, however these shortly dissipated when Rodgers suffered his season-ending Achilles harm 4 snaps into Week 1.
The Tremendous Bowl hopes returned in 2024, however the Jets haven’t met expectations, with 5 consecutive losses between Sept. 29 and Oct. 27 dropping them towards the underside of the AFC standings.
Rodgers, who led the Packers to a Tremendous Bowl title in 2011, has accomplished 62.4% of his passes for two,258 yards, 15 touchdowns and 7 interceptions this 12 months. He’s been hampered at occasions by hamstring and knee points which have seemingly inhibited his potential to flee the pocket.
“We simply gotta do a greater job of servicing him and making the sport as simple for him as attainable,” Corridor mentioned, based on ESPN.
Amid their tough begin, the Jets fired head coach Robert Saleh after Week 5 and traded for Adams, a favourite goal of Rodgers in Inexperienced Bay, after Week 6.
“He’s achieved a lot, obviously,” Adams informed ESPN of Rodgers, “but I think he’s driven by not being able to win multiple Super Bowls. He’s won one, but he’s been in situations where he’s had the opportunity to almost taste it, almost touch it. Not being able to secure a championship at a higher rate is something that has, I won’t say bothers him, but it has motivated him to continue on at this old age.”
ESPN’s characteristic additionally describes the drama involving since-traded huge receiver Mike Williams, whom Rodgers informed reporters ran the flawed route on a late-game interception within the Jets’ 23-20 loss to the Buffalo Payments in Week 6.
Requested if he favored being referred to as out publicly, Williams informed ESPN, “No, no no,” however that “it is what it is.”
“People were sending [the video] to me,” Williams said. “They’re asking me if I saw it. I’m like, ‘What do you want me to do?’ I see it, but what am I supposed to do, though? I’m grown. It doesn’t affect me any kind of way. Not like I’m going to go home and cry, you know? Beat myself up about it? Nah. Nah.”
The Jets despatched Williams to the Pittsburgh Steelers earlier this month. He hauled within the game-winning landing cross in his staff debut Sunday, serving to the AFC North-leading Steelers enhance to 7-2.
Rodgers’ Jets, in the meantime, stay solely two video games out of a playoff spot within the top-heavy AFC, although the present No. 7 seed, the 5-5 Denver Broncos, maintain the tiebreaker after a head-to-head win at MetLife Stadium in Week 4.
The Jets host the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday.
“I’ve been doing this a long time, and the preparation stays the same, focus stays the same,” Rodgers mentioned Tuesday on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show.”
“I think you’ve got to handle it with humility. Been a lot of pies to be eaten around here this year, flavored humble. But you’ve got to hold on to that beautiful thing in life called hope, and that’s just that there’s a chance. We’re not mathematically eliminated. There’s a lot to play for.”
