New York Jets interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich hinted earlier this week that Aaron Rodgers will stay the membership’s beginning quarterback by the top of the season regardless that the 3-9 workforce will likely soon be eradicated from playoff competition.
For an article printed Wednesday morning, NFL insider Dan Graziano of ESPN advised Jets proprietor Woody Johnson needs Rodgers out of the constructing a lot that the membership might basically push the long run Corridor of Famer out the door earlier than Week 18 arrives.
“I nonetheless would not be stunned to see the Jets bench him or transfer on earlier than the top of this season,” Graziano mentioned about Rodgers. “I will eat one in every of my socks if Rodgers is beginning for the Jets subsequent season.”
Rodgers has largely appeared like a participant previous his prime coming off the torn Achilles that value him all however 4 offensive snaps of the 2023 common season.
Per Pro Football Reference, the 41-year-old started Wednesday ranked twenty seventh within the NFL amongst certified gamers with a 48.2 adjusted QBR, twenty fourth with an 87.5 passer score and twenty ninth with a 62.5 % completion proportion for the continuing marketing campaign. Based on ESPN stats, the Jets head into Week 14 ranked thirty first general in whole offense (291.3 yards per recreation).
Johnson dismissed head coach Robert Saleh and basic supervisor Joe Douglas in the course of the season. Multiple reports have since mentioned Johnson needs “a recent begin at basic supervisor, head coach and quarterback” subsequent yr.
“A head coach and a GM have misplaced their jobs as a result of they tied themselves to [Rodgers] and constructed the whole workforce round the concept [he] could be the distinction,” Graziano defined. “He has been the distinction however utterly reverse of what they anticipated and hoped. The workforce is horrible. The team culture is both horrible or nonexistent.”
That final level is attention-grabbing, as former Jets quarterback and present NFL analyst Boomer Esiason mentioned in November that he felt the workforce’s locker room was “utterly fractured,” at the very least partially due to Rodgers’ presence and poor play.
It’s value noting that ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler added in Wednesday’s piece that the Jets might “rent a head coach who has an affinity for Rodgers or likes him over a draft-and-develop state of affairs or bridge free-agent options.” Invoice Belichick thinks Rodgers has one thing left within the tank, however few believe Belichick would even think about accepting a name from Johnson for a number of causes.