Five games into the season, the 2-3 Jets fired Head Coach Robert Saleh. That didn't turn anything around: they've gone 1-5 since that time. Now they've fired GM Joe Douglas. This, however, is less an effort to get things turned around this season than to get started on yet another rebuild.
The offense hasn't been good enough, with a host of veteran wideouts brought in from other teams (at the encouragement of Aaron Rodgers, by most accounts) not making a great impact, a lot of draft picks not working out, and the offensive line a particular problem. Even the defense hasn't been good enough, as seen in a lot of the team's losses.
And then there's Rodgers himself. He turns 41 next month. Recently there was talk about him coming back for the 2025 season (there's certainly financial incentive), but will he really want to? And will the team want him back?
Rodgers has thrown 17 touchdown passes; that's 7th in the NFL this year. But he's also posting some of the worst numbers of his career in negative areas, including both taking sacks (he's a 40-year-old coming off an Achilles injury playing behind a struggling offensive line, after all) and interceptions.
Table shows sacks and interceptions per start by quarterbacks who have started at least 8 games this season. Some really good quarterbacks (Mahomes and Hurts, most notably) fare poorly in this table, either from forcing too many throws or just taking too many sacks (not always their fault). But one of the below-average performers is also Rodgers. For a guy who usually gets the ball out of his hands quickly and seldom threw interceptions for most of his career, it's quite a comedown to ordinary.
| QBS, SACKS AND INTERCEPTIONS PER START (8 MIN) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | GS | Int | Sk | Int/G | Sk/G | Tot |
| Derek Carr | 8 | 4 | 7 | 0.5 | 0.9 | 1.4 |
| Lamar Jackson | 11 | 3 | 15 | 0.3 | 1.4 | 1.6 |
| Josh Allen | 11 | 5 | 13 | 0.5 | 1.2 | 1.6 |
| Kyler Murray | 10 | 3 | 15 | 0.3 | 1.5 | 1.8 |
| Bo Nix | 11 | 6 | 18 | 0.5 | 1.6 | 2.2 |
| Jayden Daniels | 11 | 3 | 23 | 0.3 | 2.1 | 2.4 |
| Jordan Love | 8 | 11 | 8 | 1.4 | 1.0 | 2.4 |
| Justin Herbert | 10 | 1 | 23 | 0.1 | 2.3 | 2.4 |
| Trevor Lawrence | 9 | 6 | 18 | 0.7 | 2.0 | 2.7 |
| Jared Goff | 10 | 9 | 18 | 0.9 | 1.8 | 2.7 |
| Joe Burrow | 11 | 4 | 26 | 0.4 | 2.4 | 2.7 |
| Matthew Stafford | 10 | 7 | 21 | 0.7 | 2.1 | 2.8 |
| Brock Purdy | 10 | 8 | 20 | 0.8 | 2.0 | 2.8 |
| Kirk Cousins | 11 | 9 | 23 | 0.8 | 2.1 | 2.9 |
| Aaron Rodgers | 11 | 7 | 26 | 0.6 | 2.4 | 3.0 |
| Jalen Hurts | 10 | 5 | 28 | 0.5 | 2.8 | 3.3 |
| Baker Mayfield | 10 | 9 | 24 | 0.9 | 2.4 | 3.3 |
| Patrick Mahomes | 10 | 11 | 22 | 1.1 | 2.2 | 3.3 |
| Daniel Jones | 10 | 7 | 29 | 0.7 | 2.9 | 3.6 |
| Dak Prescott | 8 | 8 | 21 | 1.0 | 2.6 | 3.6 |
| Sam Darnold | 10 | 10 | 28 | 1.0 | 2.8 | 3.8 |
| C.J. Stroud | 11 | 7 | 35 | 0.6 | 3.2 | 3.8 |
| Geno Smith | 10 | 11 | 32 | 1.1 | 3.2 | 4.3 |
| Gardner Minshew II | 8 | 9 | 26 | 1.1 | 3.3 | 4.4 |
| Caleb Williams | 10 | 5 | 41 | 0.5 | 4.1 | 4.6 |
Some other guys near the bottom of the table, like Jones and Minshew, won't be starting next year. That's not why Rodgers won't be starting, if he decides to hang them up, but it's fair to wonder if he can still be a difference-maker for an NFL team. Will he get better in either area in his age-41 season? Unlikely.
If Rodgers wants to play next year, maybe the Jets will say sure. But we'll see. The new GM, whoever that is, will be looking to build the team in his own way, and may not want a 41-year-old guy giving him contact info for his former Green Bay teammates. The next few games for Rodgers with the Jets might well be his last.
--Andy Richardson