NEW YORK — Aaron Rodgers will reportedly not return to the New York Jets in 2025.
According to CBS Sports NFL insider Jonathan Jones, the Jets and Rodgers will soon go their separate ways, a move that could allow the four-time NFL MVP to be eligible to sign with another team once the new NFL year begins in March, provided he decides he wants to return for a 21st season.
The decision to move on from Rodgers isn’t all that surprising considering the Jets recently completed a regime change that featured the hiring of head coach Aaron Glenn and general manager Darren Mougey, with many figuring the new hierarchy would want a fresh start.
During their dual introductory press conference on Jan. 27, Glenn and Mougey lauded Rodgers, but stopped short of saying definitively they wanted him back.
Glenn said at the time that text messages had been exchanged. Then last week, the organization reportedly met with Rodgers and told him of its intentions. The Jets also recently hired former Detroit Lions passing game coordinator Tanner Engstrand as offensive coordinator, and it’s believed they will employ a new philosophy on that side of the ball next season.
Glenn has said the Jets are going to evaluate every player and positional need. Now it appears they have a massive hole to fill at quarterback, the most important position on the field.
After Rodgers is released, the Jets will only have 35-year-old journeyman Tyrod Taylor and 2024 fifth-round pick Jordan Travis, who missed the entire season due to injury, on the roster. Neither figures to be the starter going forward.
So it will be on the new guys calling the shots to find a suitable replacement for Rodgers who can help the Jets end their 14-year playoff drought, the longest current run of ineptitude among the four major North American professional sports leagues.
Owner Woody Johnson has said he will defer to Mougey and Glenn on all personnel decisions.
Aaron Rodgers’ 2024 season
Coming off an Achilles injury that sidelined him for all but four plays of the 2023 season, the big concern for Rodgers entering this past season was durability, and for the most part he passed all the tests. He did play through some lower-body injuries unrelated to the Achilles, but nothing that any older NFL player hasn’t experienced before.
He started all 17 games and quietly put together a solid season, both by his lofty standards and the Jets’ usually low standards at the position.
Rodgers, who has thrown for at least 4,000 yards in 10 of his 20 seasons in the NFL, completed 63% of his passes for 3,897 yards, 28 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. In the annals of Jets history, only Joe Namath (4,007 in 14 games in 1967) and Ryan Fitzpatrick (3,905 in 16 games in 2015) threw for more yards in a season, and only Fitzpatrick (31 in 2015) and Vinny Testaverde (29 in 1998) threw more TDs.
The highlight for Rodgers was throwing four TD passes — Nos. 500, 501, 502 and 503 of his soon-to-be Hall of Fame career — during the Jets’ season-ending 32-20 win over the Miami Dolphins.
But there were many times during the season when the Jets’ offense looked as bad as it did before Rodgers arrived, often stalling out in the red zone and settling for field goal attempts instead of scoring touchdowns. And that was reflected in New York’s record, as the Jets finished 5-12, but lost seven games by six points or less.
Overall, the Jets finished 24th in total offense — 310.3 yards per game — and tied for 24th in points per game — 19.9.
The arrival of Davante Adams in a trade with the Las Vegas Raiders in mid-October gave Rodgers another highly skilled receiver to throw to, and the rapport the two had developed during their eight years together in Green Bay was clearly evident as the season progressed. Adams was targeted a whopping 114 times in 11 games, finishing with 67 receptions, 854 yards, and 7 TDs with the Jets and 85-1,063-8 overall.
However, Rodgers and Garrett Wilson, the Jets’ other top wideout, didn’t always seem to be on the same page. While Wilson did end the season with a team-high 154 targets, he only cracked 100 yards in a game four times and his 1,104 yards were just one more than his previous career high, set as a rookie in 2022, when Rodgers wasn’t on the roster.
The trade that brought Aaron Rodgers to the Jets
After weeks of posturing on both sides, the Jets and Packers completed a trade on April 24, 2023 that sent Rodgers to New York.
The Jets also received the No. 15 overall pick and a fifth-round pick in that year’s draft. The Packers received the No. 13 overall pick, a second-round pick and a sixth-round pick, plus what turned out to be a 2024 second-round pick, after Rodgers failed to play 65% of the plays in 2023 due to his season-ending injury in Week 1 against the Buffalo Bills.
The deal had many thinking the Jets had a real chance to at the very least end what was at the time a 12-year playoff drought. But following Rodgers’ Achilles tear, the Jets limped to a 7-10 finish, the same record they had the season before they traded for him.
Coming in to the 2024 season, with Rodgers fully healthy and the Jets fresh off an offseason of one impact move after another, some whispered about them having a real shot to get to the Super Bowl.
But, obviously, that never came close to materializing. The Jets are now facing an offseason of what will likely be more-than-usual roster turnover.
