The greatest coup in recent New York Jets history — or even far beyond recent — was landing Aaron Rodgers in 2023 via a late-career trade out of Green Bay.
The Jets had a defense and some offensive weapons but needed a quarterback. They got a four-time MVP and Super Bowl champion who was following the last-call-for-a-Lombardi path that Tom Brady carved out in Tampa Bay.
The thing is, you don’t bring guys such as Brady and Rodgers in just because they can throw a pass. You bring them in for everything — including both a will to win and a proven understanding of what it takes to win. Their value is beyond their arm. It is the day in, day out focus and unique talents they bring to a game.
In Tampa, the franchise quickly bent to the will and intensity of Brady and won a Super Bowl in his first season. He was Tom Brady, after all.
In New York there is little to no sign of such a thing happening in regards to Rodgers.
On Sunday, Brady, from a broadcast booth in Tampa, responded to a Baker Mayfield comment that “everybody was pretty stressed out” at the conclusion of Brady’s two seasons with the Bucs.
“I thought stressful was not having Super Bowl rings,” Brady quipped back.
Meanwhile, up in New York, Rodgers was lamenting “too many mental mistakes” after an ugly 10-9 loss to Denver that dropped the Jets to 2-2 on the season. It included zero touchdowns but 13 penalties, including five false starts. The offense line seemed thrown off by Rodgers’ cadence, which across his career he has deftly used to draw defenses offsides and give him a free chance for a deep shot.
“It’s been a weapon,” Rodgers said.
Does he need to simplify it?
Jets head coach Robert Saleh seems to think so.
“We gotta figure it out, whether or not we’re good enough or ready to handle all of the cadence,” Saleh said. “Cadence had not been an issue all camp. Felt like our operation had been operating pretty good. Obviously, today took a major step back.”
“That’s one way to do it,” Rodgers responded. “The other way is [to] hold them accountable. We haven’t had an issue.”
To be clear, Rodgers wasn’t great on Sunday and he publicly acknowledged “too many poor throws” in a 24-for-42 passing performance.
Also to be clear, the Bucs didn’t just immediately adopt the Brady standard — even in mid-October Brady, then 43 years old, was still famously, and quite publicly, dressing down the offensive line on the sidelines.
“Sometimes you have to annoy guys and try to raise the level, convey a sense of urgency to them; raise your voice and create a different vibe for the whole offense …” Brady said at the time.
Still, what eventually happened in Tampa is what the Jets want to happen in New York, at least unless they want to squander the opportunity of maximizing what Rodgers can bring to the team. It clearly hasn’t happened yet; or even how it worked in Green Bay.
It seems like the Jets brought in Rodgers and just thought that his impact would come without sacrifice. It wasn’t merely an accurate arm that they needed though. It was his comprehension of the demands needed to win.
Rodgers, 40, talked postgame about “just not [being] on the same page” and “some protection stuff that should’ve been easy” and “some route-adjustment stuff that should’ve been easy” and “I don’t know, our focus just wasn’t as sharp as the first few weeks.”
Rodgers isn’t the screamer that Brady is. He even suggested that the false starts on Sunday were an “outlier” and “I don’t know if we have to make massive changes based on an outlier game.”
Perhaps, but not all of this should be Rodgers’ job. In Tampa, Brady found a coach in Bruce Arians who was fully committed to supporting the gift of landing a future Hall of Famer. Mayfield was probably correct in his assessment of the mood of the franchise after three years of Brady demanding more and more and more.
“The building was a little bit different with Tom in there,” said Mayfield, who has the Bucs at 3-1 under his style of play and leadership. “Obviously, playing-wise, Tom is different. He had everybody dialed in; high-strung environment. So I think everybody was pretty stressed out. They wanted me to come in, be myself, bring the joy back to football for guys who weren’t having as much fun.”
Mayfield can’t be Brady. Without all those Super Bowl rings, it wouldn’t work if he tried.
“There was a mindset of a champion that I took to work every day,” Brady said. “This wasn’t day care.”
Rodgers can be something close to it though; maybe not the shouting and tablet throwing, but the daily demands. And it is on Saleh and everyone else to meet, if not exceed it.
If Rodgers can’t trust his own line to not jump offsides, then one advantage he brings to the game is gone. If he can’t trust the routes and the protections, then there goes even more of it.
Mainly though, if New York isn’t committed, even to an uncomfortable, “stressed-out” level to winning a Super Bowl, then why have Aaron Rodgers at all?