Is Aaron Rodgers Saving The Jets Staff From Being Fired?
The New York Jets fell to 4-7 Friday and their playoff hopes hang by a thread. People are speculating what will happen to the coaching staff after another year of failing to meet expectations.
To be fair, quarterback Aaron Rodgers going down four plays into the season wasn’t in the game plan, but overall, the team has still underperformed.
Robert Saleh is now 15-30 as the head coach and Nathaniel Hackett’s offense ranks in the bottom three in every category. Despite the struggles, a report by Jets beat writer Zach Rosenblatt of The Athletic believes that their jobs will be safe due to Aaron Rodgers.
“Yet internally, the Jets are operating as if the whole regime — Saleh, Douglas, and even offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett — will be back in 2024,” Rosenblatt’s report read. “That’s because Aaron Rodgers is their lifeline.
Rodgers, who turns 40 on Saturday, might wield more power than any other player in the NFL. It goes beyond the personnel influence he deployed this offseason, motivating Douglas to sign Allen Lazard, Randall Cobb, Billy Turner and Dalvin Cook — none of whom has made an impact.“
Rodgers’s influence helped create pieces of this roster and therefore, the argument could be made that things won’t work without him.
“Owner Woody Johnson is almost certainly dissatisfied with the Jets’ offense this season — it ranks last in yardage, third-down conversions, red-zone touchdowns, and 30th in scoring — but Saleh and Douglas can dangle the Rodgers carrot,” the report read. “They can say that his return will fix all of their problems, even if that’s ultimately an unreasonable expectation to put on a 40-year-old quarterback coming off Achilles surgery.“
At almost 40-years-old, Rodgers may hold as much influence as ever before. The jobs of multiple people are in his hands and his injury is the scapegoat for another awful season. We can play the what-if game all we want, but the defense is playing much worse than last year and that has nothing to do with Rodgers.
We were told to believe that this Jets team was just a good quarterback away from being a title contender. Since the infamous injury in Week 1, there have been numerous speculations about how next season will pan out. Rodgers could come back and have a spectacular year, or he could struggle like many others have after suffering an injury as serious as his.
Regardless, Saleh and his coaching staff are running out of excuses and sooner or later, some big decisions need to be made.
