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Not only do they need him to come back next season as their QB, they need him ot help fix their culture, which is not in a good place right now.
Rodgers, a four-time NFL MVP, and Super Bowl champion, not only can help their QB position, but help fix their culture.
And the Jets culture needs work, according to Rodgers.
“It’s about culture,” Rodgers said on ESPN, Tuesday. “Culture can win championships, chemistry wins championships. So we need to fine-tune a couple of things, tighten some things up.”
One Jets cultural issue that Rodgers is troubled by are media leaks from the organization, including one this week.
“That’s a problem with the organization and we need to get to the bottom of wherever this is coming from and put a stop to it, privately. because there is no place for that in a winning culture and this is not the only time,” Rodgers said. “There have been a lot of leaks.”
Another cultural issue, in the worldview of Rodgers, is people making decisions based on outside noise.
“Some may be influenced by fans and pundits a little more than I’m used to,” Rodgers said.
Let’s deal with that last statement, because we don’t need to review the leaks too much. It’s a no-brainer for those need to stop, along with the quid pro quo stuff. Make the main thing the main thing. Don’t worry about currying favor with reporters by texting them information, just worry about winning.
I have been mulling that last quote over for a couple of days, trying to figure out what moves he might be referring to.
And then, two moves popped into my head, that make perfect sense – the benchings of Allen Lazard and C.J. Uzomah, two players Rodgers is close to.
The media and fans were all over these two because each had a few rough plays (who hasn’t some on the 2023 Jets), so it just seemed they were thrown to the wolves to appease some fans and reporters with their temporary benchings, which made zero difference with the Jets offense. The moves might have been things worse, especially for the Jets running game. These guys are both good blockers.
Uzomah had a couple of key holding calls in Las Vegas, and Lazard reportedly had seven drops, though I didn’t see seven drops. He had a few, but I didn’t see seven, and sometimes inaccurate QBs and QBs that deliver the ball too late or too hard (on short passes) can contribute to “drops.”
I’m not condoning their bad plays, but everybody has them. Jordan Whitehead let a tight end behind him for a TD against Atlanta, are you going to bench him? Dalvin Cook has missed two blitz pickups in recent games, and wasn’t the right place on a hot read pass from Tim Boyle were he didn’t turn around. Mekhi Becton has been inconsistent in his pass protection. We could go down the list.
Why were Lazard and Uzomah singled out? Because their mistakes were a little more high profile, perhaps, and these moves were to assuage the public and fans, and say, “Look, we are doing something.”
So I think those two moves were examples of what Rodgers was talking about.
And this points to a big problem with the Jets culture that needs to be fixed. They often care too much what the outside world thinks, and lets that impact some decisions.
This probably contributed to their decision to go back to a benched QB, who I am not going to critique anymore. I’ve spoken my piece. I don’t want to be a broken record. People can go back to myriad old posts about what his issues are. After all that nonsense that went on this week, where a Jets source said the QB didn’t want to start anymore, and then the stuff with Joe Benigno, they are now starting him, clearly to make a point and for PR reasons, to bury those stories.
If you are going to judge Trevor Siemian on a brief stint filling in where he suffered a strip sack because Cook didn’t pick up a blizer, knock yourself out. I’m not going to do that. You don’t judge QBs on such a small sample size. Look at what Jake Browning just did in his second start.
So the Jets need to stop governing by public opinion polls, and stop having non-football people at the table making football decisions. That never works.
Rodgers is right, they need to stop being “influenced by fans and pundits.”
Don’t kill the messenger for me bringing that up. If you have an issue with this particular point, talk to the future Hall of Fame QB.
And they need to talk to him a lot more moving forward about fixing their football culture.
December 7, 2023
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