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Anybody who thought there was any chance the Jets would bring back Aaron Rodgers, should have listened to former Jets WR Keyshawn Johnson leading up to the decision.
He repeatedly said there is no way Aaron Glenn was bringing him back.
“He will not start off his career — now I said this first, nobody else is saying this — he will not start off his career with Aaron Rodgers as his quarterback in September,” Johnson said January 24 on FS1, five days after Woody Johnson hired the new coach. “I’m saying this with a lot of confidence. … I’m just letting you know, he ain’t going to start his career with that mess. It’s not going to happen. He’s not going to allow somebody to tell him what he’s doing as a coach.”
Glenn and Johnson were Jets teammates from 1996-99 and are friends.
We should have listened. He was telling us exactly what was going to happen, and was saying it with so much confidence, there is a chance he got it from Glenn.
So it was probably a waste of time for Rodgers to fly from Los Angeles to New York to meet with the Jets last week.
Johnson is clearly another person in the media who despises Rodgers, which is common.
“They won 5 games with him and 7 games without him,” Johnson told ESPN. “What is it that he brings to the table at 42 years old with an Achilles and a new coach and a new environment and a new culture? He threw a receiver [Mike Williams] under the bus and ran it back twice over him. He went to Egypt during minicamp…It’s too much. In my opinion, if I was taking the job, he ain’t worth it to me.”
I like Keyshawn, but if he thinks they won just five games last year because of Rodgers, I respectfully disagree with – it was more things like poor coaching and horrendous run defense.
So, moving forward, I would advise everyone to listen to Johnson when it comes to insight about Glenn. I know I should have paid closer attention.
The interesting thing about the media hatred for Rodgers is it doesn’t seem to be shared by teammates in the locker room. With all the unnamed people in Athletic stories trashing the Jets (and expect more to come with so many candidates interviewed for GM/HC jobs), did you ever hear an unnamed teammate ripping Rodgers?
Quinnen Williams, who rarely says anything controversial, tweeted after Glazer’s announcement, “Another rebuild year for me I guess.”
So this narrative that he is bad for the locker room, so Glenn establishing a new program should move on, perhaps isn’t based in reality.
The problem with Glenn moving on from Rodgers is he’s going from an answer at QB to a major question mark. Even if it was a short-term answer, it was an answer.
Ask Bill Belichick how that went in New England moving on from an answer to a question mark . He was fired three years later.
So Glenn can feel he needs a fresh start with his own QB and needs to expunge his team of the mercurial Rodgers, but you are going nowhere in this league without an answer at QB. Nowhere!
Belichick is now stuck coaching in college.
And Glenn better have thick skin for what will happen next year if Rodgers goes somewhere else and does great and the Jets flounder at QB.
I am saying this upfront – there will be no grading on a curve because he decided he didn’t want Rodgers and wanted to start over at QB.
Because if Rodgers is great somewhere else next year and the Jets struggle at QB – why would Glenn be cut slack when he had Rodgers under contract and decided to move on?
Cutting Glenn slack at that point would be like feeling bad for an orphan who killed his parents.
Hey, we will see what happens with the Jets QB situation moving forward, Maybe it works out great. None of us have a crystal ball.
But to go from having an answer at QB, who threw 28 TDs last year, the same as MVP Josh Allen, to the world of the unknown, especially with a draft and free agent class that doesn’t look great at the position, is a risky proposition.
We will see how it turns out.
February 11, 2025
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