The power of Aaron Rodgers with the New York Jets is great. He knows it and wields that power in a way that people can only speculate about but cannot truly touch. On Tuesday, the Jets fired head coach Robert Saleh, and there is little doubt that Rodgers signed off on it. Did he give input on Saleh being let go? Maybe, but we will never know for sure.
When Russell Wilson was with the Seattle Seahawks in 2022, he reportedly wanted then-head coach Pete Carroll fired. He wanted general manager John Schneider to be let go as well. Instead, Wilson was basically fired as he was traded to the Denver Broncos. He has been in football purgatory since.
Wilson appears to be washed up at this point. He was almost immediately leaving Seattle for the Denver Broncos. The Broncos, after two seasons, decided they did not want Wilson so much that they released him even though they had to eat tens of millions of dollars in dead cap.
Rodgers looks fairly washed up as well. He certainly won't take ownership of that or hold himself accountable for his play - he instead implied his teammates were at fault for a Week 4 loss to the Broncos. To be sure, Rodgers has completed only 61 percent of his passes this season so far, and his quarterback rating is a relatively dismal 81.6, 26th in the NFL. He is partly to blame for New York's 2-3 record.
The quarterback is also 40 years old and is not going to get much better at his age. Still, the Jets trust him to help them make decisions, and he can do so without having to look bad, as he is going to management to get a coach fired. Supposedly, Saleh was going to fire offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett but never got a chance because Saleh was terminated.
Hackett was Rodgers' former offensive coordinator when both were with the Green Bay Packers. Rodgers likes Hackett. The OC being fired might upset Rodgers, so the team chose to fire Saleh. The math is not that difficult.
The Seahawks did the opposite. Wilson had to beg management to make changes, and he was the change that was made. Wilson thought he had power and did not. Rodgers knows he has power and knows how to use it.
The question is whether the Jets are better off. They did not make Hackett the head coach but instead went with defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich as interim head coach. That does not rule out Hackett being the full-time coach in the future. If Rodgers wants it badly enough, that move will probably happen. Meanwhile, Russell Wilson is now a backup quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
