The NFL league year doesn’t start until Mar 12th, but there have already been talks about where top players will head this offseason.
One of the players is New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, and after two seasons in the Big Apple, Rodgers will not return for a third season.
New York changed head coaches this offseason, hiring Detroit Lions head coach Aaron Glenn, switching general managers, and hiring Denver Broncos assistant GM Darren Mougey.
Usually, when a new head coach or general manager takes over, they don’t tie themselves to the players already on the roster since they didn’t acquire them. With Rodgers being 41 years old, it was a good time to move off the former superstar.
Glenn and Mougey will have time and won’t have to make the playoffs in year one. This season for the Jets is about improving both sides of the ball, hitting on their 2025 draft class, and seeing if Glenn can be the right head coach.
Rodgers being in New York plans this season didn’t make any sense, but if he was going to return, they could’ve been a significant threat in the AFC East.
The Jets Could’ve Been a Threat in the AFC East
Yes, the Jets were 5-12 last season, but that was after they fired head coach Robert Saleh after five games and promoted Jeff Ulbrich to interim head coach.
After Saleh’s firing, the Jets had no direction and could not bounce back from all the in-season changes.
Now that New York has hired Aaron Glenn, they have a coach who seems like he’ll do everything possible to win. Coming from working under Lions head coach Dan Campbell, there seems no way that Glenn will fail, given how Campbell, Glenn, and now new Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson brought the team from barely winning a game to Super Bowl contenders.
With a legit head coach in Glenn, the Jets are already ahead of where they were last season before acquiring a single player.
Rodgers was decent last season, throwing for 3,897 yards, 28 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions in his first year back from coming off a torn Achilles, where he saw less than a drive.
The Jets had tons of issues last season, but Rodgers’s play on the field wasn’t on top of that list.
If the same Rodgers from last season showed up in 2025 with the Jets, they would’ve been a tough out every weekend.
New York Has Talent
New York has talent, including one of the best wide receivers in the league, Garrett Wilson, an excellent running back, Breece Hall, a top-3 interior defensive lineman, Quinnen Williams, and their lockdown cornerback, Sauce Gardner.
The Jets have enough pieces to compete with teams like the Buffalo Bills inside the AFC East, but they didn’t have the coaching.
If Rodgers had returned to New York this upcoming season, they could’ve given the Bills a run for their money.
The coaching would be a lot better than last year. The Jets play a third-place schedule, meaning it’s easier than Buffalo’s, who plays a first-place one. The Jets would’ve had an entire training camp to have Rodgers work with Wilson, Davante Adams, Hall, and another top playmaker they take with the No. 7 pick in this year’s draft.
Would the Jets win the AFC East? No, but just two years ago, the Miami Dolphins were a win away from winning the division in the last few weeks of the season, and they blew it, so it’s not like Buffalo is unstoppable.
The Jets Won’t Compete in 2025
With the Jets saying they won’t bring Rodgers back, there is no way they will compete this season or probably next year in the AFC East.
Rodgers’s departure means they need a new signal caller; this isn’t the draft class to find a franchise quarterback.
Miami’s Cam Ward and Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders are the only quarterbacks expected to go in the first round.
If the Jets want one of the two, they will need to trade up from No. 7, but the Tennessee Titans and Cleveland Browns are picking No. 1 and No. 2, and both need quarterbacks.
New York will likely not find its quarterback until the 2026 NFL Draft, meaning it will sign a free agent. The names Kirk Cousins, Daniel Jones, Justin Fields, Sam Darnold, and Russell Wilson don’t scare anyone.
With Rodgers gone, that also means Adams, who’s a package deal with Rodgers, will likely find a way out of his contract this offseason.
The Jets wide receiver room that once looked great with Adams, Wilson now is just Wilson looking for tons of help around him.
Buffalo should thank New York for not wanting Rodgers back because winning a division for a sixth straight season is difficult, and the Jets could’ve been a serious threat with a good Aaron Rodgers to end the Bills streak.
