The 2024 NFL season turned out to be yet another year to forget for the New York Jets. In fact, it ended up being arguably the biggest letdown in the team’s history. The Gang Green, who looked like a solid playoff team or even a possible title contender on paper before the season began, missed the postseason for 14th straight year, extending the longest draught in team’s history.
While the Jets struggled both on and off the field, as they fired both their head coach and general manager long before the season ended, QB Aaron Rodgers seemed to have had a decent season, at least on paper. He finished the year passing for a total of 3,897 yards, 28 TDs, 11 INTs with a 63% completion rate and a 90.5 QB rating. These are rather impressive numbers, especially for NY Jets quarterbacks, who have hardly had much success over the years.
Rodgers’ numbers looked rather comparable to the likes of Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills, who passed for 3,731 yards, 28 TDs and 6 INTs. Allen’s Bills, however, will be in the AFC Championship Game and currently have +260 Super Bowl Odds to win. The Philadelphia Eagles are the favorites to hoist the Lombardi Trophy at +180, while the Chiefs and the Commanders have +220 and +800 odds respectfully.
Even though Rodgers did have decent numbers, the Jets managed to win just five games and only one of these wins came against an opponent with a winning record (Houston). Despite these obvious struggles to deliver a winning record, there are plenty of fans who want Rodgers to come back for at least one more season…
Failure to deliver in winnable games
Winning games was the main reason why the Jets acquired Aaron Rodgers two years ago from the Packers. Rodgers, a future HOFer, had a proven record to deliver 4th quarter comebacks and win close games that could have gone either way. He was expected to do so with the Jets but instead he kept failing one week after another.
In Week 4 Rodgers had multiple opportunities to deliver a win against the struggling Denver Broncos led by a rookie quarterback. He failed. Yes, it was the kicker who missed twice in the end, but it was Rodgers’ task to move the ball downfield and he failed.
One week later, Rodgers had another chance to make a 4th quarter comeback against the Vikings in London. The Jets were down by 6 points with 3 minutes left in the fourth quarter, giving Rodgers plenty of time to deliver one of his signature comebacks. Rodgers did move the Jets to the 26-yard line where he threw an interception sealing the game for Minnesota.
Another week went by, and Rodgers had another chance for a 4th quarter comeback. This time the Jets were down by 3 points against the Buffalo Bills. Rodgers had almost 4 minutes to orchestrate a Jets comeback win, but instead he threw yet another pick that sealed the game for the opponent.
A few weeks later Rodgers had yet another chance to dig out his old magic and deliver a last-minute win. This time it was the Colts who were leading by one point with 46 seconds left in the final quarter. Rodgers…. Well, he took two sacks on 3 offensive plays and the game was over.
Early game struggles
Aaron Rodgers’ led offense struggled tremendously to find its rhythm throughout the season. They scored only on five opening possessions (three field goals and two touchdowns). By the time Rodgers’ offense began finally moving the ball, the game was almost out of reach in many cases and Rodgers’ decent numbers were posted in garbage time when the opponent already had their backups on the field. Ten out of Rodgers’ 28 touchdown passes came against Houston (who had many injured players), Jacksonville (finished with an even worse record than the Jets) and Miami (last game of the season).
Why would we keep Rodgers?
The Jets brought in Rodgers to win now. It didn’t work out and the window of opportunity, if there was ever one to begin with, has now closed. Rodgers will be a year older and with different coaching staff, different coaching philosophy and quite frankly different expectations. The Super Bowl expectations, and the biggest letdown ever, are now gone and so should be Aaron Rodgers. This team needs to be rebuilt in a proper way, which can surely be done with a journeyman QB like Tyrod Taylor or a 2nd year QB like Jordan Travis. No one is expecting this team to go anywhere next season; hence it’s time to do a cleanup. It’s time to get rid of Rodgers, his buddy Davante Adams, another buddy Allen “Stone Hands” Lazard and Haason Reddick, who turned out to be one of the worst trade acquisitions in the last few decades.
Rodgers is the past. Well, he’s more like a dream that never materialized. The dream that many of us wanted to believe no matter what because of how little success Jets fans have seen over the years. It’s time to let go of the dream and get back to reality… new GM, new coaching staff, new QB search and the Same Old Jets with the same old buffoon owner.
God help us all!
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