The Jets Waited Long Enough, But They Finally Have the Real Aaron Rodgers
Everybody already knows that on April 26, 2023, the New York Jets made a trade with the Green Bay Packers that bagged Gang Green (at least potentially) the greatest quarterback in franchise history in the person of one Aaron Charles Rodgers.
Not that "greatest quarterback in Jets history" is a very high bar. This is a franchise that has never had a quarterback with a career passer rating better than 88.2 with at least 500 passing attempts with the team, and the guy up top is Chad Pennington at 88.9. Not what you'd expect. Brett Favre, Rodgers' Packers predecessor, threw 22 touchdowns and 22 interceptions in 2008, his one season in New York. Joe Namath, whose performances degraded severely as his body started to fall apart and all those late nights caught up to him, finished his Jets career with a 50.2% completion rate, 170 touchdowns to 215 interceptions, and a passer rating of 65.8.
Having failed over and over in era after era to find a truly defining modern quarterback, the Jets went all in on Rodgers, hoping that his extraordinary talent would finally change the luck of such a quarterback-bedraggled franchise.
Of course, that process fell off a cliff four snaps into the 2023 season, when Rodgers suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon in the season opener against the Buffalo Bills. It was then an offseason of Rodgers' off-field oddities, which you can read about elsewhere unless you're as tired of them as your friendly author is.
So, the hope against hope was that 2024 would mark Rodgers' return in the best possible sense. Through the first two weeks of the season, in a loss to the San Francisco 49ers and a win over the Tennessee Titans, it didn't play out that way. Like so many Jets signal-callers before him, Rodgers was at best an accessory to his team's success; at worst, he was an innocent bystander. In those first two games, he completed 31 of 51 passes (60.8%) for 343 yards (6.7 yards per attempt), three touchdowns, one interception, and a passer rating of 92.2.
Not bad, but hardly what one would expect from perhaps the greatest thrower of the football we've ever seen in his prime. You may have started to think that at age 40, with his 41st birthday coming on December 2, the Jets may have paid for damaged goods.
Then, Rodgers' Thursday night performance against the New England Patriots in Rodgers' home opener at MetLife Stadium. This was the Rodgers we hadn't seen in about two seasons, and all was right with the world. In this 24-3 win, Rodgers completed 27 of 35 passes (77.1%) for 281 yards (8.0 yards per attempt), two touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 118.9.
Moreover, Rodgers looked like the Rodgers we all know at his best.
"It felt great," he said postgame. "I was feeling real good out there. I felt good pregame and I've been progressing. I said to you guys after Week One, 'It's going to be a process of continuing to extend plays.' Once I feel more comfortable, and this was kind of the first step, and playing like I know I'm capable of playing. It felt like I was myself quite a few years ago."
That's precisely what it looked like. And it was Rodgers excelling in every phase as he has so often in his slam-dunk Hall of Fame career. Let's look at how things were so different all of a sudden, and how much of it can be extrapolated to the rest of the 2024 season.
Rodgers was finally effective on the move again
Maybe Rodgers was favoring his recovered Achilles tendon in the first two weeks of the season, or maybe he just wasn't used to throwing on the move again, but an attribute that was always a force multiplier in his case was on display again.
Rodgers was more inclined to either misfire or take a sack outside the pocket against the 49ers and Titans, but against the Patriots, it was a completely different story.
"Yeah, the cool thing was he showed the mobility that we've been seeing throughout training camp," Jets head coach Robert Saleh said postgame. "Like I've said, he may not be what he used to be, but he still has plenty in those legs, and his arm's still 30, and his mind's still operating at a high level. He was definitely impressive today.
"It's just instinct. He felt the pocket collapsing and felt like there was space. Like I said, it's a feel game, you're not asking him to do that stuff. In a perfect world, you're throwing it with timing and rhythm, and guys are open. I thought it was really good for him to show that he still has plenty of juice in his legs."
Rodgers had more and better answers under pressure
Through the first two weeks of the 2024 season, Rodgers was a disaster when pressured. He completed four of 10 passes for 26 yards, no touchdowns, one interception, and an NFL-worst passer rating of 8.3.
Against the Patriots, Rodgers completed seven of nine passes when pressured for 106 yards, no touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 115.7.
Rodgers was able to mitigate pressure by moving outside the pocket as we've already detailed, but this 22-yard completion to tight end Tyler Conklin on second-and-17 with 10:12 left in the first half showed how Rodgers can evade pressure while forcing a defense to define itself. Rodgers first looked to receiver Allen Lazard in the left flat as receiver Xavier Gipson took slot defender Marcus Jones up top with a corner route, and Rodgers timed the quick throw to Conklin perfectly from a flat-footed base.
Rodgers is developing chemistry with his receivers
Rodgers made the point after the game that through the first three weeks of the new season, opposing defenses have chosen to focus on Garrett Wilson, his best receiver. But as the game went along, Rodgers found opportunities for his alpha target.
The two-play sequence that began with 7:05 left in the third quarter had Rodgers first throwing a quick pass to Wilson on the left side for eight yards, then hitting Wilson for a two-yard touchdown.
"It's one of the QB mortal sins, pre-meditated decision," Rodgers said of that progression. "He kind of said something coming back to the huddle like, 'Throw me the ball again,' which is great, so I said, 'Okay.' So we had kind of a run-pass option there and he kind of got, he was maybe slow in his route a little bit, so I kind of double clutched it. He's the type of guy where sometimes you feel like I've learned this, but a normal ball you think is going to be on target if it's foot in front of the numbers is sometimes behind him, so I've learned to throw it even wider than I actually think.
"I'm glad I did because [Patriots cornerback Christian] Gonzales was in a good spot there, G made just, for the mere mortal, a really difficult catch, but for him, he made it look easy."
"We feel like we left some plays out there, so, you know, that's how we feel," Wilson concluded. "We can be better."
With even more time and chemistry, it looks as if they will be.
This is the Aaron Rodgers we have expected for a very long time
We may never again see the Aaron Rodgers that set the NFL alight for so many seasons, but even with those slow starts this season, Rodgers' current passer rating of 103.1 is the best he's put up in a season since 2021's 111.9, which was the last time he won the NFL Most Valuable Player award. And the point at this stage of his career is less to wonder if he can once again reach those hyper-transcendent heights, and more about assessing whether the Aaron Rodgers we saw against the Patriots is the one we'll see for the rest of the season.
If Aaron Rodgers is going to be that Aaron Rodgers, the balance of power in the AFC might be feeling some rumblings as time goes on.
Related: Mel Kiper Jr. Wants to Ban Two-Deep Coverage in the NFL When Offenses Are Finally Beating It Related: Kyler Murray, Josh Allen, J.K. Dobbins: Key NFL Matchups to Watch in Week 3This story was originally published September 20, 2024, 3:57 PM.
