Almost like a player-coach

He’s really making his presence felt . . .

Let’s put it this way, Aaron Rodgers isn’t a wallflower and that’s a good thing for the Jets.

As we mentioned on Monday, they need a lot of blunt-force trauma from the legendary QB to help them turn around their culture.

And he’s more than happy to let his voice be heard not just on the practice field, but also in the meeting.

He was a force in the meetings in the spring.

Back in the olden days of pro sports, they used to have player coaches.

It was a big thing in the NBA in the 1960-70s, with a few examples being Bill Russell (Boston Celtics), Lenny Wilkins (Seattle Supersonics), Dave DeBusschere (Detroit Pistons) and Richie Guerin (St. Louis/Atlanta Hawks). A few examples in baseball were Joe Torre (New York Mets), Pete Rose (Cincinnati Reds) and Frank Robinson (Cleveland Indians).

Obviously, Rodgers isn’t going to officially be a player-coach of the New York Jets. They have a head coach they like in Robert Saleh, plus having a player coach in pro football is probably logistically impossible. There are too many moving parts.

But in a way, Rodgers was like a player-assistant coach in the spring.

“In the meetings, speak up about certain things, adjustments in the offense and additional coaching points,” Rodgers said in the spring.

And Jets offensive coordinator, Nathaniel Hackett, has no issue with Rodgers getting up in meetings, and providing teaching points.

“Obviously, have a long history with Nathaniel (Hackett), so he gives me a lot of latitude to speak up in meetings,” Rodgers said.

Rodgers and Hackett are very close from their three years working together in Green Bay, from 2019-21.

Rodgers knows his aggressive player approach in meetings is something that might have caught some new teammates by surprise.

“I don’t know if they’re used to that around here, so just trying to set the standard for really nice open communication in all of those meetings,” Rodgers said.

Rodgers feels it’s very important for him to help connect the meetings to the field, so on the offensive side of the ball, he does everything he can in meetings and on the field to do this.

“I think the biggest issue sometimes in the offense is the grey area between the paper football and the actual football, so just trying to bridge the gap between what might say on the overhead slide, but how it actually plays out on the field,” Rodgers said. “Just working in code words and conceptual things for the guys.”

Helping players with mental cheat sheets, if you will.

“Give guys little cheats in the offense to hit their brain a little bit differently,” Rodgers said.

Let’s be honest, the Jets have little time to waste here.

They don’t know how long Rodgers is going to be around, so they need to make the most of things while the guy is in the building.

And he can help them do that, as a pseudo-player-coach, who can expedite the learning curve for some offensive teammates with his tutorials in the meetings and on the practice field.

July 11, 2023

Premium will return by 9:30 pm on Wednesday.