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Jay Glazer announced it last Sunday and the Jets confirmed it on Thursday – the Jets are moving on from Aaron Rodgers.
“I wish him only the best in whatever he chooses to do next.” – Woody Johnson said in a statement.
Be careful what you wish for.
What if Rodgers goes somewhere else and has a great season and they go to the playoffs, and perhaps beyond, and the Jets flounder?
Who will this be spun?
Even though the New York media has softened in recent years, there will be questions about moving on from him if this case scenario plays out.
Aaron Glenn is very intimidating and will shut it down fast, like he did with Rodgers’ questions in his introductory press conference:
“If you are going to continue to ask me the same question, I’m gonna give you the same answer,” Glenn said. “We’re still in evaluation mode. So if anybody else is going to ask that, I’m going to give you the same answer. So don’t waste your time. We clear?”
That kind of answer will make most reporters in this day and age go into the fetal position. Times have changed.
But one thing that hasn’t changed, is if you don’t have a QB in the NFL you are screwed.
And the Jets are going from having a QB, who threw more TDs than Patrick Mahomes last season, to QB Never-Neverland.
Glenn just signed a long-term contract for an incredible amount of money so clearly he feels he has time to make this work, and if not, he will go home a very rich man.
Not sure about Darren Mougey’s contract, but it’s probably not profligate since no other teams were in play for his services, and since they had to pay Glenn a tremendous amount of money.
But as we mentioned in a previous post, Mougey knows what QB Never-Neverland looks like. He worked for Denver when they were in QB hell from when Peyton Manning retired, until they found Bo Nix last year, so 2016-23.
And many teams in the NFL have been in QB hell for long stretches, and these stretches can lead to constant regime change, like in places like Chicago, Las Vegas, Cleveland, the Football Giants – the list is long.
I assume they will go with Tyrod Taylor as a bridge QB, and either train Jordan Travis to be the heir apparent or draft somebody high for that role.
To me, one of the biggest reasons they are moving on is last year’s minicamp.
Prior plans or no prior plans, for a franchise QB to skip the veteran mandatory minicamp to go to Egypt is a terrible optic.
It’s great that he attended the OTAs, but why couldn’t he push his trip to Egypt back a few days? After the mandatory minicamp, players have over a month off. Never understood why he couldn’t push that back a few days.
For a really smart guy, that was a very bad decision.
That along with the Pat McAfee Show, which was a terrible distraction the last couple of years, the decision to move on was kind of bouillabaisse of things like this, off the field, that led to this decision.
Also, while Johnson made it clear Glenn and Mougey would make this decision, he certainly was a factor.
Johnson/Rodgers relationship has deteriorated to the point that the QB criticized the owner publicly, something you rarely see in the NFL – a player ripping an owner in the media.
“I think it’s an important part of ownership to hire the right guys, set the vision, and support them when the outside world is trying to tear them down,” Rodgers said about Johnson in December, a soundbite that was edited from the team’s website and SNY.
He also said on McAfee – “Being released by a teenager, that would also be a first.”
That was a reference to a report in the Athletic that Woody’s son Brick, was involved in team decisions the last couple of years.
In that same Athletic article, an unnamed source said former GM Joe Douglas said to a colleague, “I answer to a teenager.”
The Rodgers-Woody Johnson relationship took a terrible turn, and when the QB has such outward enmity to the owner, how sustainable is that dynamic in the NFL? It’s not.
Now, if Woody got an ambassadorship, and Christopher Johnson took over again, that might have been a game-changer. Rodgers loves Christopher Johnson.
But that ambassadorship didn’t happen, so that is perhaps one reason Rodgers wanted a change of scenery.
And Glenn/Mougey want a change at QB.
Why on earth did he skip that minicamp to go to Egypt?
February 14, 2025
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