Is Aaron Rodgers too good for the Jets?

(Editor’s note: This is excerpted from Mike Sando’s Pick Six of Sept. 30, 2024.)

Are the Jets heading down the same road the Packers took late in Mike McCarthy’s tenure?

Facing third-and-10 with 1:53 remaining in a game his Jets trailed 10-9, 40-year-old quarterback Aaron Rodgers fired a back-shoulder throw up the left sideline toward Xavier Gipson, a 23-year-old who entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent. Gipson kept running up the sideline. Rodgers’ pass sailed behind Gipson, falling incomplete out of bounds.

This play in a critical moment recalled the disconnect between Rodgers and some of his much younger, much less experienced teammates toward the end of the quarterback’s run in Green Bay. As a former Rodgers-era Green Bay coach would later say, “Aaron was so good at the line of scrimmage, he wanted to be in that mode all the time, but it can stress the other 10 guys, especially if you have a young team.”

A similar conflict flashed after the Jets lost Sunday. Coach Robert Saleh — citing 13 penalties for 90 yards, including five false starts — suggested the Jets might not be ready to handle Rodgers’ various cadences. Rodgers pushed back, suggesting his cadence has been a weapon, not a problem, for the Jets before Sunday.

Robert Saleh talks about the cadence on offense and how that has been a problem in regards to penalties for the Jets pre-snap pic.twitter.com/WQJCLHGi3Z

— Jets Videos (@snyjets) September 29, 2024

Aaron Rodgers seems to get annoyed when asked about Robert Saleh’s comments about dialing back the cadence on offense. “That’s one way to do it. The other way is to hold them accountable.” 😳#Jets pic.twitter.com/PUbM2WvCsK

— Optimistic Jets (@OptimisticJets) September 29, 2024

The Jets have a mix of young and old on offense. Their starters Sunday: Rodgers (40), tackle Tyron Smith (33), tight end Tyler Conklin (29), receiver Allen Lazard (28), guard John Simpson (27), guard Alijah Vera-Tucker (25), tight end Jeremy Ruckert (24), receiver Garrett Wilson (24), center Joe Tippmann (23), running back Breece Hall (23) and tackle Olu Fashanu (21).

None other than Lazard has played much with Rodgers, and it sometimes shows.

The Rodgers-era Packers seemed to find the right balance under Matt LaFleur. Do the Jets have the time, and the coaching, to do the same? Their offensive coordinator, Nathaniel Hackett, was with Rodgers and LaFleur from 2019 to 2021. The Jets’ offense flopped in its 10-9 defeat Sunday despite Rodgers delivering an array of impressive passes.

told ya!#DENvsNYJ on CBS & @paramountplus pic.twitter.com/NkyUsr9Sch

— New York Jets (@nyjets) September 29, 2024

The Jets’ offensive EPA for this game (minus-18.8) was the seventh-worst for any team with Rodgers in the lineup, ranking 243rd out of 249, counting Rodgers’ Green Bay years. That was a huge swing from the Jets’ performance in their 24-3 victory over New England last week.

“The Jets at home blow out a rival who is not very good, and then they have 10 days to get ready for their next opponent, and they look like that?” a veteran coach said.

The chart below is an updated version of one published last week. It shows the Jets’ offense perking up with Rodgers initially, then falling back Sunday.

(Photo: Mike Stobe / Getty Images)