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Aaron Rodgers leaves the field after a dispiriting defeat to the New England Patriots.Illustration: Adam Glanzman/Getty Images
The Aaron Rodgers era, which never really began in New York, is officially over.
Last season after eight games, the New York Jets were 4-4 with Zach Wilson at quarterback, and a defense led by head coach Robert Saleh and defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich that at least kept the team in games, until everything fell apart during the second half, and the Jets finished 7-10.
It was automatically assumed that when Aaron Rodgers, a four-time MVP and future Hall of Famer, returned from the torn achilles that cost him all but four snaps in 2023, things would be much better.
Spoiler alert: Things are not much better. In fact, they’re worse than they were under Wilson, a quarterback who rarely looked like he belonged in the NFL. After their 25-22 Sunday loss to a New England Patriots team whose own head coach, Jerod Mayo, agreed with the idea that his team was playing “soft” after a Week 7 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Jets are 2-6, at the very bottom of the AFC East.
Whatever’s worse than the “soft” descriptor for an NFL team, and there aren’t many more grievous insults to levy, that’s where the Jets are now.
Saleh was fired after a 2-3 start, which now seems like much happier times. Ulbrich’s promotion to interim head coach has affected the defense, the team’s strength, in profoundly negative ways. And Rodgers is going to run out of people to be angry with sooner rather than later.
The fact is that Rodgers will be 41 in December, and it’s starting to show. Even his opponents feel bad for him. “Hate to see him go out that way,” said the Patriots’ Davon Godchaux after Sunday’s game. “He definitely don’t look the same. He kept moving back there – shit, I could run him down and catch him. He don’t look mobile at all.”
Godchaux, it should be noted, is no Noah Lyles. He is a 330lb defensive tackle who ran a…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/spoiler-alert-jets-painful-aaron-071023517.html
Author : The Guardian
Publish date : 2024-10-28 07:10:23
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