What should Jets’ next move be? Let Aaron Rodgers go free – now
As the New York Jets finish leveling their latest and greatest rebuild, they might as well take this thing just about all the way down to the studs – and we’ll get to them later.
But in the interim, naturally, interim general manager Phil Savage – he replaced exiled Joe Douglas on Tuesday – might bring an organization that’s long been adrift a little extra currency by continuing to clean a house that’s perpetually less than the sum of its parts.
How does a temporary caretaker with no guarantee of remaining employed here himself do that exactly? Here’s a three-part plan for Savage – and, far more importantly, owner Woody Johnson – to begin getting the Jets air-worthy even before their next set of controllers arrive on site:
▶ Step 1: Let Aaron Rodgers go now
It doesn’t need to be nasty or awkward. In fact, it should be classy and grateful – ‘a quasi-appreciative Jets Nation thanks you for your service’ – anything that suggests Florham Park, N.J., is a desired destination for personnel executives, coaches and players in the future would be a good start.
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But the Rodgers experiment clearly hasn’t worked. Why continue to let a soon-to-be 41-year-old be consistently abused mentally and physically on a 26th-ranked offense? Why keep him into the 2025 season given he clearly won’t be part of the long-term vision for the team’s next general manager and coach? Why let him go on as the franchise’s unofficial mouthpiece every week on ‘The Pat McAfee Show’? Why not just take that $66 million-plus cap hit over the next two seasons, which is essentially the cost of doing business anymore at the quarterback position at a time when the salary cap continues to expand?
Yet it just hasn’t worked with Rodgers, and there’s plenty of blame to go around on that front – the four-time league MVP certainly with a deserving share – and plenty of well-intentioned effort that simply didn’t pay off. But if he really wants to keep playing in 2025, let Rodgers move on now. Allow him to heal. Permit him get a jump on his offseason travels, meditation, ayahuasca ingestion and whatever else. Aside from pursuing his 500th regular-season touchdown pass – Rodgers is eight away from the milestone – there’s no upside for him, his teammates or the club to move ahead over the final six games of this season. Let Tyrod Taylor or UFL MVP Adrian Martinez or even rookie and former Florida State star Jordan Travis – if he’s physically able – take snaps while Rodgers takes the next red line out of town. It’s truly in the best interests of all parties.
▶ Step 2: Grant releases to other veterans who want them
The deadline to trade players like wideout Davante Adams, left tackle Tyron Smith, linebacker Haason Reddick and others expired earlier this month.
So why not reach out to them, too, and see what they want – which might be their own head starts on fresh starts.
Think Reddick, who’s only played 120 snaps this season and might just be rounding into form physically after a lengthy holdout following his offseason trade from the Philadelphia Eagles, wouldn’t draw interest from a contender in the short term before he goes into the 2025 free agent pool?
What about Adams, who’s due base salaries in excess of $35 million in both 2025 and ’26? Is the next regime really going to pay that to a wideout who turns 32 in December, especially if Rodgers exits the picture? Why not do right by Adams, who’s never played in a Super Bowl, and let him be a hired gun for the San Francisco 49ers or Arizona Cardinals or Buffalo Bills – maybe he’d even return to the Green Bay Packers. But surely someone would love to at least rent his talent and work ethic and attitude, which didn’t have sufficient time to fix the Jets. (And perhaps the same goes for Allen Lazard, one of Adams’ and Rodgers’ teammates with the Pack, if he becomes healthy enough to play again in 2024. But New York likely isn’t going to pay him eight-figure base salaries in 2025 and ’26 to be a WR2 … at best.)
Smith missed Sunday’s game with a neck problem and – at 33 and with a history of injuries – he might be done regardless. But why not let him decide, especially when the prudent move is to pull him from the lineup so rookie Olu Fashanu, this year’s first-rounder, can begin to settle into the position the Jets hope he’ll anchor the way Smith did for so long with the Dallas Cowboys.
Sure, prematurely parting with a player like Reddick might eventually cost the Jets a decent compensatory draft pick. But – despite the fact the team’s next leaders have yet to be identified – the long game for Johnson could be signaling to veterans around the NFL that the Jets care about their players and want to do right by them while also giving younger ones valuable playing time. Preemptive divorces also spare the incoming decision-makers some of the inevitable dirty work that awaits.
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▶ Step 3: Rebuild bridges to the young stars
Douglas’ lasting gift to the Jets should be the 2022 draft class, one that netted rookies of the year and All-Pro-level talents in cornerback Sauce Gardner and wide receiver Garrett Wilson, a Pro Bowl pass rusher in (currently injured) Jermaine Johnson II and running back Breece Hall, who’s shown he can be among the best at his position even if the Jets have too often failed to showcase his multi-dimensional abilities. Brothers Quinnen and Quincy Williams and edge rusher Will McDonald IV also seem worthy of remaining long-term defensive building blocks.
Of course, Douglas’ successor must evaluate whether to keep all or some of these players, decisions sure to be complicated by the fact that those drafted in 2022 will be extension-eligible for the first after this season.
But in the meantime, why not begin laying the groundwork to a foundation with those youngsters? Why not let them start to lead from the front without Rodgers’ shadow cast over the whole operation? Why not see what they can do when allowed to play unshackled from the pressure of unrealistic expectations, or schemes that haven’t worked, or stuck in a formula that hasn’t produced the desired chemistry?
There’s no spackling over what a mess the Jets are. But they can at least begin working on their curbside appeal before the next tenants move in and attempt to redecorate this into a home finally worthy of champions.
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Follow USA TODAY Sports’ Nate Davis on X, formerly Twitter, @ByNateDavis.
