Aaron Rodgers' message for his Jets teammates: Focus needs to be on football
New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers speaks to reporters at the team's facility in Florham Park, N.J., on Monday, Jan. 8, 2023. Credit: AP/Dennis Waszak Jr.
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Aaron Rodgers delivered a parting shot before he returns to Malibu for the offseason, and it was directed at the Jets’ organization and his teammates.
Rodgers said everyone needs to get more serious about winning.
“If you want to be a winning organization and put yourself in position to win championships and be competitive, everything that you do matters,” Rodgers said Monday. “The [expletive] that has nothing to do with winning needs to get out of the building. That would be the focus moving forward.
“Flush the [expletive],” Rodgers added.
The Jets went 7-10 this season and missed the playoffs for the 13th consecutive year, so his words have some merit.
The irony is that Rodgers will make his weekly appearance Tuesday on “The Pat McAfee Show,” where he plans to address the firestorm he created when he suggested that Jimmy Kimmel’s name would appear on the Jeffrey Epstein documents.
“I’m going to talk about it [Tuesday] on the show,” Rodgers said. “Tune in.”
That has nothing to do with winning, but when Rodgers is at work, that is his only focus.
“Anything in this building that we’re doing individually or collectively that has nothing to do with real winning needs to be assessed,” he said. “When you step in the building, there’s intentionality with everything that you do. It’s not a half-the-time thing, it’s not a sometimes thing, it’s not a most-of-the-time thing. It’s an every-time thing.”
Rodgers, 40, speaks from experience. He led Green Bay to the playoffs in 11 of his last 14 seasons there and won a Super Bowl in 2011.
He was asked if the Jets still need to learn how to win. “Yes,” he replied. When pushed on it, he said, “Yes is probably the best way to answer that.”
The Jets became the NFL’s most-hyped team after acquiring Rodgers. He fanned the flames by saying he believed they were a legitimate Super Bowl contender. Then he tore his left Achilles tendon four snaps into the season.
Rodgers has a big level of regret that he couldn’t help the Jets end their playoff drought.
“It was a really difficult year,” he said. “It kind of hit me last night after the game, just feeling like a lost year that I missed out on. Just thinking if I had been out there, things would have been a little different.”
Rodgers did everything possible to come back this season. He underwent a SpeedBridge repair, an innovative soft-tissue fixation device used in the treatment of Achilles injuries, so he could recover more quickly.
The four-time MVP intended to return on Christmas Eve if the Jets were in the playoff race, but they were eliminated the previous week, so Rodgers’ season was over. But he believes his story is far from over. And he is not alone.
“I think he’s going to come out with more fire,” Robert Saleh said. “He’s on a mission and he’s not going to stop until his mission’s complete.”
Saleh cited seeing Rodgers “carve us up” while playing scout team quarterback during the last few weeks of practice. Linebacker C.J. Mosley said he “was lighting us up.”
There are questions about how he will perform at his age after a major injury. Rodgers, who said he plans to play at least two more seasons, is out to prove that he’s the same quarterback he’s been and that the offense he and Nathaniel Hackett collaborated on works. He also is motivated to lead the Jets deep into the playoffs.
“Coming back next year, playing well is going to allow me to play another season,” Rodgers said. “Obviously, we’re all going to be on the quote-unquote hot seat next year. It’s going to be an important year for all of us. I love that. I think it’s fantastic. We should approach that every single year.
“If you have a bad year or down year, there’s going to be people calling for you to move on, especially when you’re 40 years old. I’m going to go out there and play as well as I can. If I have the season that I know that I’m capable of having and we have the success I know we’re capable of having, all that stuff takes care of itself.”
Rodgers said the Jets need some more pieces — particularly on the offensive line and at wide receiver — to contend next season.
“We haven’t been in the playoffs for 13 years now,” he said. “We have to start by winning the division and taking that title away from the Bills.”
Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.
