Aaron Rodgers the play-caller? Jets QB downplays his impact
Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, top center, celebrates on the sidelines as Jets wide receiver Malik Taylor is tackled by Browns cornerback Thomas Graham Jr. after catching a pass from quarterback Zach Wilson during the first half of the NFL Hall of Fame Game on Aug. 3 in Canton, Ohio. Credit: AP/Sue Ogrocki
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Even when he isn’t playing, Aaron Rodgers has become the undisputed center of the Jets’ universe.
Take as an example last week’s Hall of Fame Game, when the most exciting play on the field managed to find its way into the idle quarterback’s orbit.
It was a 57-yard bomb from Zach Wilson to Malik Taylor in the first quarter. When the throw and catch were highlighted on “Hard Knocks,” however, it was Rodgers who was mostly on the screen, wearing a headset, urging his protege and the other second-stringers to air it out.
“Throw it up to Malik,” Rodgers said. “Touchdown.”
It wasn’t, but that didn’t take away from the spectacle of a player who seemingly can do anything for these Jets, in uniform or otherwise.
That’s also an aura Rodgers seemingly is trying to contain.
In the inevitable flow these things take, Rodgers’ arrival has not so subtly shifted from excitement to backlash. Some pro sports stirrers are starting to wonder if the Jets have given Rodgers too much control over, well, just about everything they do.
So when he was asked this week if he’ll be making any more play calls in Saturday’s preseason game against the Panthers, Rodgers downplayed his impact.
“I think I’m getting a little too much credit for that,” he said. “I suggested some bombs all game long. One finally got called. [Wilson] didn’t hear what I was saying. I was mic’d up with the coaches, as far as my line. That was all Zach.”
The idea that the Jets’ internal hierarchy has been skewed by Rodgers’ arrival, with a player rather than the head coach or general manager now atop that sacred football pyramid, is nothing new.
It was confronted in the offseason when Rodgers started sharing ideas with the organization on whom he’d like them to sign, and soon enough, his former teammates such as Allen Lazard, Randall Cobb and Billy Turner were on their way to New Jersey. The team balked at calling it Rodgers’ “wish list,” and maybe it wasn’t exactly a demand, but it was pretty clear that the quarterback was having a loud voice in personnel decisions.
Now that the preseason is in full swing and more and more attention is being heaped on Rodgers and the team — the latter getting it mostly due to Rodgers himself — that voice is being amplified further.
Perhaps it is getting close to drowning out the others in authority, but
Robert Saleh didn’t seem too worried about ceding any leadership.
“Like I’ve said, he’s another coach out there,” the Jets’ coach reiterated on Thursday. “He’s a tremendous source of information for me to be able to sit down and just talk though things just to get his insights because he is in the locker room. He is with those guys and he does protect those guys, which he’s supposed to do, but at the same time, he understands the other lens, which is a very unique trait in a player to understand both sides of the coaches and players equation. Just having him has been great.”
Rodgers won’t be playing again on Saturday, but will he be calling any more plays?
Maybe.
“He puts in his suggestions,” Saleh said. “One great thing about Aaron is that he is very respectful to, I don’t want to call it a line, but to that position of power . . . We’re leaning on him, obviously. I’ve been very vocal about it.
“He’s such an unbelievable human with unbelievable thoughts, but he’s very respectful and isn’t abusing it in terms of just saying, ‘Hey, this is my view and if we disagree, that’s perfect, Coach, thanks for your insight.’ But then there’s times where I’m like, ‘[Expletive], Aaron, that’s really good, we’ll implement it.’ Right now, it’s been a really good team effort.”
As far as whose team that is, it’s becoming more and more clear each day.
Wilson: Take 2
Wilson will get his second start of the preseason against the Panthers. “He’s been having a good camp,” Saleh said of the backup to Rodgers. “I’m excited about his direction. He’s in such a great mindset, so it’s just a matter of him just getting back on the horse and rolling.”
With only three quarterbacks on the roster — Chris Streveler was waived/injured this week and reverted to IR — third-stringer Tim Boyle figures to see the majority of action once Wilson departs. Saleh said the Jets do not currently have plans to add a fourth quarterback to the active roster.
More Becton this time?
Saleh said left tackle Mekhi Becton will “push as far as he can” with his snap count after appearing in only seven reps against the Browns last week while coming back from two ACLs tears. Becton took significant reps in the joint practice with the Panthers on Wednesday.
“For him, it’s about getting comfortable with that knee and straining himself to push through and find ways to be able to show that he can play a full game and then on a normal practice schedule, show that he can do it again,” Saleh said. “That’s what his whole camp is about, to get him mentally connected to that knee so he’s got full confidence in it.”
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
