Aaron Rodgers being the Jets’ starting quarterback has been a dream come true so far for the organization. Sure, no regular-season games have been played yet. But still, his mere presence has changed just about everything for Gang Green.
Could it end up being a messy divorce, though? According to Peter Bukowski of Locked On Packers and The Leap, the Jets didn’t care about the red flags and how things got “toxic” in Green Bay before the Packers traded him to New York.
Here’s what Bukowski said on the Short and To the Point podcast with Jessica Kleinschmidt (h/t NJ.com):
The reason I think it’s gotten so toxic is actually the reverse problem in New York. They haven’t had a star quarterback since Joe Namath. We’re talking about 50-plus years. And so, they’re so starved for this moment that they don’t want to hear anything negative about Aaron Rodgers. They don’t want to hear about the reality of the situation from a Green Bay Packers standpoint that by the end, speaking of toxic, it had gotten a little toxic there.
Aaron Rodgers wanted guys fired. He wanted massive cultural changes. He wanted a massive amount of more input in what was going on in Green Bay and the Packers said, ‘No. No. 1, we’re not gonna trade you. No. 2, we’re not gonna give you all this input.’ Now they gave him some. They traded for [veteran wide receiver] Randall Cobb, his buddy, but that was kind of it. They didn’t do a lot of other things. Now, they did give him a little bit more control of the offense. I thought that made the offense worse. Then, they gave him a little bit more in 2022. That definitely made the offense worse. And he didn’t buy in.
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It’s no secret that the end of Rodgers’ tenure with Green Bay was rocky. Did the Jets turn a blind eye to it all because they needed a quarterback? I guess that’s possible.
But at the same time, Rodgers was with the same organization for 18 years. That’s incredibly rare these days. Above all else, it was probably just time for a change. This is likely why Rodgers was leaning toward retirement before his darkness retreat.
From what we can see during training camp practices, preseason games, media sessions, One Jets Drive, and Hard Knocks, there’s been nothing to suggest that Rodgers is a problem for the Jets. If anything, he’s been an incredible asset as Gang Green hopes to break the NFL’s longest playoff drought this season.
This is just another sign of some people still not being over the fact that he’s finishing his career elsewhere.
You can reach Matt Musico at matt.musico@xlmedia.com. You can follow him on Twitter: @mmusico8.
