If Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets are planning to stay together after this season, they certainly have an interesting way of showing it.
The veteran Jets quarterback again pontificated on his future with the organization Tuesday, after being asked by reporters how they should interpret past comments made about a potential release. The most notable answers might have been the shortest, when a reporter brought up Jets owner Woody Johnson:
Reporter: Do you think Woody wants you back?
Rodgers: You should ask Woody.
Reporter: Have you and Woody had conversations at all, Aaron, about the future?
Rodgers: No.
Those frosty comments came a day after Rodgers took a direct swipe about an earlier report that Johnson has allowed his teenage sons, Brick and Jack, to influence his team’s football decisions, most notably nixing a trade for wide receiver Jerry Jeudy because of a low Madden rating.
During his usual appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Monday, Rodgers alluded, with a smile, to being released by a teenager:
“I have a first time for everything and there’s been a few of those this year. I’ve never been released before. Being released would be a first. Being released by a teenager, that would also be a first. I’m open to everything. I find the comedy in all of it. If that happens, it’s a great story.”
Rodgers is currently wrapping up his second season with the Jets, a tenure that has seen the team go 4-11 with him under center after he missed all of last year with a torn Achilles.
Very little has gone according to plan for the Jets since bringing him in, even as the franchise granted him no shortage of control by bringing in preferred teammates (e.g. Davante Adams, Allen Lazard). And with Rodgers now 41 years old, there’s not much reason to expect an improvement next year.
Should the Jets release Rodgers after this season, they would incur $66.2 million in dead money, costing them $49 million in cap space. They could also do a post-June 1 release, costing them $21 million in 2025 cap space and $28 million in 2026, per OverTheCap.
It’s still a heavy decision to release a player you bet on taking you to the promised land, especially when giving up means a significant cost on the personnel side. Publicly, Rodgers isn’t betting one way or the other on what the team does:
“I think anything is truly possible, whether it happens or not … I think there’s going to be some decisions that want to be made the day after the season or a couple days after the season. I’m just not naive — it’s not 0% in my mind. I don’t think it’s a high percentage.
“I’m just kind of open to everything at this point, and understanding that there’s a lot of things that can happen. January 6 through 7, they could say, ‘We want you to come back next year,’ but they could just easily say, ‘We’re going to go a different direction,’ whatever that looks like. So again, open to all of it, understanding all of it’s possible. And I look forward to those conversations.”
That said, he also had the tone of someone ready to say their goodbyes after a chaotic summer camp:
“I have nothing but gratitude for the Johnsons and everybody I’ve met here and everybody who brought me in. It’s, you know, been obviously not as successful as we thought I was going to be, but I’ve made a lot of lot of good friends here. Had a lot of really special moments. Had some really difficult ones too, but no animosity. Whatever happens, whatever they decide.”
The Jets have two more games this season, the first a road trip to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday then a home game against the Miami Dolphins in Week 18. We’ll see if those end up being the final games of Rodgers’ Jets career, but the wind is blowing in one direction based on tone right now.
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