The Jets have been ready to move on from Aaron Rodgers since the day they hired Aaron Glenn, but Aaron Rodgers isn’t ready to move on from them.
There Rodgers was on Thursday afternoon, sitting on a back patio somewhere sunny (presumably his Malibu, California home). He wore headphones with wires, the kind that used to come with older iPhones, to — as he’s said — protect his brain. When the Jets came up, his internet connection went choppy.
“I’m sure they’re trying to shut this part down,” he said, with a wry smile. Or, perhaps he had to cut costs after — as he emphasized to McAfee — “I flew across the country on my own dime” to New Jersey to meet with the Jets early in the offseason, in what would be his final moments in Florham Park.
Rodgers thought he was meeting with Glenn and GM Darren Mougey to offer his thoughts and opinions on the Jets, what needed to be fixed, and the future — his own and the team’s. (“Why wouldn’t you want to pick my brain?” Rodgers said.) But, the way Rodgers tells it, Glenn wasn’t interested in his opinions. This wasn’t a meeting to gauge Rodgers’ interest in coming back. This was a meeting to let him know that, with a new regime taking over, he was no longer in the Jets’ plans. As Rodgers told it to McAfee:
“I figured that when I flew across the country on my dime, there would be a conversation,” Rodgers said. “I meet with the coach, we start talking … he runs out of the room. I’m like, that’s strange. Then he comes back with the GM. So we sit down and I think we’re going to have this long conversation, I’ve flown across the country, and 20 seconds in, I’m talking to the GM, and (Glenn) leans to the edge of his seat and says: ‘You’re sure you want to play football?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I’m interested.’ And he said, ‘We’re going in another direction at quarterback.’ ”
“I was kind of shocked.”
Then, Rodgers said, he unloaded.
“I just flew across the country and you could’ve told me this on the phone if we weren’t even going to have a conversation,” Rodgers said.
Rodgers said Glenn then asked him about the messaging of how he wanted his release to be announced. According to Rodgers, Glenn said, “I don’t want to be in front of the room saying something and have guys looking back at you. And I said, ‘Are you assuming I would be in the back of the room during a team meeting, undermining what you’re saying? You don’t know me.’ And he said, “You don’t know me.’ And then I said, ‘Exactly, that’s why I flew across the country to have a face-to-face meeting with you.’ ” Later in the interview, Rodgers said: “I think that was a little rogue by the head coach.”
Glenn had no interest in being in the Aaron Rodgers business, and it’s hard to blame him. If anything, the way Rodgers has handled the aftermath, specifically Thursday’s interview with McAfee, proved the Jets made the right decision.
Think about the start of the Rodgers-Jets marriage.
In 2023, the Jets flew to Malibu with a contingent of key decision makers to convince him to play for them. They hired Nathaniel Hackett as offensive coordinator and overpaid Allen Lazard in free agency to make Rodgers more comfortable. After the trade was completed, Rodgers gave some salary back to help the Jets sign some more of his friends, or players he wanted to play with — Randall Cobb, Dalvin Cook, Billy Turner, Tim Boyle among them. None of those signings worked out. For a time, other GMs around the league mockingly referred to then-Jets general manager Joe Douglas as the team’s assistant GM. The joke: Rodgers was really the one calling the shots.
Rodgers promised the Jets the world. Instead, he gave them a world of distraction. In two years, he made more headlines for his media appearances than for his play on the field.
In February, the Jets fired Rodgers. He’s never been fired before. He says he wishes Glenn would have shown him enough respect to just fire him over the phone rather than, as he said multiple times on Thursday, have him pay his own way flying across the country for a short meeting. (Packers GM Brian Gutekunst might tell you Rodgers wouldn’t have answered the phone anyway.)
“I felt there wasn’t an ample amount of respect in that meeting,” Rodgers told McAfee. “I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised based on some things I saw over two years.”
If Glenn had told Rodgers they were done with him over the phone, would Rodgers have criticized him for not doing it face-to-face? Glenn handled this the right way. For all the Jets’ off-the-field missteps over the years, this was not one of them.
In the corporate world, companies often conduct mass firings via Zoom — sometimes employees find out they’ve been dismissed via email. Most NFL players don’t receive the same courtesy that the Jets provided Rodgers: The coach told him man-to-man. Was it a harsh approach? Sure. Could Glenn have used a softer touch? Maybe. But what would have been the point in letting it linger? Glenn ripped the band-aid off. Nothing Rodgers was going to say in that meeting was going to sway Glenn and Mougey. So, Rodgers found out he was on the outs minutes after arriving at the Jets facility. And now Rodgers can move on, and so can the Jets.
For two seasons, Rodgers was a walking distraction. The Jets never deterred him from making appearances on McAfee’s show, even as he used that platform to call out teammates, spew conspiracy theories and just generally cause a stir … only for Rodgers to later decry the Jets organization for having so many non-football distractions.
Glenn has been the Jets head coach for 85 days. In that time, he has already put his stamp on how things are going to operate. He’s plugged leaks in the building. The Jets have actively tried to avoid making headlines, whereas they used to chase them (Rodgers contributed in that area, certainly). The Jets gutted their roster, and now only four players 30 or older remain — three on special teams, and one (Tyrod Taylor) a backup quarterback. Rodgers didn’t fit their new timeline, nor their new culture. This is the coach’s team now, not the quarterback’s. Whether it works or not, it was a necessary change after a disastrous two years.
Who is to say Rodgers wouldn’t be stringing the Jets along this offseason the same way he’s currently stringing along the Pittsburgh Steelers? Just look at the conversation with Glenn that Rodgers relayed. According to the quarterback, when Glenn asked “You sure wanna play football?” Rodgers responded “Yeah, I’m interested.”
It’s April and Rodgers hasn’t decided if he wants to retire or play. The NFL Draft is next week. The Jets have moved on. Justin Fields is their quarterback — and they won’t have to worry about him making weekly appearances on TV. Fields wouldn’t even really bite when given an opening to criticize the Steelers for benching him last year only to try to re-sign him the offseason.
Now, the Steelers turn their attention to Rodgers. Pittsburgh is a team desperate to get over the hump, in need of a quarterback, and Rodgers is in their sights. It sounds familiar.
(Photos: Sarah Stier, Ed Mulholland / Getty Images)