Going into the 2024 NFL season, most football experts believed that the New York Jets would finally have a winning season, but things didn’t go as planned for Aaron Rodgers and his teammates. The team signed the four-time NFL MVP quarterback in 2023, but Rodgers could not do anything to end the New York Jets struggles. As the team is already eliminated from the playoff race, now the New York Jets playoff drought is 14 seasons, the longest active in the NFL.
Revisiting the Jets’ Playoff Drought
The last time the Jets were in the playoffs was back in 2010 when they defeated the Indianapolis Colts in the Wild Card game and the New England Patriots in the Division before losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Conference championship game. No football predictions could see the Jets’ downfall since they looked like a team that would be a real contender for the decade that followed.
However, the Jets have had only one winning season ever since and have the longest active playoff drought in the league and are tied for the seventh longest in NFL history. Rex Ryan is the last head coach who took the Jets to the postseason, and they have changed four head coaches and six primary starting quarterbacks ever since with no result. Aaron Rodgers is the last among them, and even though the veteran had a decent individual season, the Jets’ fans have no reason to be happy with the team’s performance. As a matter of fact, they showed their disappointment many times this season, leaving MetLife Stadium early, and the franchise desperately needs to turn things around.
The Rodgers Revolution: Hopes and Challenges
In the 2023 offseason, after 18 years with the Green Back Packers, Aaron Rodgers was traded to the New York Jets for a bunch of future draft picks. Being the leader on the NFL’s all-time regular-season career passer rating list, the first with a career rating over 100, and also having the highest passer rating, the best touchdown-to-interception ratio, and the lowest passing interception percentage in NFL throughout the entire 2010s decade, the Jets saw Rodgers as the saviour.
But Aaron Rodgers Jets tenure couldn’t start any worse. In the 2023 season opener against the Buffalo Bills, Rodgers suffered an Achilles tendon injury in the very first minutes of the game. It proved to be a season-ending injury, and just like that, the four-time MVP finished his first year with the Jets with only one passing attempt. Head coach Robert Saleh had to turn back to Zach Wilson, Trevor Siemian, and Tim Boyle, and the Jets finished with a 7-10 record and once again far from the playoffs.
The only positive thing about that season was the development of young prospects such as wide receiver Garrett Wilson and running back Breece Hall, who were expected to be even better when Rodgers returns from injury for the 2024 season.
Rodgers didn’t play in the preseason as Saleh started Adrian Martinez, but the veteran was ready to go for the season opener. The Jets were in San Francisco to play the 49ers, who were coming off a Super Bowl loss. Rodgers’ return was spoiled with a 32-19 loss, but he proved that he has fully recovered, going 13 of 21 for a total of 167 yards.
Things looked much more promising after Week 3 as the Jets defeated the Tennessee Titans and the New England Patriots, but it proved to be the only time they won consecutive games this season. After falling to the Denver Broncos 10-9, the Jets went to London to meet with the Minnesota Vikings. They lost 23-17, and following the loss, Saleh was fired after a 20-36 record in three seasons with the team. The Jets’ defensive coordinator, Jeff Ulbrich, was named an interim head coach.
The change came at a crucial moment, as the Jets were about to host the division rival, Buffalo Bills. Rodgers made the home fans jump out of their seats throwing a 52-yard touchdown pass right before halftime to put the Jets back in the game, but they eventually lost 23-20.
A couple of weeks later, they failed 25-22 to the New England Patriots for their fifth consecutive loss. The fans got their hopes back after a 21-13 win over the Houston Texans in Week 9, but then the Jets lost the next four games. After a 28-27 loss to the Indianapolis Colts, their playoff hopes were snapped, and the 32-26 overtime loss to the Miami Dolphins was another heart-breaking experience for the Jets fans, even though Rodgers went for a season-high 339 yards.
The Legacy Question: Rodgers and the Jets
Seeing the Jets near the bottom of the league despite Rodgers’ solid performance is one of the biggest NFL upsets the 2024 season has brought us. Anyway, no one can blame him for the failures in the last couple of seasons. Rodgers joined the Jets, whose fans saw him as a savior, but his first season out of Green Bay was cut short with one of the most unfortunate injuries in NFL history. Even though he turned 41 this season, Rodgers is in the top 10 in the league with 23 touchdowns and has gone for over 3,200 yards.
He has one guaranteed year left on his contract with the Jets and will definitely come back ready to add another impressive season to his legacy. Whatever happens next season, Rodgers will be a Hall of Famer, but he can also become the player who changed the fortune for the Jets.
Will the Jets finally end their playoff drought, or will the season become another tale of heartbreak for New York fans? That mainly depends on the head coaching decision and the draft lottery. Aaron Rodgers will do his part of the job.
Main Image: Kevin R. Wexler-NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
