Injured New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers made his weekly appearance Tuesday on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show.” While he did not sound off too much on the struggles we’ve seen from the Jets’ offense since he went down to a season-ending Achilles injury early in Week 1, there were some obvious frustrations.
Primarily, Rodgers did not like what he saw from running back Michael Carter, wide receiver Garrett Wilson and others during last week’s loss to the New England Patriots.
These two were among the players who had animiated sideline conversations with assistant coaches during the 15-10 loss.
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“Too many little side conversations, and we just need to grow up a little bit on offense and lock in and do our jobs and not point fingers at each other — and that’s everybody. Don’t point fingers at the coaching staff, don’t point fingers at each other. Just get back to work and get the job done.”
Aaron Rodgers on what transpired for the New York Jets in Week 3
Since replacing Rodgers over the past two games as New York’s starter, quarterback Zach Wilson has helped produce a total of 20 points and two offensive touchdowns. For his part, Wilson has thrown one touchdown compared to three interceptions during this span. It has led to widespread criticism directed at the third-year quarterback.
Even all-time great Jets legend Joe Namath took aim at Wilson recently, indicating that he’s seen enough and it’s time for New York to trade the former No. 2 pick. While Rodgers believes internal criticism should be the name of the game, he’s not about that outside noise.
“When we’re not having success, how do we respond? How do we respond to adversity? And that goes for our fan base and former players as well,” Rodgers said. “You’re not helping the cause.
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New York Jets record: 1-2, 32nd in scoring at 14.0 PPG
As you can see, the Jets’ offense has been the single-worst unit in the league through three weeks. Rodgers’ absence has played a major role in that.
After all, it was built around the future first ballot Hall of Famer after he was acquired from the Green Bay Packers in a blockbuster trade last spring. Does Rodgers think things would be different if he had not suffered that Achilles injury four snaps into his Jets career? Sure.
“I feel like if I was there, some of those things wouldn’t be happening. [I’m] not sure we’d be 3-0 — I don’t know that. I’d like to think there’s a possibility of that, but it’s more the side stuff that I don’t like and that I want to see us stick together through the tough times,” Rodgers told McAffee.
We’ll never know.
Instead, the Jets are riding with Wilson moving forward. If all of these components don’t come together, it will be another disaster class of a season in Jersey.