A New York Jets insider claims that head coach Robert Saleh and general manager Joe Douglas will return next season, and it is due to the huge influence Aaron Rodgers has on the franchise.
When Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles tendon after four plays in Week 1, the Jets goals for 2023 took a massive shift. No longer were they a team with Super Bowl aspirations and instead their defense would have to lead them to a Wild Card spot this season.
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However, after 12 weeks New York is 4-7 and staring down an eighth straight losing season. Rodgers will be back in 2024 and the aspirations will again increase, yet Douglas has been with the team for five of those losing campaigns while Saleh has accumulated a 15-30 record as head coach in three seasons. That is why there has been speculation about their futures despite the Rodgers injury.
New York Jets record (2023): 4-7
In an era where head coaches and GMs get far less time to change the culture, it would not be shocking if the organization started fresh in Rodgers’ second season in New York. However, The Athletic’s Jets reporter Zack Rosenblatt claims that “internally, the Jets are operating as if the whole regime — Saleh, Douglas, and even offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett — will be back in 2024.”
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Rosenblatt added that Aaron Rodgers “might wield more power than any other player in the NFL” and New York Jets owner Woody Johnson will certainly seek out his opinion on if both should return next season. While he holds the influence to possibly force a regime change, “nobody expects that to happen at this juncture, especially if Hackett remains the primary play-caller.”
While Jets fans may have hoped that the influence Rodgers had in Green Bay would not continue in New York, it seems the future Hall-of-Famer is just as powerful, if not more so, in Gothan than he was in Wisconsin.
