EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Aaron Rodgers walked to the sideline slowly, stone-faced, hands tucked into the warmer at his waist. A Jets staffer draped him with a oversized coat and handed him a beanie, then Rodgers retreated to his spot on the bench, next to Tyrod Taylor. He put on his beanie, then his hood, and he sat there for a while. Allen Lazard popped over to say something, moments after Rodgers threw an interception on his first pass of the game — the first time he’d ever done that in his NFL career. Rodgers has had a few of those kinds of firsts during his time with the Jets — as in, not the good kind.
When the Jets went four-and-out on their next drive, it was the same thing: the same staffer draping him with the coat, handing him a beanie, taking his helmet, Rodgers heading to his seat next to Taylor. The third drive went four-and-out, the fourth went three-and-out, and the ritual remained the same.
In the second quarter, Rodgers started to look like Rodgers again. Sixteen yards to Davante Adams. Eleven to Garrett Wilson. Fifteen to Lazard and 20 to Wilson. And then vintage Rodgers in a historic moment: He evaded a defensive lineman and, off of one foot, found tight end Tyler Conklin in the end zone for a 5-yard touchdown, the 500th of Rodgers’ career.
And @T_Conk1 grabs that TD pass for @AaronRodgers12‘ 500th!
📺: FOX pic.twitter.com/05Wqv0FGY3
— New York Jets (@nyjets) January 5, 2025
“It was kind of like an old school red-zone touchdown like we did for so long in Green Bay,” Rodgers said. Conklin handed him the ball in the end zone; Rodgers brought it to the sideline — and shook some hands along the way. And then he met that same Jets staffer, who draped him in the coat, handed him a beanie, and took his helmet before Rodgers took his spot on the bench.
Rodgers celebrated after throwing a 13-yard touchdown to Lazard, then coat, beanie-for-helmet and to the bench. And again after a 4-yard touchdown to Adams: celebration, coat, beanie-for-helmet, back to the bench.
In the fourth quarter, the routine changed. He hit running back Breece Hall for a 4-yard touchdown. Rodgers celebrated with the offensive linemen and Hall. He took the ball to the sideline, where interim coach Jeff Ulbrich greeted him with a hug. He was draped in the coat again, but didn’t sit down. Lazard hugged him. As the clock wound down in the fourth quarter, Rodgers dropped the coat and worked his way down the Jets bench, hugging teammates. As the clock struck zero, he wiped a tear from his eye and took the field, surrounded by cameras. Just about every Dolphins player paid their respects.
The Jets won 32-20, but the result of the game didn’t actually matter, even if owner Woody Johnson wanted to pretend like it did afterwards. “We ended up well. I don’t care about anything else,” Johnson said, only answering one question from the assembled media. “But a win at the end was good … Everybody showed up and we did some really nice things.
Sure, the Jets won — but no, they didn’t end well. They finished a season that started with postseason hopes at 5-12. Head coach Robert Saleh was fired after Week 5. General manager Joe Douglas was fired a month later.
“It’s hard for a team to win when your coach and GM (are) getting fired halfway through the season,” Hall said.
There will be full-scale change this offseason. But first, the Jets will have a decision to make about Rodgers, and Rodgers will have to make a decision about the Jets. If Sunday’s game was Rodgers’ last — in a Jets uniform, or perhaps in any uniform — he wasn’t quite ready to say.
“It feels good to be able to do some of the things the last five or six weeks that I knew I was capable of doing even at 41,” Rodgers said. “But either way I won’t be upset or offended, whatever they decide to do, if they want to move on, and if I still want to play and if not I’ll let them know at some point if that’s the case.”
He later added: “I know I can still play. I know I can still do the things I need to do to be successful. It just comes down to the desire on their (the Jets’) side and, ultimately, my desire to play.”
If that was Rodgers’ last game as a Jet, his tenure won’t be remembered for how it ended. It will be remembered for what could have been — or should have been.
Back in 2022, Jets cornerback Sauce Gardner walked out of the visitor’s locker room at Lambeau Field holding a cheesehead in his hand. The young, upstart Jets had upset the Packers, the Rodgers-led Packers, in Green Bay — it was the moment Rodgers first looked across the field and saw a squad with the potential to become something special. Five months later, Gardner was in his backyard with Hall and Wilson, burning the cheesehead in a fire pit, a half-serious ritual to convince Rodgers to become their teammate. It happened. The world was in front of them.
Twenty-two months later, Rodgers stood on the Jets sideline at MetLife Stadium, flanked by Hall, and Gardner, and Wilson, staring upon the wreckage of their season, enjoying what might have been their final moments together as teammates. Sure, they were happy to win — victories were few and far between since the Jets traded for Rodgers — but it’s hard not to think back to the highs of that 2023 offseason, and how everything changed once Rodgers tore his Achilles at the start of last season. Hall might have caught the last pass Rodgers will ever throw. It wasn’t supposed to happen in Week 18 of the regular season, the Jets on the verge of a full-scale teardown.
After the game, when Hall was told he might have caught Rodgers’ last-ever touchdown, he said: “Damn, that’s crazy. I always tell him I appreciate him … Getting a relationship with him the last two years has been second to none, just seeing how people in the outside world see him and then actually talking to him and getting personal with him and knowing the person he actually is, seeing how he carries himself. It’s been really cool to be around a person like that because there’s not really too many people out in the world like him. He’s really one of one.”
In the history of football, that’s hard to argue. Rodgers is now one of only five men to throw for 500 touchdowns. Only one player has won more MVPs than Rodgers’ four.
His numbers with the Jets look impressive on paper (at least in the context of the Jets’ quarterbacking history). He finished with 3,897 passing yards, 28 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, undoubtedly one of the best statistical seasons in franchise history — though history will not look kindly upon those statistics because of everything else that transpired. Rodgers’ first season with the Jets was a wash due to an injury. His second one started with a controversial offseason trip to Egypt, and his sojourn through the regular season was ripe with drama and disappointment. His public shaming of Mike Williams for running the wrong route was three months ago, which can feel like years in Jets parlance.
This season, Rodgers played through injuries, even declining at one point to get scans on his injured hamstring to avoid being held out of any games. His goal was to play all 17 games, no matter what, and he did that. The Jets just didn’t win many of them.
“Just a lot of gratitude for the ability to be healthy this season, all the people that put me in the position to be able to start 17 games,” Rodgers said. “There’s time for other emotions, but tonight I’m just thankful for the performance.”
Rodgers started to make his way toward the tunnel, surrounded by teammates and staff and cameras, just as Adams was finishing up a television interview of his own. Adams wrapped it up just in time to find him. They shook hands. Rodgers put his arm around the shoulder of his favorite receiver, his best friend. This season was full of losses, but Rodgers admits getting to spend this last half of the season throwing passes to Adams again, after a midseason trade with the Raiders, was a win. “He’s one of my best friends in the world,” Rodgers said. Rodgers’ touchdown pass to Adams was the 83rd between them, dating back to their days in Green Bay, the third-most of any quarterback-wide receiver pairing in NFL history.
“One of the great all-time duos this league has ever seen,” Ulbrich said. “To get to see it in person is an honor for me.”
Rodgers said he knew he wanted to walk off with Adams after this game, but had forgotten to tell him. When he turned around, Adams was waiting for him. It looked like the scene in 2022, in Rodgers’ last game as a Packer, when he walked off the field with Randall Cobb, though Rodgers said this time felt different. Fittingly, this time, when he reached the locker room, Cobb was in there, in town for his friend.
“I knew my time, in 2022, was done in Green Bay,” Rodgers said. “I just felt like it was time for all of us. It was unsaid, maybe, on their (the Packers’) side, but it was understood I think by all of us that it was time to go separate ways. I needed to figure out whether I still had the desire to play or not, whether I could get the love for the game back. I have tremendous love for the game now. I don’t feel that way (this time). So, I can’t say that it feels anything like that. This feels much different. It feels like I just need to get away and also see what (the Jets are) into, what they’re thinking, and then take some time for myself.”
If Rodgers showed anything at the end of the season, it’s that he still has something left in the tank, even if his signature skills don’t show up on a consistent basis anymore. Some weeks, he looked like a shell of his old self. Other weeks, he flashed his MVP form. That can happen at 41, when it gets a little harder to get up from the big hits — especially when coming off an Achilles injury — and battling all the other ailments he’s had in 2024. But he can still make the throws (most of them anyway), and there was a feeling in the locker room on Sunday night that Rodgers still has something left in the tank.
“He’s got a lot,” Adams said. “He hasn’t played perfect. Nobody’s played perfect. It’s been an interesting year seeing what he’s battled through and hearing the people jump out of nowhere saying he doesn’t have it anymore. Obviously, that’s not the case. You’re able to see that when he’s healthy. It would be a little bit of a surprise (if he retired) but … there’s other things that go into it. Him playing 20 plus years is unspeakable. You can’t blame him if he does (retire) but I wouldn’t be surprised if he were to come back.”
Added Ulbrich: “He can still play at a high level. I know that. There were times this year where he was really hurt. He was playing through that because of the obligation to his teammates and his love for this game. He wanted to play 17 (games) off an Achilles at 40-plus years old. That was a major part of his drive this year. What an amazing accomplishment. In saying that, finally getting an opportunity to get healthy towards the end, we got to see that he can still play this game at a very, very high level. Whether he plays or not after this will be completely up to him, because I’m sure he’ll have an opportunity.”
Rodgers and Adams walked off after what might have been their final game with the Jets. (Al Bello / Getty Images)
That’s the biggest question: Will Rodgers have an opportunity? But also: Would he take the kind of opportunity that would be available? Rodgers has said for weeks now that he wants to take a beat to consider his future, to put his feet in the sand, to relax his mind. (There will be no darkness retreat this time, he said.)
For weeks, Rodgers has taken subtle (or not-so-subtle) shots at Johnson for the way the owner has handled this season. It felt as if he was challenging Johnson to release him, as soon as possible, to allow him to explore his options elsewhere. The Jets will likely let whomever they hire as their next head coach and general manager decide what to do with Rodgers — and Rodgers will ultimately have a say in whether he wants to return too. It’s unclear what other team would have interest in a 41-year-old quarterback, especially this one, considering the circus that comes with him.
On Sunday, an NFL Network report indicated that Rodgers has told people close to him he is likely to retire.
“People said they were close to me?” Rodgers said with a smile.
“There’s obviously a lot of hypotheticals here. If I want to play — hypothetical number one. If they want to move on — hypothetical number two. Would I be willing to play for another team? Hypothetical number three,” he said, then smiled again. “The answer is yes.”
At the end of his news conference, perhaps his final one as a Jet, he was asked what his message would be to fans, or Jets players, struggling to see how things could actually get better in a place that has become so accustomed to losing.
“It takes a concerted, intentional effort to make change,” Rodgers said. “It takes people following the same direction. It takes a top-down focus to be able to create a culture where winning is the standard, not the hope. I put my heart into this and I wanted it really bad and it didn’t work this year. We came up short… So, it’s overall disappointing, but the beauty in this game is that every year is a new year and the opportunity to change and make changes and be a part of the solution is going to be out there, so whether I’m back or whether it’s the guys they’ve got or new guys or whatever, the focus has to be how can I, (as a) player, be part of the solution, not the problem.
“I have a lot of love for this organization and I hope it gets turned around. If I’m back part of it, I’ll do everything in my power to get it turned around.”
(Top photo: Luke Hales / Getty Images)
