Regardless of the outcome of the Jets’ final game of the season against the Dolphins, it appears that polarizing quarterback Aaron Rodgers may have reached the end of his NFL road.
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Several hours before the meeting, NFL Network informant Ian Rapoport mentioned that “people close to him that I know well are preparing as if it were the end.”
Rapoport is credible and doesn’t usually throw anything into the wind. It is to be expected that Rodgers will ridicule him during his next visit to the Pat McAfee Showwhere he often repeats that even the most connected informants have no access to his inner circle.
We shouldn’t conclude that Rodgers played his final career game against the Dolphins, but there are a few signs that may indeed suggest that his career is over.
This week, he was particularly introspective during his press conference with the New York media. He took the time to thank everyone who had a positive influence on him, including his high school coach.
During his team’s last training session, he exchanged his jersey adorned with the number 8 with the 56 of linebacker Quincy Williams. And nothing better to complete the circle than his 500th career touchdown pass obtained against the Dolphins, he who became only the fifth quarterback to achieve this feat.
Rodgers never changed his speech. He reiterated again this week that he would make a decision on his future before the free agent market opens in March. That he first needed a “mental break.” He repeats that he himself does not know what happens next.
A bad final grade
Photo Getty Images / AFP
If Rodgers really decides that enough of football is enough and goes off somewhere to stock up on Ayahuasca, good for him.
The fact remains that he may not retire simply by choice. Statistically, some would say he didn’t have such a bad season. In fact, he seems to be nothing more than a shadow of himself.
If we must salute his admirable determination to recover at the age of 41 from a delicate rupture of the Achilles tendon, he has still not been the same player since his return.
His mobility is definitely no longer the same and it is increasingly difficult for him to escape the pressure. Four times this season, he missed his shot with the game in his hands on a final possession.
Rodgers had to transform the Jets. However, they are worse than last season, when he was injured after four short games.
Unless there is an unexpected turnaround, the Jets will no longer want him and will start fresh. What about other teams, if he really wanted to play another season? Not sure that the yield offered this year inspires confidence.
A superb career
Where we need to be careful, however, is when some go so far as to say that his time with the Jets will have tarnished his legacy. It’s nonsense!
Everyone has the right to like Rodgers or question his views. In recent years, he has often seemed arrogant and on the pitch, his non-verbal language towards his teammates is not very inspiring.
At the end of the day, though, Rodgers will have had a tremendous career. His detractors will say that such a talented passer should be strutting around with more than a Super Bowl championship, but several other great quarterbacks have none.
Rodgers has the best touchdown-interception ratio of all time. We’re talking about four for one, something never seen before!
Rodgers also has four Most Valuable Player titles in the regular season and one in the Super Bowl.
It would have been better, in the best of all worlds, for his career to end at the top of his game in Green Bay, rather than in the monumental fiasco of this season in New York. Whether people like him or not, he still fully deserved the right to try to extend his career elsewhere.
This unfortunate mess with the Jets clearly does not define his career, which will appropriately conclude in the Hall of Fame in five years. If, of course, he finds the wisdom to hang up his shoulder pads now rather than stretching the sauce further.
