Jets owner reportedly wanted to bench Aaron Rodgers even before firing Robert Saleh and Joe Douglas
The New York Jets situation is more complicated than it might seem. The team fired general manager Joe Douglas on Tuesday, six weeks after dismissing head coach Robert Saleh. But changes in the organization could have been even more extreme. According to beat reporter Zack Rosenblatt and NFL insider Dianna Russini, from The Athletic, Jets […]
The New York Jets situation is more complicated than it might seem. The team fired general manager Joe Douglas on Tuesday, six weeks after dismissing head coach Robert Saleh. But changes in the organization could have been even more extreme.
According to beat reporter Zack Rosenblatt and NFL insider Dianna Russini, from The Athletic, Jets owner, chairman, and CEO Woody Johnson wanted to bench quarterback Aaron Rodgers only four games into the season, a moment in which the Jets had a decent 2-2 record.
Check out what the report says:
“The coaches had been called in to explain what happened with their units during the 10-9 home loss to the Broncos. During the meeting, Johnson suggested to the coaches that they bench Aaron Rodgers in favor of Tyrod Taylor because he felt Rodgers’ performance was holding the team back. The coaches and Douglas, stunned at the suggestion, talked him out of it and convinced Johnson to stay the course and that benching Rodgers, with his pedigree, four games into the season would not sit well with the locker room. The coaches also felt it would embarrass Rodgers. The idea of benching the future Hall of Famer sounded so absurd that one coach asked whether the owner was serious — multiple sources from that meeting believed he was.”
Even though the coaches were able to dissuade Woody Johnson from the idea of benching Rodgers four weeks into the season, that was just the first step to a sequence of questionable decisions. In the following week, after a loss to the Minnesota Vikings in London, Johnson unilaterally decided to fire head coach Robert Saleh without consulting Joe Douglas.
According to Jordan Schultz, NFL insider for Fox Sports, Douglas had lost power since that moment. “Much of the organization had been overseen by higher-ups over the past month,” Schultz reported, which included the decisions to trade for wide receiver Davante Adams and to adjust edge rusher Haason Reddick’s contract.
Now, the future for the Jets couldn’t be murkier. The franchise will have a new general manager and a new head coach in 2025, there’s no certainty about Aaron Rodgers’ decision to play for the Jets or to play at all next year, and even Woody Johnson himself could be a part of the new Donald Trump administration as he was in the first one, moving to the United Kingdom and letting his brother Christopher Johnson manage the Jets.
According to The Athletic, it's unlikely that Aaron Rodgers will return in 2025 for more than one reason. The quarterback likes Joe Douglas and interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich, wanting some type of continuity — which won't happen. And Woody Johnson probably won't want Rodgers either.
Hypothetical landing spots for Aaron Rodgers: 5 teams to watch in 2025
Rodgers’ tenure with the Jets is over
