The New York Jets are officially eliminated from contention. There's only one game left, against the New England Patriots, before a nightmare season finally ends and the team can focus on next year, when quarterback Aaron Rodgers will be fully healthy again. But the process of building next season's roster is already underway.

Jets owner Woody Johnson said he intends to keep general manager Joe Douglas and head coach Robert Saleh, so this is the leadership responsible to reload the team around Rodgers.

What the offense needs

And, before Thursday Night Football, the quarterback talked to the Amazon Prime broadcast team about the team construction. Rodgers is happy with the defense, but he knows the offense needs more around him.

"We've got an incredible defense, that's a championship-level defense," Rodgers said."Offensively, I think we just need to shore up the offensive line a little bit. Obviously, we've had a lot of injuries. Duane Brown goes out, Connor McGovern, our starting center, goes out for the season. AVT, our right guard, has an Achilles injury. We've moved Bekhton from right to left. We've had a lot of moving pieces, a lot of different offensive lines throughout the year. So we've got to shore that up a little bit."

Aaron Rodgers praised starting running back Breece Hall and mentioned rookie Israel Abanikanda's contributions to the offense. However, Rodgers understands that the pass-catching group needs reinforcements.

"We've gotta reload a couple of pieces here and there," Rodgers added. "And maybe add another skilled player on the outside."

In fact, it's been a tough season for the Jets wide receiver group. Garrett Wilson has had another 1,000-yard receiving season, but the second receiver in yardage is free agent addition Allen Lazard with only 311 yards — he's been inactive for most of the last few games. Maybe the Jets will keep Lazard because of his connection to Rodgers, but they will still need more options. Another receiver connected to the quarterback is Randall Cobb, who's slated to be a free agent. The veteran has had 35 yards this season.

Aaron Rodgers played just four snaps this season before rupturing his Achilles. The quarterback said there was a chance he could come back this year, but with the team out of contention, it made no sense to take the risk.

The expectation is that Rodgers will be fully healthy by the start of training camp in July. The quarterback is under contract with the Jets through 2025 — he has cap hits of $17.161 million in 2024 and $51.5 million in 2025, plus a dead money of $35 million after the contract expires in 2026.

The Jets are in the middle of the pack in terms of cap space, projected to have $16.7 million for next season.

Overall, Rodgers still believes the Jets can be a true contender.

"I love the pieces that are in place moving forward."

Jets owner Woody Johnson to bring back Saleh and Douglas in ’24

Robert Saleh and Joe Douglas got a bad break this season. They knew the pressure of the playoff mandate and were going to get a real shot at ending the playoff drought with Aaron Rodgers coming to the New York Jets. So, when Aaron Rodgers went down four offensive plays into the year, expectations had […]