Yes, Aaron Rodgers put the ball on the tee on Tuesday, when it comes to the still-unasked question of whether he agreed with Jets owner Woody Johnson’s decision to fire coach Robert Saleh after only five games. And, yes, the New York media swung the club (mostly) on Wednesday, asking Rodgers whether his comments about lack of patience apply to the firing of Saleh.
Here’s the question from Rodgers’s midweek press conference: “Aaron, I just wanted to follow up on something from McAfee yesterday. You got asked about Chicago, and you were talking about ownership — kind of some owners have that patience and sort of say this is the plan, we’re sticking to it. You played for a team where they fired the coach after five games. Do you think that this place did not have patience and should have stuck to the plan?”
Here’s the response from Rodgers: “I was really referring to the fact that young quarterbacks in general are kind of plug and play right away, and there’s less guys like myself and Jordan Love and Pat [Mahomes] sit for a season. Various guys have sat one, two, three seasons, and you just kind of trusted that process to work. It’s a different game now. And everything is so snap judgment. I think there is something to, in the beginning of whatever decisions you make, saying, ‘This is what we’re doing, for this long, and we’re gonna trust this process because we have the right guys in place.’ I think there’s something to that. But I’m also the old guy, you know, talking about the way things used to be.”
The follow up was this: “So you really weren’t talking about coaching change as much as quarterbacks?”
Said Rodgers: “I was talking about quarterbacks, and how they’re kind of plug and play right away. And there’s snap decisions. Bryce Young got benched, Anthony [Richardson] got benched, different guys got benched early. And it’s tough on the confidence of those guys. And sometimes maybe just sitting them to start is the best thing, obviously not for a guy like Jayden Daniels. He’s stepped in, he’s played really well. But it doesn’t mean if you sit right away that you can’t have success. And it also doesn’t mean if you play right away and you sit for a little bit, you can’t find the success again. It’s just finding the right balance to that and having patience if you know you have the right guy.”
Sorry, but Rodgers wasn’t talking about young quarterbacks. Yes, that was the topic that started the conversation. But Rodgers pivoted from opining on the handling of young quarterbacks to broader concerns regarding the lack of patience among fans and owners.
His full comments from Tuesday with Pat McAfee and A.J. Hawk start here. The kicker was this: “But you know what it starts with? Ownership. Ownership has to come out and make strong statements. ‘This is the plan, this is what we’re doing. We’re gonna trust the process or trust the guys that are in place.’ Unless there’s a major problem, an issue, an arrest, or something that throws a wrench in the plans.”
That’s a global observation, regarding all aspects of a football operation. Young quarterback, old quarterback, whatever.
So does Rodgers think Woody Johnson failed to trust the process, or does he think there was a major problem or issue that threw a wrench in the plans? Even if the question were framed that way, Rodgers would find a way to tiptoe around it.
We’ve seen it before. We’ll see it again. He can hoist himself on his own petard in one breath, and in the very next he can say, basically, “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.”
