Nothing is official just yet, but all signs point to the New York Jets releasing Aaron Rodgers in the near future, according to a bombshell report from FOX Sports’ Jay Glazer.
With the short, wildly eventful, and astoundingly disappointing Rodgers era nearing its end, the Jets now face a murky future under center. Multiple burning questions await in the wake of New York’s breakup with the four-time MVP.
How will the Jets handle Rodgers’ contract?
In all likelihood, the Jets will release Rodgers with a post-June 1 designation. This means Rodgers will have a $14 million cap hit in 2025 and a $35 million cap hit in 2026, rather than all $49 million going onto the cap in 2025 if he were released outright. It is the only feasible route, as it would be untenable for New York to absorb a $49 million cap hit in 2025.
This does not mean the Jets have to wait until June 1 to release Rodgers. They can release him right away and apply the June 1 designation, which means Rodgers will be free to sign with any team when the new league year opens.
Releasing Rodgers would save the Jets $37.5 million in total cap space compared to keeping him (without a pay cut). If Rodgers were kept, he would have a $23.5 million cap hit in 2025 and a $63 million cap hit in 2026 (which would likely be spread into 2027), equating to $86.5 million in total. Those are obscene numbers for one year of a stopgap quarterback, so Rodgers would have had to take a significant pay cut for the Jets to view him as a viable option to return.
Will Rodgers play in 2025? If so, where?
Some reports indicate Rodgers was open to taking a pay cut to stay with New York, which suggests the Jets’ decision to part ways with him did not have to do with money. It also suggests Rodgers was interested in playing for the Jets in 2025.
However, we do not know whether it indicates that Rodgers is willing to play elsewhere. Perhaps Rodgers was open to staying put and giving it one more go in New York, but he might be unwilling to relocate and reacclimate to another new franchise at 41 years old.
At the same time, Rodgers seemed to believe he has gas left in the tank when speaking to reporters at the conclusion of the 2024 season. Knowing what we know about Rodgers as a competitor, it would not be surprising if he wanted to try and go out on a higher note than this.
If Rodgers wants to return, he will almost assuredly find a starting job somewhere. There are too many teams without a penciled-in starting quarterback and not enough options in free agency or the draft to fill all of those holes. It is likely that some team out there would view Rodgers as an appealing stopgap for the 2025 season.
Teams without a penciled-in starter include the Browns, Giants, Titans, Saints, Raiders, Colts, Steelers, and Seahawks.
Can the Jets find a feasible franchise QB option in 2025?
If Rodgers is released, Tyrod Taylor would immediately become the best quarterback on New York’s roster by a longshot. His only competition at the moment is Jordan Travis and Adrian Martinez.
Obviously, Taylor is not the Jets’ franchise quarterback, and it would be shocking if Travis or Martinez were. New York must begin searching for its next long-term answer at the position. But will the Jets be able to find him this year?
As uninspiring as it may be to start the 36-year-old Taylor, the reality is this: the Jets may have a hard time finding a franchise quarterback in 2025. Aaron Glenn and Darren Mougey will be relentlessly searching for one from this point forward, but they cannot force a move on someone who isn’t worth the cost.
The free agency pool at quarterback is barren. The only player who was an above-average starter in 2025 is Sam Darnold. Putting aside Darnold’s history with the Jets and how that may affect his desire to return, Darnold is likely to command a contract that is too rich for a Jets team without much cap space. They will already be committing a minimum of $20.8 million to Taylor and Rodgers. Outside of Darnold, there is hardly a free agent who can even be considered better than Taylor, let alone good enough to be viewed as a franchise quarterback.
The quarterback class in the 2025 draft is viewed as one of the weakest in years. Buried in the No. 7 overall slot, the Jets would have to make an extreme reach to select a quarterback. They could trade a king’s ransom to move up and get one of the consensus top two prospects, Cam Ward or Shedeur Sanders, but it can be argued Ward and Sanders would be reaches in the top six even without trading up. Recent reports suggest the QB-needy Titans are open to trading back from the No. 1 pick. That is a severe indictment on this quarterback class.
Given the lack of feasible options to find a franchise quarterback this year, the Jets’ best course of action might be to punt on the quarterback position in 2025 and wait until 2026 to go all-in. In that case, they need someone who can help them stay competitive in 2025, doing their part to establish a winning culture and foundation in Glenn and Mougey’s first season.
Does Tyrod Taylor fit the bill?
Taylor is under contract on the second year of a two-year, $12 million contract he signed with New York in 2024. He is set to have a $6.8 million cap hit this year.
In what figures to be a “bridge” season for the Jets – not tanking or developing a young QB, but also not seriously competing for a championship – New York must decide whether they view Taylor as an ideal fit to be their starting quarterback. It certainly would be the easiest route, as they already have him under contract at an extremely affordable rate.
Something should be made clear: The Jets are not tanking in 2025. They have too much talent for that, and it is not what this team needs in the first season of a new regime seeking to reverse the standards of a franchise accustomed to losing. The goal in 2025 is to compete for a wild card spot – and Taylor might be the Jets’ best option to pull it off.
Taylor is strangely underrated by the Jets’ fanbase. Many supporters seem to think that if New York starts him, it would be a signal that the team is unserious about competing.
In reality, Taylor owns a career .500 record as a starter (28-28-1) – hardly tank-worthy. He has the fourth-lowest career interception rate in NFL history (1.7%) and a respectable career TD:INT ratio of 2.34:1. That is essentially identical to Aaron Rodgers’ ratio since 2022 (2.35:1).
Taylor remains a plus athlete for the position, even at 35-going-on-36. Since 2021, his 6.6 yards per rush attempt is the best mark among quarterbacks with 60+ rush attempts over that span, one spot ahead of Lamar Jackson (6.1). His career passer rating of 88.9 is less than two points lower than Rodgers’ 90.5 for New York in 2024, while his career 7.0 yards per pass attempt is higher than Rodgers’ 6.7 in 2024.
You can compete for a wild card spot with Taylor. While he lacks game-breaking skills that raise his team’s ceiling, he is a high-floor game manager who does not waste the positive production of his supporting cast.
If the Jets perform well on defense while establishing a strong ground game, Taylor is the type of signal caller who won’t hold the team back. In a season where the goal is simply to compete for a playoff spot and establish a winning mindset in the building, that is a preferable style of quarterback to roll with when your alternative options are extremely limited.
Who would provide injury insurance for Taylor?
The main concern with Taylor is his durability. He has been oft-injured throughout his career and is unlikely to give the Jets a full 17-game season if they tab him as the Week 1 starter. Adding a high-end backup would be crucial if the Jets are serious about staying competitive in the playoff hunt.
The free agency crop is not very appealing. Some of the names on the board include:
- Jacoby Brissett
- Taylor Heinicke
- Marcus Mariota
- Drew Lock
- Andy Dalton
- Jarrett Stidham
- Justin Fields
- Joe Flacco
- Jameis Winston
- Mac Jones
- Carson Wentz
- Jimmy Garoppolo
- Case Keenum
- Mason Rudolph
- Cooper Rush
- Nick Mullens
- Russell Wilson
- Tyler Huntley
None of these players are inspiring in a vacuum. The Jets’ challenge is to find a feasible solution by emphasizing scheme fit.
Most of these players have had at least one solid season of production as a starter in the NFL. They are backups due to their lack of consistency, but they are all capable of going on a hot streak here and there. As a backup for one season on a team with wild card aspirations, all the Jets need is someone who can go .500 for four-to-six games. If the Jets find the right player whose strengths can be emphasized in Tanner Engstrand’s offense, perhaps they can pull a hot streak out of him in 2025.
Knowing what we know about Detroit’s offensive scheme, one of the most appealing fits could be Justin Fields. While Fields has fallen short of the ceiling that made him a high first-round pick, he is competent enough to be considered one of the NFL’s top backups, and his strengths would be a good fit for what we saw from the Lions offense.
Fields has struggled to throw outside of the numbers in his career, but he has shown signs of respectability throwing over the middle, which is the bread and butter of Detroit’s offense. In 2024, when targeting short-to-intermediate throws (0-19 air yards) over the middle third of the field, Fields completed 32-of-41 passes for 359 yards, two touchdowns, and one interception, earning a 109.3 passer rating and posting an adjusted completion percentage (accounts for drops) of 82.9%.
Additionally, the Lions are known for being a run-heavy offense. The Jets have already shown a hint of continuing this trend under Engstrand by signing fullback Andrew Beck – who is known as a strong blocker – in Darren Mougey’s first move as the general manager. Fields is one of the NFL’s best rushers at the quarterback position and would complement a run-heavy scheme. Detroit did not incorporate the quarterback in the run game, but that was simply because they had a non-threat under center in Jared Goff.
Fields stands out to me as a potentially solid fit to provide a high-upside insurance plan behind Taylor, but I am a mere outsider. It’s up to the Jets to find the best solution by comparing the coaching staff’s schematic vision to the pro scouting department’s research on each free agent’s strengths and weaknesses.
Can the Jets find a better stopgap starter than Taylor?
We already discussed the Jets’ limited options for a long-term franchise quarterback in 2025. However, if they pivot to focusing on a stopgap solution while punting the franchise quarterback search to 2026, it is worth asking whether the Jets can do better than Taylor for 2025.
There are rumors that Matthew Stafford might become available, but the Jets seem unlikely to go down that road again after failing with Rodgers. The potential releases of Geno Smith and Derek Carr are also on the table, and both quarterbacks would likely be upgrades over Taylor. However, similar to Darnold, they may be too pricey for the Jets’ wallet and have negative memories with the Jets.
Impending free agent Russell Wilson is arguably slightly better than Taylor, even at this declined stage of his career, although the gap is probably not large enough to be worth the cost he will probably demand. Over the past three seasons, Wilson has a 92.2 passer rating and a 2.41:1 TD:INT ratio, compared to Taylor’s 93.7 and 2.25:1 over the same span (although Wilson had a much larger sample size).
Wilson would also attract an unwanted spotlight for a player whose production does not warrant it; this is seemingly a major part of the reason why Glenn and Mougey wanted to part ways with Rodgers, considering the reports that money was a non-factor in the decision.
As you scan down the list of options, all signs continue pointing back to Taylor.
Does Jordan Travis have anything to offer?
The Jets selected Jordan Travis in the fifth round of the 2024 draft knowing his leg injury from late in the 2023 season would affect his rookie year. However, it ended up being even worse than expected, as Travis suffered setbacks that sidelined him for the entire season. As of the latest update, we still do not know when or if he will be ready to go.
Travis is the lone quarterback on the Jets’ roster with any sort of long-term upside. He was a standout at Florida State and may have gone significantly higher in the 2024 draft if he were healthy, although even a healthy Travis likely was not going to be considered anywhere close to a blue-chip prospect.
Still, on a team that currently has no competition in terms of long-term upside, Travis could have a chance to make noise in the summer if he gets healthy. If he has a breakout training camp and preseason, the Jets probably would not hold him back in favor of Taylor or a similar-caliber stopgap. The window of opportunity is there.
It sounds like a fun dream, but the likelihood of such an outcome is not high. Travis still needs to show he can even get on the field, let alone shine when he is out there.
However, Travis does project as a solid fit in Engstrand’s scheme. Like Fields, Travis has shown impressive ability when throwing over the middle in the short-to-intermediate range, which would fit smoothly in a Detroit-style scheme.
Aside from his health, the main question with Travis is how the new regime feels about him. Mougey, Glenn, and Engstrand were not in the building when Travis was drafted, so they are not partial to him for being a homegrown draft pick. Travis’ standing with the new regime will come down to how the new brass felt about him when evaluating him in last year’s draft cycle, and the impression he is able to make in the coming months.
Will the Jets add a mid-round quarterback?
On the topic of how the new regime feels about Travis, it is worth pondering whether the Jets will roll the dice on another mid-round quarterback in 2025.
With Taylor already aboard and another veteran possibly entering the building, there might not be room for Travis and another draft pick on the same roster. This means the new brass may have to decide whether they view Travis as worthy of being their developmental quarterback for the 2025 season, or if they would rather start over with their own handpicked choice.
We’ve already discussed how the Jets will probably have a difficult time finding a long-term franchise quarterback in 2025. While this is true, one would think that Mougey will still want to put his stamp on the future of the Jets’ quarterback position in his first season as the general manager, even if it is not through a blockbuster addition.
If Mougey and the coaches are not fond of Travis, adding a mid-round quarterback in the draft could make sense. It would give the Jets a ball of clay to mold in the background while the franchise quarterback search rolls onward into 2026. While this player would be unlikely to become the Jets’ franchise quarterback, he would at least have a slim chance of becoming that player, which is better than going through 2025 with zero chance of locating “the guy.” With no reliable path to prosperity available, buying a cheap lottery ticket is not the worst idea.
In my recent seven-round Jets mock draft, which I conducted based on clues about Mougey’s philosophy, I had them selecting Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard in the fourth round. Leonard is the type of prospect I can see Mougey targeting in the later rounds: an athletic, “toolsy” type with a high ceiling and a low floor.
It’s all about setting up the future
The 2025 season will likely be New York’s first without an “answer” at the quarterback position since they rolled with Josh McCown in 2017. From 2018-20, Sam Darnold was the man. After Darnold flamed out, the Jets immediately pivoted to Zach Wilson as their new savior from 2021-22. Following Wilson’s rapid demise, Aaron Rodgers flew in to provide two seasons of championship aspirations from 2023-24.
Now, the Jets might have to stare their reality in the face and punt on the quarterback position for the first time in eight years. It is a difficult reality to accept, but embracing it is essential to ensure a smooth and swift transition to the next stage. Deflecting it creates a frustrating road of mediocrity that only prolongs the inevitable.
Unexciting as it may be, punting on the quarterback position does not necessarily indicate the acceptance of a lost season.
The Jets still have plenty of talent on both sides of the football. That talent can be maximized better than ever before by a new coaching staff with the potential to be a significant upgrade over their lowly predecessors. No, the Jets will not compete for a championship until they find their solution at quarterback, but with Taylor and a solid backup, the Jets are capable of giving fans a competitive season in 2025 – one that establishes a positive, winning infrastructure for a hopeful franchise quarterback to step into in 2026.
Reverting to “patience” mode is understandably difficult for Jets fans after entering the last two seasons with dreams of a championship banner, especially considering the franchise’s 14-year playoff drought. The Jets put themselves in this position, though. They struck out on their last two attempts at a franchise quarterback, which pushed them to roll the dice on Rodgers, a move that was high-risk, high-reward from the beginning. The gamble came up empty, and now they must pay the price.
But that price doesn’t have to be franchise-crippling. Yes, it will cost the Jets one season of championship contention here in 2025, but if they play their cards right, the Jets can still have a productive season in 2025 and jump straight back into the contention mix in 2026.
It all comes down to Aaron Glenn and Darren Mougey. If they are the right men for the job, the Jets will be on the right track in no time.
A quality coach (and staff) will win at least 8-9 games with the high-end talent New York has on both sides of the ball, even without a star quarterback. Because that’s what quality coaches do: lift the team above its expectations. A quarterback like Taylor (so long as the front office adds a quality backup who fits the scheme) limits your ceiling, but he keeps the floor high enough to the point where strong coaching should keep the team in the wild card hunt.
Meanwhile, a quality general manager (and rebuilt front office) will have a plan for the game’s most important position and execute it, even if it takes multiple seasons. Keeping a level head is crucial; Mougey cannot force an ill-advised move in 2025.
If the right move isn’t there, Mougey must land on his feet and put the Jets in a positive position at QB moving forward. This primarily entails giving his coaches a reliable pair of veterans who can keep the team competitive in 2025. Achieving this goal is important to setting the foundation of a winning culture under the new regime, which, in turn, optimizes the situation that a future franchise quarterback will step into. Additionally, Mougey can consider adding a lottery ticket to develop.
Don’t expect the Jets to do anything flashy at quarterback this offseason. That does not mean their quarterback moves in 2025 will be anything less than critical. Nailing the QB position this offseason will be a vital piece of establishing the optimal foundation for New York’s new regime to succeed over the long haul.
