No one gets the last word like former New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers. This was proven yet again when he went in on his former employer and its current head coach, Aaron Glenn.
The four-time NFL MVP and former Super Bowl champion spent two years in Florham Park, NJ. His task? End a 12-year playoff drought that has sunk the organization to the depths of the bottom-dwellers around the league.
After Rodgers’ dismissal and release this offseason, New York will have just 12 total wins in the era, a completely new regime, and a $49 million dead cap charge spent over two additional years.
After months of contemplating retirement, Rodgers has spoken out about his time in New York. And it isn’t pretty.
Rodgers trashes Aaron Glenn, Jets
Speaking on the Pat McAfee show Thursday afternoon, Rodgers explained his final meeting when the Jets (and more specifically, head coach Aaron Glenn) explained to him that they would be moving on from the signal-caller.
“Listen, that was an interesting two years to say the least. I figured that when I flew across country to my dime, there would be a conversation,” Rodgers said. “The confusing thing to me is I went out there, I meet with the coach, we start talking … he runs out of the room. I’m like that’s strange. Then he returns with the GM, and I’m like, all right.
“So we sit down and I think we’re going to have this long conversation, and 20 seconds in and he (Glenn) goes: You sure you wanna play football? And I said yes, and he said, “We’re going in another direction.”
Rodgers later said, “There wasn’t an ample amount of respect” in the meeting with Glenn and general manager Darren Mougey. He later said he wasn’t surprised based on what he had seen from the franchise over two years.
“Obviously, things need to get fixed over there,” Rodgers concluded.
No matter how things were during Rodgers’ two-year run with the Jets, he’s seemingly ready to burn whatever bridges were left in the organization.
The fallout
It seems almost incredible to think of now, but seven months ago, the Jets were 2-1 and appeared poised to take the next step in their journey to playoff contention.
At the time, Rodgers made it clear that the team’s next goal would be to handle success well. That didn’t happen. New York won just three games for the remainder of the year, and the quarterback’s next comments were centered around the anonymous leaks that had taken over the organization.
Now, anonymous sources no longer matter. Rodgers is telling everyone how bad things got with the Jets.
There’s very little substance to take away from this. Rodgers is a player who wants control and a say in what the offense is doing. He believes his over 20 years of quarterbacking experience gives him that right, and he may even be correct.
Glenn, meanwhile, is a coach who is developing a new culture based solely on him and the development of players. That was always going to make for an interesting duo.
While New York has clearly moved on to its offseason activities at this point, it doesn’t seem its former quarterback has yet.
