Reporting from Florham Park, NJ — It took Aaron Rodgers over a month to articulate his feelings after the New York Jets announced they were going in a different direction.
It only took another week for the Jets’ new leadership group to make its feelings known on the same subject.
Speaking to reporters for the first time since Rodgers’ public comments on the Pat McAfee show last Thursday, Jets general manager Darren Mougey clarified his thoughts on the four-time NFL MVP.
Darren Mougey, Jets Respond to Rodgers
Despite the nearly 30-minute conversation Rodgers had last Thursday, Mougey only needed a couple of sentences to get his point across about how the Jets would address the now-former starting quarterback in 2025.
“I understand the question and I addressed that at the combine, but today I just want to talk about the draft and Jets players,” Mougey stated and later repeated.
The two-year era in New York with Rodgers leading the way saw just one full season with him on the field and 12 combined wins over that stretch. Along the way, anonymous leaks and frustrations were made quite clear inside and outside the locker room.
Rodgers wasn’t the sole reason for those problems, but he certainly wasn’t a help. His comments detailing his final moments as a Jets quarterback made that abundantly clear.
“What I thought was gonna be a couple-hour meeting turned into a 15-minute meeting, and I walked out of there,” Rodgers said last week. “I don’t want any part of that. It was already a debacle.”
Mougey’s comments aren’t surprising. New York has pushed a goal of operating in the shadows of the offseason without many leaks coming from outside the organization.
For that reason, it would always be challenging to see a path for Rodgers to return. Now that the idea has been thoroughly nipped away, the Jets can move on and focus the rest of their efforts on the 2025 draft.
Just as they want.
