NY Jets’ Will McDonald excited to sack Aaron Rodgers Week 1

We may be just five weeks away from the start of the 2025 NFL season, but New York Jets fans are chomping for their Week 1 showdown.

While much is made about Aaron Rodgers’ return to MetLife Stadium to open the new season as a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers, most of the Jets’ roster isn’t focused on that reality.

They want to start the season off right.

Rodgers’ return is more for the fans to get riled up about. The former league MVP won just six games in two seasons with the Jets, and promptly complained about his experience after being released during the 2025 offseason.

That Week 1 contest will be more of a revenge game for the fans than for the players.

Just because the Jets are focusing on getting better as a collective team during training camp, though, it doesn’t mean every player is disinterested in the matchup. One edge rusher can’t wait to sack his former teammate.

Will McDonald Can’t Wait for Jets’ Week 1 Opponent

Will McDonald was the Jets’ first draft pick after bringing in Rodgers during the 2023 offseason. Many scouts considered the Iowa State edge rusher a reach at the time.

Despite those pre-draft rulings, McDonald has had a stellar start to his NFL career. The 26-year-old is coming off a season in which he recorded over 10 sacks and is developing into the Pro Bowl-caliber player the previous regime envisioned when they drafted him.

Entering his third season with the Jets, McDonald is looking to break out even more than he did last year.

Being able to sack a former teammate in Aaron Rodgers for Week 1 is certainly on his list of early-season goals.

“I always wanted to sack Rodgers from when I was a little kid…actually, let me not say that, cause as a little kid I wasn’t even interested in playing football,” McDonald said. “I did watch him though, I watched him a lot.”

If there has been an early winner throughout training camp, it has been McDonald for the Jets. He has been nearly unblockable while going up against the collection of New York’s young tackles.

Through it all, he has impressed the Jets’ new coaching staff.

“I’m not going to put a ceiling on him, but I know this, he’s a damn good player and I expect big things out of him,” Jets head coach Aaron Glenn said.

Glenn has done everything he can to get the organization to most past their failings over the last few seasons. Rodgers was not the main reason for New York’s struggles, but he wasn’t part of the solution either.

While some players still have fond memories of his time with the team, McDonald, like Glenn, is moving on from his feelings toward the future Hall-of-Fame quarterback.

Getting a sack or two on him in front of the MetLife Stadium crowd will certainly help in that regard.