Aaron Rodgers got the news Tuesday that many have been dreading since he left the Jets’ Monday night game against the Buffalo Bills: He tore his left Achilles tendon and will be out for the season, the league said on a social media post.
After a long and glittering career as quarterback of the Green Bay Packers, Rodgers came to the Jets at the age of 39 in hopes of pushing the team to a Super Bowl, which the franchise had not won since the days of Joe Namath. Already loaded with an elite defense and young stars at key positions, Rodgers’ experience and leadership are thought to be the final piece of the puzzle to a team that can contend for a championship.
But the star quarterback was sacked just three and a half minutes into his first game at MetLife Stadium on Tuesday. Although he stood up for a moment after being knocked down by Bills defensive end Leonard Floyd, he soon sat down on the turf. He was helped to the sideline then taken to the locker room and TV cameras showed Rodgers wearing a protective boot.
On Tuesday, the league said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, citing two NFL Media reporters. The Jets said in a post: “Not the way any of us wanted, but we know the commitment you made to this team will continue to affect us moving forward.”
The Jets have had a star-crossed history since Namath led them to an upset victory in the Super Bowl in the 1968 season. Since then, the team has struggled to find another franchise quarterback capable of bringing it back to a title game, using first-round draft picks in Richard Todd in 1976, Ken O’Brien in 1983, Chad Pennington in 2000, Mark Sanchez in 2009, Sam Darnold in 2018, and Zach Wilson in 2021.
The Jets also previously tried to lure an MVP quarterback from the Packers, trading for Brett Favre in 2007. Those acquisitions each failed to transform the Jets’ offense into title contenders.
There is hope that Rodgers can reverse a long history of ineffectiveness if acquired in an April trade in exchange for draft picks. His long career placed him in the top 10 in many passing categories, he won four Most Valuable Player Awards, and in the 2010 season he led the Packers to their only Super Bowl victory of this century.
Rodgers’ arrival has fueled hopes among Jets fans and his teammates. “Bringing a guy like him into the building is exciting for everybody in general because the résumé that he has, the character that he is, the person that he is, that brings a spark to everything,” the defensive tackle said. that Quinnen Williams, in training camp in July .
The fit seems good: Rodgers tried himself to the life of the city, appeared at the Tony Awards, Knicks and Rangers game, the US Open, and the Taylor Swift concert at MetLife.
For now, the Jets are turning to Wilson, the backup quarterback who helped the team rally to a 22-16 victory in Monday’s game against the Bills. He reclaimed the position after being benched last season, his first as a full time starter, when the offense relied on the run attack and struggled to make the rest of the offense work behind less pass protection. The issues will return going forward without a future Hall of Fame quarterback to mitigate them.
With Rodgers gone, the expectations for the Jets today, like many other years, are drastically reduced.
Santul Nerkar contributed to the report.