Aaron Rodgers spent the early part of this past offseason rehabbing his Achilles injury and either apologizing for or doubling down on his various conspiracy theories.
This is a big year for the legacy of quarterback Aaron Rodgers
The former Packers and current Jets QB hasn’t had a lot of good news in the past 2½ years. If he wants to re-establish his legacy as an all-time great instead of an off-field newsmaker, this season will play a big role.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
August 1, 2024 at 4:45PM
He spent June in Egypt instead of Jets minicamp. He spent the latter part of July, as the Jets opened training camp, griping about his team and squabbling with his best receiver.
This was after spending almost all of his debut 2023 season with the Jets injured, and a good part of 2022 playing some of the worst football of his life — making it easier for the Packers to finally trade him to New York.
The bad news has significantly outweighed the good for Rodgers since Jan. 22, 2022 — the date the Packers were bounced from the playoffs with a 13-10 loss to the 49ers, another disappointing postseason outcome for Rodgers after his fourth MVP season.
That makes 2024 a big one for his legacy, as I talked about on Thursday’s Daily Delivery podcast.
One might get the idea from Rodgers’ past and present that he is not always the easiest guy to get along with, especially if you are a young wide receiver.
Jets standout receiver Garrett Wilson is finding that out during this year’s camp. He and Rodgers have had multiple heated exchanges after missed connections.
Both of them have tried to explain away the sparring as two competitors trying to bring out the best in each other.
“Those are good conversations,” Rodgers said this week. “They might appear to be much more heated than they are, but there’s usually a smile on our face afterwards — at least one of us.”
“It’s truly enlightening for me every time we have problems like that, despite how it may look, just because I am an emotional, passionate guy,” Wilson said.
That all might be true, and there is a difference between a bad teammate and a demanding teammate.
But here’s the thing: ESPN’s predictive models suggest the Jets have about a coin flip chance of making the playoffs this season (the Vikings, by the way, are at 14.1%).
If Rodgers gets the Jets to the postseason for the first time since 2010 and at least lets them dream of a Super Bowl run, he will restore their status and his. If the season descends into chaos and more losses than wins, it will be three years and counting since Rodgers had much to celebrate.
Here are four more things to know today:
- Also on Thursday’s podcast, Star Tribune Gophers football writer Randy Johnson joined me for a breakdown of that program during the first week of fall practices.
- And I wondered how many Comcast customers will pay the $20 per month upgrade to keep Bally Sports North now that they can.
- I enjoyed this look at the 2019 Bomba Squad.
- Speaking of the Twins, Star Tribune beat writer Phil Miller is expected to join me on Friday’s podcast.
When he was hired after the disastrous 2016 season to reshape the Twins, Derek Falvey brought a reputation for identifying and developing pitching talent. It took a while, but the pipeline we were promised is now materializing.
