Aaron Rodgers bought the information on Tuesday that was extensively feared since he departed the Jets’ Monday evening recreation in opposition to the Buffalo Payments: He had torn his left Achilles’ tendon and can miss the season, the league stated in a social media submit.
After a protracted and glittering profession because the Inexperienced Bay Packers quarterback, Rodgers had come to the Jets at age 39 within the hopes of pushing the staff to a Tremendous Bowl, which the franchise had not gained for the reason that days of Joe Namath. Already stocked with an elite protection and younger stars at key positions, Rodgers’s expertise and management have been considered the ultimate puzzle piece to a staff that would contend for a championship.
However the star quarterback was sacked simply three and a half minutes into his first recreation at MetLife Stadium on Tuesday. Although he stood for a second after being felled by Payments defensive finish Leonard Floyd, he quickly sat down on the turf. He was helped to the sideline then carted off to the locker room and TV cameras confirmed Rodgers carrying a protecting boot.
On Tuesday, the league stated in a post on X, previously generally known as Twitter: “Not the way in which any of us needed it to go, however we all know the dedication you’ve made to this staff will proceed to influence us transferring ahead.”
After confirming that Rodgers would want surgical procedure to restore the harm, Coach Robert Saleh spent a lot of a information convention Tuesday to reiterate his confidence within the staff and in quarterback Zach Wilson, 24.
“I don’t know why persons are making an attempt to place an obituary on our staff identify,” Saleh stated. He added: “We now have all the religion on the planet in Zach and the perfect half about Zach is that all of us do imagine that he’s leap years forward of the place he was a 12 months in the past.”
For now, the Jets flip to Wilson, the backup quarterback who helped the staff rally to a 22-16 win in Monday’s recreation in opposition to the Payments. Rodgers and Wilson are buddies, and with the veteran’s arrival, Wilson had embraced his position as Rodgers’s understudy to enhance drawback areas in his mechanics and method. However Saleh declined to supply specifics on how the offensive technique would change below Wilson, saying it might range relying on the sport plan.
Saleh additionally stated the staff would elevate Tim Boyle from the apply staff and can look to signal a free agent to the quarterback room.
The Jets have had a star-crossed historical past since Namath led them to an upset Tremendous Bowl victory within the 1968 season. Since then, the staff has struggled to search out one other franchise quarterback able to main it again to a title recreation, utilizing first-round draft picks on 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 had additionally beforehand tried luring an M.V.P. quarterback from the Packers, buying and selling for Brett Favre in 2007. These acquisitions every fell wanting reworking the Jets offense into title contenders.
There was hope Rodgers might change that lengthy historical past of inefficacy when was acquired in an April commerce in trade for draft picks. His lengthy profession has put him within the prime 10 of many passing classes, he has gained 4 Most Priceless Participant Awards, and within the 2010 season he took the Packers to their solely Tremendous Bowl victory of this century.
Rodgers’s arrival had stoked the hopes of Jets followers and his teammates. “Bringing a man like him into the constructing simply excites everybody on the whole as a result of the résumé he has, the character he’s, the man that he’s, that brings a spark to all people,” stated defensive sort out Quinnen Williams, at coaching camp in July.
The match appeared good: Rodgers threw himself into the lifetime of town, turning up on the Tony Awards, Knicks and Rangers video games, the U.S. Open, and a Taylor Swift live performance at MetLife.
In Rodgers’s absence, expectations for the Jets at the moment are, as in so many different years, severely diminished.
Santul Nerkar contributed reporting.
