Aaron Rodgers doesn't shrink from the onuses in relation to the fact that the New York Jets are suffering through a truly tough 3-9 season. In his weekly appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, the veteran quarterback shared his mindset a couple of days after the Jets suffered an agonizing 26-21 defeat to the Seattle Seahawks, marking their eighth loss in the last nine games. However, Rodgers is adamant about playing out the remainder of the season with the New York Jets.
Aaron Rodgers Remains Committed Despite Jets' Struggles
In light of speculation surrounding his role moving forward, interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich dispelled rumors of Rodgers being benched. But, as Ulbrich has stated, Rodgers will remain the team's starting quarterback in Week 14 versus the Miami Dolphins, thus confirming his leadership at the end of the season. When asked about his position at that tough stretch by McAfee, Rodgers reflected a feeling of resilience and focus on leading his team through adversity in his answer.
"Coach Ulbrich came out and said you're a starter," McAfee starts. "And that's an interesting situation, obviously, that that's even taking place, but that's happening because of all the reports ... . Where are you mentally at with this season, with the New York Jets, and how are you framing the rest of the way here?"
“It’s been a rough season. A lot of opportunities to win games that we didn’t get the job done in the fourth quarter,” Rodgers said. “… When you have a chance to win in the fourth quarter and come up short it’s a little extra disappointing.”
"It's been a rough season but I wanna finish strong..
I wanna be out there with my guys and battle"@AaronRodgers12 #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/4UyABew2ud— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) December 3, 2024
Rodgers added that he wants to “battle” with his teammates as long as he feels healthy.
“We get paid for 17 weeks. Not 10, not 11, not five, so if you’re the starter, you want to play all the games. I want to be out there with my guys and battle as long as I feel healthy,” Rodgers said. “Body feels as good as it felt, whether fortunately or unfortunately for the situation, body feels great I want to be out there, I want to be out there with the guys, I want to battle. Have a lot of pride in playing.”
“One of my goals this year coming back from the Achilles was to play all 17 games. And I assume that would be 17 games plus whatever playoff games we played in, obviously that hasn’t been the case this year. But we still got five games left, would love to be out there battling with the guys.”
Merely taking the field in such a challenging season for the New York Jets under 19 touchdowns to eight interceptions in 12 games would tell you that it has been a tough and yet determined campaign for a record. Rodgers has thrown 62.5 percent of his passes in almost a tumultuous season that resulted in the firing of head coach Robert Saleh and general manager Joe Douglas.
Still, through the instability and poor results, Rodgers conveyed a sense of willingness to stick with it at least that long for the Jets. In his most recently stated remarks, he seemed to indicate that he intends to compete for the team in 2025, should he opt to continue playing.
