As it Looks Likely Aaron Glenn is Taking the Jets Job, One AFC Exec 'Can't Think of One' Team Interested in Aaron Rodgers 'and All That Comes With That'

Mike Mulholland. Getty Images.

I've already hit my quota on "Kirk Minihane reported" jokes for today, so I'll skip the pleasantries and go right to saying words that rarely ever pass my keyboard. 

"The Jets are making a good move."

Man alive, those are muscles I haven't exercised in a long time. And my hands are gonna sore tomorrow. 

The decision isn't officially official as I'm posting this, but it sounds imminent and will be the second least surprising hire of Coaching Carousel Season after only Mike Vrabel to New England:

Glenn was a damn fine player. A big asset to those Bill Parcells' teams of the late '90s. In 16 career games against the Patriots he had four interceptions and nine passed defensed. And if you'd asked me to guess I'd have doubled those numbers because he was always around the ball and made it feel like the Jets had two No. 31s running around the secondary. Plus he made three Pro Bowls. 

As a coach, he's been around the league some. And getting his shot as the defensive coordinator for four seasons in Detroit, where he improved the Lions from 31st in points allowed to 7th. So he's a good hire, who has all the skills one needs to be a successful head coach. 

Except, possibly, a quarterback. 

Jeremy Fowler of ESPN has done his annual survey of "NFL team executives, scouts and personnel figures" and asked for their 2025 predictions. And if one of them is on the nose, Glenn won't have Aaron Rodgers to kick around. And neither will anyone else:

I'll skip the Tyreek Hill-to-the-Patriots fairy tale because nowhere in the multiverse model of the cosmos is there a reality where the Dolphins make a trade to hand Tua Tagovailoa's best target over to Drake Maye. It would take one of those asymmetric deals where you trade 30 captured armed combatants for one civilian hostage. It'll never happen. Instead, let's stick to the topic at hand:

Source (paywall) - “The New York Jets will soon hire a general manager who can make a splash with his first big decision: releasing Rodgers and starting fresh at the game’s most important position. That leaves a 41-year-old, recently injured quarterback without a home. 

“To be sure, some from last season’s Jets staff believe Rodgers has something left and might just be eager to prove it. ‘But I’m just trying to think of a logical place for him to play and I can’t think of one,’ an AFC executive said. ‘I’m guessing he doesn’t want to go to a rebuild. And if you’re a contender, I’m not sure they want to take on Aaron Rodgers and all that comes with that. So, he might just come to the conclusion that he’s done.'”

Even allowing for the fact that this is all just conjecture, and that some reports say Glenn would love to start his Jets career with Rodgers under center:

… what this anonymous executive is saying makes total sense. What GM would want to gamble his career on a 41-year-old quarterback coming off his worst year? Much less one who's been essentially running the Jets entire football operation since the day he set foot on the premises? There's room for only one rooster in this hen house. And the new guy can't take charge knowing there's someone in the building who's been making all the personnel decisions, hired and fired coaches, and got your predecessor fired as well? When August succeeded Julius Caesar, he didn't keep Brutus around to stir up more stabby trouble. He did the right thing. Let him run. Defeated him in battle. Then watch the backstabbing bastard literally fall on his sword.

As far as what he says about the rest of the league, this too makes sense. Where is the market for QB who's going to turn 42 who just had a passer rating that was tied with Joe Flacco for 21st in the league? And a QBR that was barely above Daniel Jones at 31st? 

Teams are either all set at quarterback or rebuilding around a new one. The 2023 Jets were unique in that they were coming off a year where they were good-to-excellent in every aspect of the game except QB, and Rodgers seemed the perfect fit. The solution to all their problems. But - and stop me if you've heard this before - everything went wrong for the Jets. They took a big swing for the fences, and they fouled out. It happens. Now to ask a new GM and a new HC of the NYJs to tie their fate to this guy who hasn't been the answer to anything is just the whole franchise … well, falling on its sword. 

All that said, if any organization could be just reckless and stupid enough to stick with Rodgers after all this, it is them. Buy a shirt, and let's hope they do exactly that.