The New York Jets are one of the more highly anticipated teams of the 2023 NFL season. Everybody was looking forward to seeing what the future Hall-of-Famer, Aaron Rodgers would look like in a new uniform.
Unfortunately, as everybody likely knows, Rodgers suffered a torn Achilles last season, and it pushed off his true debut to the next year.
The last 12 months have flown by, and Jets fans are patiently awaiting Rodgers’ 2024 debut, but they’re going to have to continue to wait until September to see their legendary signal caller suit up.
Aaron Rodgers to sit out preseason finale, debut on MNF
As many expected, it’s officially been announced that Aaron Rodgers will sit out the Jets’ preseason finale against the New York Giants. This should really come as a surprise to nobody. Rodgers is 40 years old and well past his prime years of physical performance.
Playing in the preseason, especially coming off such a serious injury paired with an unprecedented attempt to recover, would be such an unnecessary risk for Rodgers and the Jets to take. They’re better off letting him practice and save his bullets for the regular season.
That means that the first time we will see Rodgers in a game with the Jets season will be on Sept. 9 when the Jets travel to San Fransisco to play the 49ers on Monday Night Football.
The 40-year-old is attempting to turn around the curse that’s seemingly been placed on the Jets franchise.
Since Rodgers was drafted in 2005, the Jets have won 10+ games in a season just three times. They’ve finished as a top ten scoring offense just once, that year coming in 2008 when they were led by former Packers legend Brett Farve.
In Rodgers’ career, he’s won over 10 games in a season 10 different times, including a 15-1 regular season in 2011. Rodgers’ Packers offense has finished top ten in the league in scoring offense eight different times including being the top scoring offense in the league three different times.
He’s certainly a difference maker and given how the Jets performed last year, it’s evident that they really need their signal caller to be healthy this year. They have a chance to turn their team from one of the worst in the league into a unit that competes with the Bills and the Dolphins at the top of the AFC East.