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Former New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan — the last Jets head coach to lead the team to the postseason — has had enough of Aaron Rodgers’ style of leadership, as the ESPN NFL analyst went off on the future Hall of Fame QB on both Sunday and Monday.
Even before the Jets put up just 15 points in their Sunday Night Football loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, Rex Ryan crushed Aaron Rodgers’ for both his performance and his leadership, even going as far as saying the 40-year-old-signal caller is Gang Green’s “biggest problem” right now.
So far this season, Rodgers has completed 61.7% of his passes for 1,663 yards, 10 touchdowns, and seven interceptions, and has a passer rating of 82.2 while leading the team to a 2-5 record.
“Right now, I think the biggest problem [the Jets have] is Aaron Rodgers,” Ryan said on ESPN Sunday NFL Countdown over the weekend.
“Nobodies going to talk about it, everybody’s scared to, or whatever: the facts are, watch the games. He’s not playing like the same guy. He’s struggling. He’s not playing winning football. Quite honestly, they’ve been sitting back telling us, ‘It’s Mike Williams’ fault, it’s the head coach.’ It’s Mike Williams fault that you’re trying to throw a back shoulder pass to him and you dirt it five yards underneath him into the ground? And then, okay, well he doesn’t run the exact route, he’s not on the red line. No, because you’re not pitching the ball to the red line! Quit making dang excuses. Everybody’s afraid of this cat.”
Then, on Monday morning, Ryan continued to direct his ire on Rodgers, identifying that he doesn’t see any passion from the four-time NFL MVP and it’s having a trickle-down effect on the rest of the team.
“Be proud to be a damn New York Jet. Right now, I don’t see it. I see, ‘I’m proud to be Aaron Rodgers,’ ‘I’m proud to be this guy,’ ‘I’m proud to be that guy.’ How bout being proud to be a friggin’ New York Jet? Where’s the passion for it? And I think that starts from the top,” Ryan said during an impassioned rant about his former team on the Monday, October 21 episode of ESPN’s morning show Get Up!.
Rex Ryan was fired up talking about the Jets this morning.
“Be proud to be a damn New York Jet. Right now, I don’t see it. I see, ‘I’m proud to be Aaron Rodgers,’ ‘I’m proud to be this guy,’ ‘I’m proud to be that guy.’ How bout being proud to be a friggin’ New York Jet?” pic.twitter.com/qBEMwQBcOl
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) October 21, 2024
In the latter portion of Ryan’s Sunday NFL Countdown rant, he details how easy the Jets remaining schedule is and that the team has no excuse to not make the playoffs. This was all before the Jets lost to the Steelers in a game they were favored in, however.
Currently sitting at 2-5 after Week 7, the Jets will likely need to win at least 7 of their final 10 games to have a shot at a Wild Card spot in the AFC Playoffs.
In the final 10 weeks of the 2024 campaign, the Jets will take on the New England Patriots, Houston Texans, Arizona Cardinals, Indianapolis Colts, Seattle Seahawks, Miami Dolphins (twice), Jacksonville Jaguars, Los Angeles Rams, and Buffalo Bills.