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The New York Jets thought they had hit the jackpot when they were able to trade for quarterback Aaron Rodgers in 2023.
After all, the Jets haven’t had a winning record since 2015, going 34-80 in the seven seasons prior to landing Aaron Rodgers.
Unfortunately, in his first game for the New York Jets, and just one year removed from winning his fourth NFL MVP award, Rodgers tore up his left ankle on just his fourth offensive snap with the team and missed the rest of the season.
In his place, the New York Jets went with Zach Wilson at quarterback – a player the team spent the second overall pick in the 2021 draft to acquire.
Wilson, and assorted other quarterbacks, would lead the Jets to a 7-10 record, the same record the team had in 2022 – a year in which they team had both the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year as well as the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year.
Now healthy in 2024, Aaron Rodgers is back under center for the Jets, but the numbers he and the team have put up are eerily similar to the stats the Zach Wilson-led Jets had last season. (That’s not a good thing.)
On Friday, NFL defensive back turned talking head Ryan Clark laid into Rodgers and basically said the Jets were sold a bill of goods when they traded for the now 40-year-old quarterback.
“Everybody thought they knew who Aaron Rodgers is. The Aaron Rodgers that we knew was in a fantasy land and a figment of our imagination. The Aaron Rodgers that we mention in the names of Tom Brady and Peyton Manning was a catfish,” Clark said on Friday’s edition of Get Up.
“When Peyton Manning became the quarterback of the Denver Broncos, he added five wins to that team and they were the number two offense in the NFL. When Tom Brady became a member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he added four wins to that team and they were the number three offense in the NFL.”
"The Aaron Rodgers that we mention in the names of Tom Brady and Peyton Manning was a catfish."
—@Realrclark25 says Aaron Rodgers hasn't lived up to expectations with the New York Jets 😳 pic.twitter.com/Q7z0O7mu53
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) October 11, 2024
“The spirit, the reverence, the attention to detail, the respect of those organizations immediately was magnified by the addition of those two quarterbacks. That’s not what’s happened in New York,” Ryan Clark continued.
“The Aaron Rodgers that we always put in that conversation was the Aaron Rodgers we put in that conversation because he was the best quarterback we had seen. He could throw the football in ways that even those other two couldn’t. But the other two had the MVPs and the championships.
“And what I say about this is, Aaron Rodgers has every physical tool to have been the greatest quarterback to have played this game. There is something that he is missing in his intangible DNA that makes him devoid of great leadership, makes him devoid of being able to elevate locker rooms. And I think that’s what we’re seeing in New York.”