New head coach Aaron Glenn and the New York Jets front office were comfortable with veteran quarterback Aaron Rodgers returning to the team next season. All they had were two stipulations, and apparently, Rodgers didn’t agree. Now, it appears that Rodgers will be a free agent, and the Jets will be in the market for a new starting quarterback.
Aaron Rodgers Refused Stipulations To Return to Jets
The Athletic’s Dianna Russini provided the scoop on her podcast and reiterated what Rodgers was not willing to accept.
“I was told that when they had conversations with Aaron Rodgers about what the future would look like, ‘If you’re going to be part of this team, you’re going to attend all of training camp,’” Russini said on her “Scoop City” podcast.
“You’re not going to do Pat McAfee interviews anymore… They had a conversation with him of, ‘If you were to stay here, here is how we would want it to be.’ So this, to me, is Aaron Glenn getting control back.”
It appears as though the two issues were attendance at training camp and a gag order against appearing on “The Pat McAfee Show.”
“When the Jets had conversations with him about a potential return, I was told that they set some boundaries,” Russini said about the team’s handling of Rodgers’ future.
“He’d have to attend all training camp practices, and he’d no longer be permitted to do his ‘Pat McAfee Show’ appearances. It wasn’t nearly like his recruitment from two offseasons ago. More broadly, it makes clear Glenn and [Darren] Mougey are putting an emphasis on individual accountability.”
Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network had a slight variation from those two conditions. One, as you might have guessed, surrounded the issue of the level of compensation Rodgers would make as the Jets’ starting quarterback.
“If Rodgers stays, he’d almost surely have to take a pay cut from his scheduled 2025 base salary of $37.5 million,” Rapoport and Pelissero wrote. “Several decorated veteran QBs — Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger, Drew Brees — all took pay cuts at the end of their careers.”
According to NFL Network, the Jets also demanded that Rodgers be around the training site for all offseason training activities. This has been something Rodgers has been reticent in doing in years past.
“Rodgers likely also needs to commit to being with the Jets during the offseason program to learn a new system under first-time offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand,” NFL Network reported. “Something that would benefit all parties.”