If you want to criticize an NFL team, the 2025 New York Jets provided you with an extremely target rich environment. Aside from special teams and to a lesser extent the offensive line, the team had virtually no bright spots.
You name it. The Jets did it poorly.
That’s why it was so odd all season to see the Jets get criticized for a decision that was objectively the correct one.
The Jets released Aaron Rodgers in the offseason. The future Hall of Fame quarterback signed with the Steelers. Pittsburgh
went on to have a 10-7 season and won the AFC North while the Jets floundered to a 3-14 season.
Rodgers has success after being cut by the Jets. The Jets end up as one of the worst teams in the league. The narrative writes itself.
Of course, this is only true if you neglect to do even the smallest amount of analysis.
All of this talk ignores that the Jets had to release Rodgers to avoid a dead money hit in excess of $60 million in 2026 if he retired after this year. The cap hits conceivably could have been spread out over multiple seasons, but another year of Rodgers would have added more to an already hefty cap bill the Jets are dealing with.
The talk also ignores the fundamental reality that the Jets simply needed to cut ties with Rodgers era. The decision to deal for Rodgers proved to be a catastrophic error that has set the franchise back for years. The Jets will be dealing with the ramifications for some time.
But there’s a more basic point that has gotten lost in the weeds. There’s no reason to think the Jets’ season would have been much different even if Rodgers was the quarterback.
All of the talk about Rodgers’ success in 2025 and the Jets paying for a massive error implies that the quarterback had a massive bounceback season in Pittsburgh.
All one needs to do is look at basic stats to see that isn’t the case. In fact, it’s difficult to argue he was any better in Pittsburgh this year than he was with the Jets a year ago.
The quality of Rodgers’ play was similar to what we saw in 2024 when the Jets went 5-12 with him at quarterback. Are we to think that suddenly this level of quarterback play would have lifted the team to new heights?
What makes this especially difficult to believe is that Rodgers didn’t even lift the Steelers to new heights. While much of the discourse around Rodgers’ play in 2025 was positive, it’s difficult to see it he was better than Russell Wilson’s oft-criticized 2024 campaign in Pittsburgh.
If anything, Wilson was probably a hair better a year ago than Rodgers was this season.
The quarterback change didn’t elevate the Steelers. They finished with an identical 10-7 record to the one they posted last year with Wilson (and Justin Fields) under center.
It’s easy to pile on Rodgers after he played poorly in a postseason game where the Steelers were eliminated by the Houston Texans. The reality is his play through the course of the whole season was nothing special.
You can criticize the Jets for a lot of what they did in 2025, but they got this decision right. The idea that keeping Aaron Rodgers would have changed their season in a major way just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.
