Aaron Rodgers' display during the New York Jets' practice sessions is raising concerns about the 40-year-old's readiness with the start of the 2024 NFL season arriving soon.
On the final play of the Jets' Monday session, safety Tony Adams picked off Rodgers, which added more worry to how the star signal-caller has appeared to be out of sync with his options . It was observed that the 40-year-old zigged when he should have zagged, often missing his targets .
Overall, he finished the day completing 11 of 27 passes, throwing five straight incomplete passes at a certain point, per the New York Post . Of note, Rodgers has not appeared in any of the Jets' preseason games , two wins against the Carolina Panthers and the Washington Commanders, respectively.
Head coach Robert Saleh believes the offense's struggles have more to do with the fact that Rodgers is facing one of the best defenses in the league rather than not having had the reps with his receivers. "There's a top-five defense on the other side," Saleh said, per the New York Post .
Still, Saleh believes his unit was tired, hence the less-than-stellar showing. "Took the guys a little bit to get going," he continued. "But I still thought it was a good, competitive practice. Guys were communicating, they were executing the way we need them to, but their legs were a little heavy, you can say that."
With Rodgers failing to connect with his receivers and his struggles offensively in practice, Saleh has not determined whether or not the former Super Bowl champion will start in the Jets' final preseason matchup against the New York Giants. Aside from practice, Rodgers has not played in a game since tearing his Achilles just four snaps into the 2023 season.
"I haven't. Not yet. We'll talk about it later," Saleh told reporters . "[Aaron's] going to be included in the conversations along with the coordinators and [general manager Joe Douglas], and we're going to make the best decision for the team."
His comments are in line with how he approached the situation earlier in preseason. "We haven't really talked about it. My instinct right now as I stand here is we'll see. ... My instinct is no, but I want to leave it open. That third game is the one where we're deciding. He definitely won't play in the first two, but the discussion on the third one we haven't quite had yet," Saleh said, noting that practices are "game-like."
"The only difference is you're not tackling. And so we feel comfortable that we're getting the reps we need, the game-like reps we need in a controlled environment."
Additionally, it must be mentioned that Rodgers missed the Jets' mandatory minicamp after going on a trip to Egypt. After returning from the trip, Rodgers and the Jets dealt with the growing pains of building chemistry, with the 40-year-old often having tantrums .
Speaking to reporters, Rodgers explained why he went to Egypt instead of getting together with his teammates. In particular, Rodgers noted scheduling conflicts as the reason why he shunned minicamp.
"I originally scheduled it based on the previous year’s [practice] schedule," he said . "[It] had us out, I believe, by the 9th or 10th. So once I saw the [new] schedule, I was trying to move some things around. It just didn’t happen."
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