Of course Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams walked through that door on Sunday. Of course the rendition of grumpy old men morphed into the dynamic duo, when the postseason is no longer on the line, but draft positioning most certainly is. Of course it happened when everyone of consequence has been fired and the only ones fighting for the second marriage of Rodgers’ and Adams’ careers are the quarterback and his favorite wide receiver.
Of course. Because it’s the New York Jets.
That’s what I thought late in the fourth quarter of the the New York Jets’ 32-25 comeback win against the Jacksonville Jaguars, as Rodgers took advantage of a clean pocket and threw an unquestionably impressive 71-yard touchdown dart to Adams. It was the stuff of Green Bay Packers lore: Rodgers effortlessly wrist-flicking a rope down the middle of the field as Adams ruthlessly split a pair of defenders in coverage. The ball came down slightly over Adams’ left shoulder and perfectly into a two-handed cradle — in full stride. The two defenders on each side of Adams were helpless to stop it, and not even an angling third defender getting a clear shot to tackle him at the 5-yard line could stop the touchdown.
Halfway down the field, Rodgers was running, screaming and fist-pumping, capturing what might be his most joyous moment of this lost season. In that highlight — maybe 30 seconds — everything was possible again and nothing else mattered. Not the 10 losses with three difficult games left on the schedule. Not the upper reaches of the organization already having been blown up. Not team owner Woody Johnson reportedly floating the idea of benching Rodgers a few months back. Not the looming guillotine of the coming offseason, when a decision will be made to either further blow this team up and start over yet again … or possibly keep it together and hope for different results.
Instead, in this one game, Rodgers and Adams took everyone into the time machine and reminded us that who they are can still be who they were. To the tune of nine completions for 198 yards and two touchdowns. It was the most prolific performance between Rodgers and one of his Jets receivers, an outing capable of teasing some what-could-have-been emotions between the quarterback and wideout.
“Yeah — yeah it did [feel like old times], except he dropped one,” Rodgers said afterward with a smile. “And I missed him on the next big third down. But yeah, [Davante] is a fantastic player. He dropped the one, said he got his dreads pulled. Whether that’s true or not, seemed like an excuse.”
This was Rodgers in his happy, playful mode. In a season that has produced only four wins, you take the wind at your back when you get it. Even if it raises the question about where this kind of performance has been since the Jets acquired Adams two months ago, in the hopes that his connection with Rodgers could turn the season around. Rodgers has wondered, too.
“Yeah, for sure,” he said Sunday. “You know, it’s too little, too late. But it’s still special. It doesn’t taint it at all. It doesn’t steal any of the joy of it. It doesn’t take away any of the fun that’s going to be on the bus just now, and then on the plane … it’s still going to be special. They’re always special. But this was a year for things that — we were close but we kind of let it get away from us in the middle of the season.”
That reality might have defined the message Rodgers and Adams sent on Sunday: Yes, the season is dead. No, as a tandem, we are not. All of this sets up an audition of sorts, with both Rodgers and Adams wanting to play next season — together. Either with the Jets or elsewhere. Maybe with the Tennessee Titans, who are inching closer to needing to move off turnover-machine Will Levis and may need a one-year bridge quarterback to get to better draft options in 2026. Maybe it’s a one-year bridge role for the New York Giants or Las Vegas Raiders, if either franchise toys with the idea of redshirting Shedeur Sanders or Cam Ward in 2025. Or maybe it’s just camping in place for another season and rolling with this same Jets squad for one last shot at achieving something, anything, better than the overwhelming disappointments of 2023 and 2024.
Given what has gone on this season for the Jets — and a forthcoming regime that will likely want to clear the decks — it’s hard to see that latter development happening. Of course, that’s before you consider the other options the Jets have available to them. Barring a trade up that would be unwise in this weak quarterback draft, they will likely have no better than the third or fourth best quarterback on the draft board available to them. And that QB might not even be worthy of a first-round pick. Barring hell freezing over, the top free-agent quarterback, Sam Darnold, isn’t coming back to play for the Jets. Veteran trade options aren’t great. And while Rodgers isn’t cheap to keep around (he’s due a $35 million option bonus at the start of the 2025 season, along with $2.5 million in base salary) there might be a way to negotiate both he and Adams taking pay cuts to stick around and play together.
Even for Rodgers and Adams, running it back again with the Jets might be their best and only chance to continue playing together. Which appears to be a priority for both in 2025.
There aren’t a wealth of quarterback depth charts across the league that make a Rodgers addition sensible, let alone Rodgers and Adams. And if they somehow manage to pull a rabbit out of a hat in the remaining three games — including winnable home games against the Los Angeles Rams and Miami Dolphins — and one scary road game against a Buffalo Bills team that is probably the best in the NFL right now, then some attitudes might shift inside the Jets.
Finishing 7-10 and with a four-game winning streak isn’t exactly good. But a sales pitch could include having an offseason of Rodgers and Adams working together, along with a polishing of the roster with a new general manager and head coach. There’s some fresh air to sell. Whether anyone buys it will hang on how the next three weeks play out.
For his part, Rodgers appeared to move better against the Jaguars. Not only was he sliding around the pocket, he accessed his ability to run. It was a far cry from most of the season, when he looked like he might have lost a large portion of his athleticism from the waist down. Instead, Rodgers had some unexpected pep, and used it to create a handful of tantalizing moments with Adams. He finished with six rushes for 45 yards, after having only 56 total rushing yards in the season’s first 13 games.
“Today was one of those days in the second half, definitely felt very similar to the way we used to get it rolling,” Adams said. “You all will never be able to feel this, but even being in the huddle with Aaron, it felt a lot different. Obviously with him being mobile now, not having that [hamstring] nagging him the same way it was when I first got here, him being able to be on the run like that — I think teams are kind of starting to play us how they were when he wasn’t [mobile]. He’ll make you pay. He’s not going to run in the 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, maybe even a 4.6 [40-yard dash], but in 10-yard spurts, he’s still got that.”
In a season comprised mostly of thunderheads rolling in, it was a sliver of sunlight poking through a ceiling of gray. A selling point in a final act of this 2024 Jets tragedy, complete with the uplifting moments arriving when there’s really not much left to actually lift up. All that’s left now is to see how this plays out and whether there’s still something salvageable for 2025.
Both for the Jets and the future of their too-little, too-late stars.
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