Aaron Rodgers opens door to retire much sooner than New York Jets fans hoped

Aaron Rodgers has dominated the New York Jets news cycle for over a year despite only playing a grand total of four plays with the team. Rodgers is an enigmatic personality who drives headlines and Jets fans simply want to see him be a great, consistent quarterback.

Rodgers and the Jets are heading into a 2024 season where the rubber needs to meet the road. Fans are hungry for a playoff run and all the pieces are in place to accomplish just that. All the team needs is Rodgers to return from his Achilles injury and look like the Rodgers of old.

In a perfect world, this would start a multi-year Super Bowl where the Jets get multiple cracks at winning the Lombardi Trophy. However, reality has to set in at one point and the fact of the matter is that Rodgers' days with the Jets might be limited.

In a recent appearance on Barstool Sports' Pardon My Take, Rodgers was asked about how many more NFL seasons he had in him. His answer was less than ideal for Jets fans.

"I don't know. I'm not sure. This one, for sure. I wanted to do two good ones to give us a chance to retire a Jet, win two Super Bowls."

Aaron Rodgers doesn't commit to playing past 2024 with the New York Jets

It looks like Rodgers' master plan was to play the 2023 and 2024 seasons with the Jets to give the team two real shots at winning the Super Bowl before calling it a career. But with the 2023 season essentially being a wash, it will be interesting to see if Rodgers is really interested in two shots at the Super Bowl, or if he has a hard out after the 2024 season despite what happened in 2023.

It is worth mentioning Rodgers does have one additional year on his contract with the Jets. Rodgers' contract runs through the 2025 season (and only has a $25.3 million cap hit) so he definitely has the runway to play in 2025 if that is what he wants.

In reality, Rodgers being non-committal to his future with the Jets just indicates how important the 2024 season is. In many ways, the 2024 season represents perhaps the best chance the Jets have of winning a Super Bowl while also potentially being a transition year to a new era for the franchise.

If the Jets win the Super Bowl then Rodgers will likely sail into the sunset and Jets fans won't care all the same. He will have delivered what Jets fans have been so desperately chasing and the next 5-10 years for the team won't really matter.

On the flip side, if the 2024 season is a disaster then Rodgers might still decide to leave. If Rodgers takes a huge step backward and Robert Saleh gets canned for having another losing season then it would not be surprising if the future Hall of Famer decides to call it quits. Then the Jets will be entering yet another era of quarterback dysfunction.

Then there is the middle ground. If the Jets have a good season and make noise in the playoffs, but do not win the Super Bowl, then Rodgers may decide to give it one more go in 2025. But again, that is completely up to Rodgers and if the last year-plus is any indication, it will be a drawn-out process.

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