The Jets bet big on Aaron Rodgers. Now they’re stuck in limbo.

About a year ago, Jets owner Woody Johnson was getting restless.

The Jets owner was distressed by the performance of his head coach and general manager, to say nothing of a struggling quarterback the duo selected second overall in the 2021 draft. He was asking pointed questions about the direction of the team. There were rumblings that Coach Robert Saleh and GM Joe Douglas had best be prepared to provide a cogent plan for constructing an offense to complement New York’s stout defense – with quarterback Zach Wilson or without him – or else. As chance would have it, all of this was happening just as the final strands tethering Aaron Rodgers to Green Bay were fraying.

That despair of 2022 probably seems a bit quaint to the billionaire Johnson & Johnson heir now, as his Frankenstein roster plummets toward the AFC’s cellar yet again, this time with a bloated payroll to boot. And Johnson’s hands, for however much he may wring them in consternation, seem effectively tied because of the decision to go all-in for Rodgers in the first place.

These 4-7 Jets are a total disaster following a Black Friday dismantling by Miami, hitting new lows offensively (the Fail Mary!) while also wilting more defensively by the week. But Rodgers is somehow more the face of the franchise than ever, despite taking just four snaps before his Achilles’ gave way. And I wouldn’t bet on Johnson doing anything to upset his highest paid player in the coming months, no matter what football catastrophes are yet to come.

“If they weren’t stuck with Rodgers for next year, absolutely, he’d be firing everyone,” said one NFL general manager, who knows Johnson fairly well. (He spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not permitted to discuss the inner workings of other teams.) “But he’s stuck. I think he has to keep [offensive coordinator Nathaniel] Hackett, because he’s the quarterback’s guy. And you’re not going to change the system, or bring in anyone who would change the system, because that’s what Rodgers wants to run. So how are you firing the head coach? You can’t, right? Not unless you want to piss off Rodgers.

“I don’t think he can touch Saleh or Hackett. Maybe he brings someone in to replace [Douglas] and tells them they can hire their own [coach] a year from now. You can get a GM now by doing that. But those coaches, you’re stuck with them for next year.”

Let’s get this out of the way right now – Rodgers isn’t playing football this season. No personnel people in the NFL I’ve talked with see that happening. It’s bad enough to have a 40-year old, declining QB on your books for $38 million guaranteed next season; having him reinjure himself (on the Meadowlands’ oft-criticized artificial surface, no less) would only further damn a 2024 campaign that might already be doomed. “Even they aren’t stupid enough to let that happen,” the GM said, a familiar refrain around the league.

Problem is, the Jets’ issues run far deeper than Wilson’s ineptitude. They need to rebuild more or less the entire offensive line, and they’re already down their second-round 2024 pick from overpaying for Rodgers in the first place. They don’t have a starting-caliber tight end on the roster, and the receiving talent beyond Garrett Wilson is lacking. They’re on the hook for Friend Of Rodgers Allen Lazard for another $10 million next year, too, and don’t discount how much say and impact the quarterback will assume in future roster construction as well. Rodgers considers himself perpetually empowered on such matters.

Going into a season with only Wilson and Tim Boyle (who had one TD pass and 13 interceptions at U-Conn., but, you guessed it, is another Rodgers guy!) behind Rodgers on the depth chart was always tempting fate. Doing so with this offensive line was courting disaster. Not landing a veteran quarterback before the trade deadline would cost the coach and GM their jobs under normal circumstances. Having 10 total offensive touchdowns heading into December – four fewer than any other team – would have cemented it.

But Rodgers is the gift that keeps giving to those in power in New York. As for always-suffering Jets fans, well, Rodgers’s time in New York will prove to be more a curse than a gift. Running it back in 2024 with the same suspect coaches kowtowing to a withering quarterback who mustered 6.8 yards per attempt and a 91.1 QB rating the last time he played a full season seems like a recipe for another excruciating campaign – one perhaps even less fruitful than Brett Favre’s brief foray to the Big Apple.

Which could mean that Johnson can start firing people again by this time next year.

Change could be coming in Tampa Bay

Speaking of restless owners, change is in the air in Tampa.

After a 3-1 start, the Buccaneers came out of their early bye and lost six of their next seven games. Both sides of the ball are struggling. They look like an old team, already on fumes. And ownership, I continue to hear, is leaning toward a total reboot.

The Tom Brady era is over, and those who helped construct it are almost certainly on their way out. Multiple high-ranking officials from other clubs maintain that the Glazer family (which owns the team) is preparing to undergo coaching and GM searches, coming to grips with the fact that they aren’t a quarterback or a player or two away and that an arduous task is ahead.

Sure, at 4-7 the Bucs are only a game behind the NFC South co-leaders, but it’s lost on no one just how flawed that division is and how hollow a division title would probably be. They went all-in on Brady and got a ring for it, but the general manager who oversaw that signing (Jason Licht) and the defensive coordinator of those playoff teams (current head coach Todd Bowles) appear to be at the end of their runs. I’d wager the next head coach there is a lot younger than the 60-year-old Bowles, with a cheaper staff.

Do signs point to Jim Harbaugh in Chicago?

Brace yourself for a barrage of Jim Harbaugh rumors – way beyond the garden variety that made the rounds a year ago.

NFL folks seem pretty convinced that the latest controversy in Ann Arbor could leave Harbaugh more inclined to get back into the pro game, and that he’ll keep an open mind about possibilities. Several executives, whether just connecting dots or not, have noted that Bears team president Kevin Warren was the longtime commissioner of the Big Ten before coming back to the NFL, while Harbaugh became one of the highest profile figures in that conference the moment he took the Michigan job.

Harbaugh’s long tenure as the Bears’ quarterback is another factor to consider, as that team’s owners have been leaning heavily into the franchise’s history, particularly as they try to get a new stadium built for them. And if you are inclined to keep Justin Fields as your quarterback and add pieces around him with high draft picks, well, he appears to be a perfect fit for Harbaugh’s offense.

Harbaugh is a Midwest guy through and through, despite the years he spent coaching and playing on the West Coast. He’d have plenty of people with ownership’s ears working on his behalf. And he’d be in the opposite conference from his brother. It just might be a fit.

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