With the death rattle for the New York Jets’ 2023 season looming, the question put to head coach Robert Saleh this past Friday night was unavoidable, if not entirely predictable.
The quarterback spot without Aaron Rodgers is a mess. The offensive line is a wasteland of injury. The defense is frustrated. And the franchise’s immediate future is looking hauntingly familiar to last season, when the same issues cascaded into what is becoming an annual carbon copy of failure and bewilderment. And with it, the one question that will stalk Saleh and general manager Joe Douglas for the next six weeks. The query was aimed directly at the head coach, after a 34-13 loss to the Miami Dolphins.
Are you worried about your job security?
“No I’m not,” Saleh said. “I’m not worried about it.”
It has since rippled outward, of course. The surrounding media and fan base has expanded that question to include Douglas — and by extension, the entire Jets coaching staff and front office. That’s how this works. You fire the head coach, you’re essentially firing his entire staff. You fire the general manager, the clock starts on everyone else in the personnel department.
But a better question might be this: Is Rodgers, for whom the Jets opened the 21-day practice window on Wednesday, worried about the job security of his head coach and general manager?
If Rodgers is, could that be playing a part in why he’s pushed so hard to return to this sinking (and very likely sunken) season?
There might actually be method to Aaron Rodgers’ (apparent) madness in trying to return from an Achilles tear this same season. (AP Photo/Bryan Woolston) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Certainly that would be a very reasonable answer to the “why” that surrounds Rodgers when it comes to him trying to get back onto the field by late December, despite a postseason window likely being long dead. From the logical standpoint rehabilitating his torn Achilles, the sheer risk of compressing a best-case six-month…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/as-aaron-rodgers-returns-to-jets-practice-there-might-be-a-good-reason-hes-pushed-so-hard-to-come-back-183847626.html
Author : Yahoo Sports
Publish date : 2023-11-29 18:38:47
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