Aaron Rodgers: "If I wanna play and they don't want me here, then I'll see if there's other options."

On the first day of the New Year, Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers gave what might have been his last midweek press conference with the Jets.

While he called the 2024 season a “shitty year for sure, in a lot of ways,” he said he’s “[t]hankful to be healthy, thankful to the guys for the way they made me feel welcome when I came in last year, thankful for the fans and the excitement that I felt both last year and at times this year.”

He called his time with the Jets “the best two years of my life.”

That seems odd on the surface, given that he won a Super Bowl and four league MVP awards during nearly two decades in Green Bay. Still, Rodgers said “this game is more than just” on-field results. He said he’s thankful for the people he met and the experiences he had with his teammates.

When told it sounds as if he’s leaning heavily toward retiring, Rodgers dismissed that.

“I’m just more resigned to the reality of the situation,” Rodgers said. “I think there’s gonna be change here, and if I’m a part of the change, then I just want to make sure everybody knows that I have nothing but gratitude for my time here.”

He said it would be “fantastic” to come back and “make another run at this” with the jets, but he added that he’s “not naive” to the situation the Jets are in.

Rodgers also said he plans to take time after the season ends to refresh, recharge, and contemplate his future.

“If I wanna play and they don’t want me here, then I’ll see if there’s other options,” Rodgers said.

It remains clear that he wants the Jets to make the first move. Then, he’ll decide whether he wants to play.

The framing, frankly, makes it less likely that the next G.M. and head coach will want him back. They’ll need to make plans quickly. If they decide Rodgers is Plan A, they won’t want to have to wait for his answer as to whether he’s ready to play another season.

Unless, of course, they decide to play his game, telling Rodgers they want him back while assuming he’ll eventually decline to play for the new regime and making plans for his successor.

For weeks, it has felt as if Rodgers wants to move on, and that he wants the Jets to be the ones who end it. There’s no other reasonable way to process his recent habit of needling the franchise and owner Woody Johnson.

Thus, while it feels like a matter of time before he’s no longer a Jet, time will tell whether Rodgers calls it quits or signs elsewhere. Before he can sign elsewhere, another team has to be willing to roll out the red carpet and make him the starter, at the age of 41.