Playing fast, loose and focused has been one of the trademarks of QB Aaron Rodgers' 20-year career in the NFL. Yet several times this season, the Jets' offense has not displayed the sharpness and speed at some critical moments. Rodgers knows it. Jeff Ulbrich, the interim head coach, knows it. The entire team knows it.
"I love tempo," Rodgers said on Tuesday. "I mean, I've done tempo my entire career, so we'll see what [play-caller] Todd [Downing] wants to do."
The Jets had to burn all three of their first half timeouts in the first quarter last Sunday and also committed several presnap penalties in the game. Those issues have to be sorted out ahead of Thursday night's game against Houston (6-2) at MetLife Stadium for the Jets (2-6) to have the opportunity to end their five-game slide.
"I mean, in this offense, there's some long calls sometimes," Rodgers said. "So we get, we get the personnel in. OK, I gotta get the call out. We gotta get up to the line, make a call and make the right check or not, make a check and just go. So, there's gonna be long calls. This is the way we do it. There's run-pass options, run-run options. Pass-to-run options. We just gotta ... I gotta spit it out. We gotta get to the line and get the thing going."
Coming back from last year's season-ending Achilles tendon surgery and after taking some shots (18 sacks) through eight games, Rodgers has been candid about his ability to quickly bounce back -- especially in this week's quick turnaround.
"My schedule is basically I'm here [at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center], when I'm here, and I'm doing rehab, and I go home and I do more rehab," he said. "So, you know, I'm kind of taking care of myself nonstop. And if you look at the [Pats] game, you know, I only got hit a couple times. I got sacked once. I didn't really move a whole lot. That was probably part of it. But, you know, I expect to be able to do a lot, a lot more this week."
He added: "I got to be able to move a little bit. And I'm not the runner I once was, and led our team in rushing a handful of games over the years. I don't want to do that, but I gotta be able to move around. Obviously. Week 3 [a 24-3 win over New England], I moved around pretty damn well, and we had some success. So I need to be able to get off the spot."
Though Rodgers acknowledged that he -- and his teammates -- need to play better, Ulbrich is confident that his gritty and elite 40-year-old quarterback is determined to turn things around.
"The one thing about Aaron is he is, he is a great teammate, and he wants to do right by the guys around him, he does," Ulbrich said. "And the fact that he doesn't feel like he's doing as well as he can, that's frustrating to him and he feels this obligation to be the player that pulls these games out for us and is the reason that we win. So he does have a level of frustration, but at the same time, he's focused. He's working his butt off. And, and I anticipate him as he gets into a group here, that it gets better. It becomes the Aaron that we all know."
To Jets fans, Rodgers had this message ahead of Thursday's game: "Smile, show up, trust, leave and root us on as hard as you can. We need that noise, and we're trying to rectify this as quickly as possible. No, it's been frustrating for everybody, but still, a lot of season left."
