It would be nice to hear Aaron Rodgers field a few queries these days that are not about his future with the Jets or in the NFL. But that's not where the Jets' now 41-year-old quarterback finds himself. Questions about Sunday's opponent, the Miami Dolphins? Not one at his weekly locker room news conference after Wednesday's practice. Some followup about what happened last game when the Jets fell from 21-7 ahead to 26-21 behind against Seattle? Only one,

But one thing that doesn't get old is hearing Rodgers talk about his love of the game. He has been a great NFL player for two decades and in five or so more years he'll be among the immortals enshrined in Canton. He didn't get there by taking off a day of practice or the three hours of a game when the mood struck him, which it never has.

So, for instance, why would he want to play all 17 games in a lost season?

"Because that's what you do when you're a professional," Rodgers said. "The most important ability you can have is availability. I wasn't available last year. I love to play the games, I play for the love of the game. I'm hypercompetitive. I love to be out there with the guys."

Rodgers showed how much he wanted to play after last year's Achilles injury in the season opener by trying to do the impossible and come back for the last games of the '23 season. This year, his availability from week to week sometimes seemed not impossible but at least improbable owing to those lower-body injuries he worked his way thorough.

Yet since this year's opener at San Francisco, which he exited early, the Jets have played 11 games and 693 offensive snaps, and he's been behind center for all of them.

"If I'm out there, I feel good enough to play, so I don't use that as an excuse," he said. "I'm not even going to touch that. That's not my mindset. I expect to play well if I'm out there. I expect to get the job done."

Which brings up the first of the Jets' last five games this season, at Miami against the 5-7 Dolphins. The team matchup raises some individual matchup questions between Rodgers and Tua Tagovailoa, who has returned from his September concussion to play some of his best ball as a pro for the past six games.

So while A-Rod is facing his first season with double-digit losses as a starting QB since his first season as Green Bay's starter in 2008, Tagovailoa is working on a career-high passer rating (it's 108.0 now) and on setting not only a personal best but an NFL record if he can maintain his 74.5% passing accuracy.

Rodgers doesn't pay much mind to the numbers. Even with his average season leading the 3-9 Jets, his 102.7 career passer rating is still the NFL record by a little and his 4.37 TDs-to-INTs ratio is the best by a lot.

But there is one metric he would like to demolish, perhaps starting against the 'Fins' top-10 pass defense.

"Stats can be skewed both positively and negatively. ... It's a weird one, for sure," Rodgers said pensively about having 77 games in his career in which he has thrown for 300-plus yards, yet not one of those has occurred in his last 35 games dating to Dember 2021. "I'd love to get rid of that one. There's a lot of stats I've been on the right side of. That's not one of my favorites, for sure."

More Jets victories would be nice, but what keeps Rodgers going these days is not the swinging, swirling world of NFL statistics. The incentive, he said, comes from "deep inside.

"I'd like to be healthy, end on my feet, and play well," he said. "I have a lot of price in playing. I love football. I don't need motivation or inspiration from the outside world. I wake up grateful about what I'm doing, that I'm still playing. I want to go out and compete and light up the defense every day."