Aaron Rodgers has some aches and pains, but that's only physically after being knocked around by the Broncos defense in the Jets' 10-9 loss on Sunday. Mentally, regarding the Jets, his "cadence issue," and his relationship with head coach Robert Saleh, it's a much different story.
"I'm feeling a little banged up," Rodgers told the crew on The Pat McAfee Show Tuesday afternoon. "I took some shots, my knee's a little swollen. But you know, just kind of wear and tear in Week 4."
While his body might not be aching as much had the Jets pulled out that home win to go to 3-1, he reminded everyone about something it's easy to lose sight of in the Not For Long.
"I don't know if I'm the only one who knows there's a lot of football left, but there is a lot of football left," he said. "I'm just hoping we can all have a little perspective that that was just an outlier game. Denver has a pretty solid defense. That and the weather and the lack of execution made for a bad combination and we put up only nine points."
Rodgers, who cut his pro teeth on Green Bay's frozen tundra for his first 18 NFL seasons, had an interesting take on the rain and how it impacted the Jets' Meadowlands afternoon.
"It was supposed to be 60s and cloudy, a pillow fight. Instead, it was classic New York weather," he said. "In Green Bay, we had the cold, and you just start to embrace it. ... Crappy weather? We've got to embrace that. It is kind of Jets weather. I went to a number of games last year, and four or five were like that — misty, windy, damp and cold, damn near miserable. You've got to embrace that and push through it. I just don't think mentally all of us were able to embrace the conditions and play a little better."
Another sidebar to the defeat was the Rodgers cadence issue and the Jets' plethora of presnap penalties. Saleh said after the game, "We've got to figure it out, whether we're good enough or ready to handle all the cadence," then Monday said, "From a cadence standpoint, that's part of what makes us who we are and we're going to continue to always push the envelope on that."
Rodgers said of the details of his cadence that he "didn't make it up, I stole it from the legend who was in front of me," referring to Brett Favre. The five false starts Sunday after one in the first three games were part of what he called an "anomaly."
"We've used various silent cadences. We don't just go on 'one' every time," he said. "It's been an advantage for us. We threw a touchdown in Week 1 on an offsides on a silent count. So it needs to be a weapon, and in order for it to be a weapon, we need to stay onsides.
"Nobody deserves any crap for that except the players," he added of criticism of the Jets coaches. "I don't think it's an issue. It hasn't been an issue at practice. ... Obviously it's hurt us in some situations. We've got to be better. But the cadence is the cadence is the cadence."
Regarding his coaches, and the HC in particular, Rodgers repeated his appreciation for Saleh's approach to him and his team.
"You've got two choices," he said of the flurry of competing narratives, especially on social media. "You can ride the wave — really, the roller-coaster — or you can say I don't care. I'm the latter. I don't get into what the conversation is going on outside the building around myself and the relationships I have. The most important ones are looking a guy in the eye in the locker room, in the meeting room, and knowing he's got your back and you've got his back.
"Rob and I have a great relationship. We have had since day one when I got here."
Some of the proof of all this will be in the Yorkshire pudding this week as the Jets prepare to travel to London to play the 4-0 Vikings at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Rodgers has respect for the Vikes on both sides of the ball. He said of defensive coordinator Brian Flores' unit: "They have a smart defense, and B-Flo obviously has got them on the same page because they do a lot of different things."
And he had similar praise for QB Sam Darnold, the former Jets first-round selection in 2018 who has stepped under the Minnesota center to fashion an NFL-best 118.9 passer rating and direct the league's fourth-ranked scoring offense.
"I love Sam and I give him so much credit. He's a great dude. He comes to my event out in SoCal every year. And he's playing great," Rodgers said before segueing to the play of his former Packers teammate, RB Aaron Jones: "And when you have your 'glue guys' like Aaron who are your best players as well as your best people, you can do something special."
Rodgers of course has always been an adhesive for all his teams. How he and the Jets stick together and embrace the next several weeks of challenges against Minnesota, Buffalo and Pittsburgh will have much to say about how special the football that remains in November through early January will be for the Green & White.
