Ever since Aaron Rodgers signed with the New York Jets in the 2023 NFL off-season, much has been made about the influence the four-time MVP has on the franchise. With that, there’s been lots of speculation about any potential role that Rodgers may have had with the team’s decision to fire head coach Robert Saleh on Tuesday.
Roughly 24 hours after the seismic news of Saleh’s firing, Rodgers publicly spoke out for the first time about the move on The Pat McAfee Show. He wasted little time in addressing rumors that he had any role whatsoever in the dismissal, which came just days after Sunday’s 23–17 loss to the Minnesota Vikings in London.
There’s no doubt that few players have the stature of Rodgers, and while he pushed back on those who think he has considerable power within the Jets organization, he didn’t explicitly state that he has no power within the franchise. Since he joined the team, and even before, New York has made numerous transactions that, from the outside looking in, appear to be favors to Rodgers.
Before the 2023 season, New York hired Nathaniel Hackett as offensive coordinator, perhaps to help influence Rodgers to come to The Big Apple. The two have a great relationship, as Hackett was Rodgers’s coordinator for three years with the Green Bay Packers, including two MVP-winning seasons.
Once Rodgers joined the team in April 2023, the Jets brought along former Packers receiver Randall Cobb ostensibly to help with Rodgers’ transition to his new team and accommodate the then 39-year-old quarterback, as no other team made as much effort to bring in Cobb. Rodgers had been in Cobb’s wedding party and is even godfather to one of his kids. Cobb has since gone unsigned in the 2024 NFL season.
Unlike most players, Rodgers has a direct line of communication with the team’s owner, Woody Johnson. After the Jets’ loss in London, Rodgers noted he received a phone call from the owner on Monday night, which was roughly 12 hours before Johnson fired Saleh. Given the timing of that phone call and how the Jets appear to have accommodated Rodgers since he joined the team, a connection was drawn to his possible role in the decision.
However, Rodgers said the owner’s phone call was nothing more than a standard follow-up after a tough game.
“Yeah, I did talk to Woody; Woody called me Monday night. We had a short conversation,” said Rodgers. “I appreciated the call; it was a genuine call, and he just asked me how I was doing. Obviously, I got rolled up on in the game, and my ankle got pretty banged up, so he just called and was asking how I was doing.
“We talked about the game and how disappointed I was in my performance, and that I’m going to play better, and that we’re going to get this thing turned around, and then we hung up. To that point, Woody has no obligation to let me know what his plans are. Whether or not he knew what he was doing in that moment is inconsequential.”
It’s no secret that Rodgers and Saleh butted heads over the last year-plus, including during the off-season when the quarterback skipped mandatory minicamp, opting to travel to Egypt instead. Saleh publicly called Rodgers’s absence “unexcused,” and the team fined the quarterback.
Then there was the awkward exchange between the two after a Week 3 victory over the New England Patriots in which Saleh appeared to try to give Rodgers a hug, only for the quarterback to push him away, say a few words, then walk away with a blank stare. That ended up being the last victory with Saleh on the Jets sideline; he has been replaced on an interim basis by defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich.
Like Rodgers, the 47-year-old Ulbrich is from Northern California. He also had a 10-year playing career, so he has more in common with Rodgers than Saleh did. While Saleh may have been a bit hesitant to have Rodgers in his ear when it came to making decisions, Ulbrich says he will certainly use someone with Rodgers’s experience.
In his introductory press conference after being named interim head coach, Ulbrich called Rodgers a “vital resource.”
