NFL insider blasts Jets’ Aaron Rodgers over previous distraction comments

During a Wednesday appearance on “The Dan Patrick Show,” NFL insider Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk blasted New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers for generating headlines this offseason after Rodgers said this past January that “anything in [the Jets’ building] that we’re doing that has nothing to do with winning needs to be assessed.”

“He gets in front of microphones and cameras and he wags his finger in January about how, ‘Next year, it’s got to be all about winning’ … but, ‘Oh, you know what, I might run for vice president and ghost the Jets,'” Florio said, as shared by Brendon Kleen of Awful Announcing. “‘And I’m going to go on all these different podcasts and spew these crazy-a— conspiracy theories, but that doesn’t count because it didn’t happen in the building.’ He’s very good at crafting a standard and not applying it to himself.”

Rodgers continued to share conspiracy theories during podcast interviews this offseason before he admitted that he considered serving as a running mate for independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. while under contract with the Jets. 

Rodgers later said such potential distractions were “offseason things,” but that was before the future Hall of Famer skipped the club’s two-day mandatory minicamp because of what’s been reported to be a vacation overseas.

“I’d like to think I could maybe get through to him, and we could have a real debate,” Florio added about Rodgers. “But that’s the thing with him. He never wants to talk to anybody who might disagree with him. He goes on all these safe space podcasts and says all this crazy stuff, and the hosts never say, ‘Dude, you’ve got to maybe try decaf or read a different book.'”

Rodgers will eventually have to resume media obligations related to serving as an NFL QB1, and it seems a given that he’ll be asked during training camp why he didn’t participate in minicamp after he insisted earlier this year that the Jets needed to eliminate “the bull— that has nothing to do with winning” from the organization.

As much as some would enjoy a spirited Rodgers-Florio debate, fans shouldn’t hold their breaths waiting for such an event to occur before or during the 2024 season.