Hall of Famer-to-Be Is Set to Resume His Legendary NFL Career, but His Backup Has Yet to Be Determined
No Longer with Jets: Boyle
POTENTIAL FREE AGENTS IN ’24
Unrestricted: Siemian, Rypien
Lay of the Land in ’24Soon at One Jets Drive it will be time for Aaron Rodgers 2.0, since the multiple Pro Bowl and future Hall of Fame QB lasted only 1.0 series (rounded up from those four offensive snaps) before his devastating Achilles tear in the Monday night opener against Buffalo. Rodgers and the Jets held out hope that his resolute rehab plus a favorable Jets playoff position would result in his being cleared to return to action less than a season after his injury, but that was not to be. Yet Rodgers returned to practice Nov. 30, was activated from IR Dec. 20 and served as a state-of-the-art scout team QB and inspiration over the last six weeks. Now he’ll pick up where he left off in September, a year older at 40, a season older starting his 20th NFL season, and intent on getting the Jets and himself back into the NFL’s playoff picture in ’24.
The most intriguing QB question likely will be: Who will be Rodgers’ backup? GM Joe Douglas and HC Robert Saleh have yet to reveal the future of now fourth-year signal-caller Zach Wilson, who could be traded or could remain as second in command behind ARod. Trevor Siemian, who finished the season as the starter, with Wilson in the concussion protocol, got the starting wins over Washington and New England, his first W’s since 2017 with Denver.
Brett Rypien, whose first two pro starts were also for the Broncos and against the Jets (win on Thursday night in 2020 at MetLife, loss in ’22 in Denver) was signed Dec. 5 but was inactive for his first two games and didn’t play in the last three. Both Siemian and Rypien can become free agents next month.
Photos | Best of the Jets Quarterbacks During the 2023 Season
See photos of the Jets quarterbacks in action during the 2023 season.
Quick Look Back at ’23Rodgers’ stat line as a Jet so far is one incompletion and one fateful sack. He’ll seek to add to his unparalleled body of work — he needs 945 yards to reach 60,000 for his regular-season career, 25 TD passes to get to 500 and 184 first-down completions for 3,000. Yards, touchdowns and first downs are all necessary items as the Jets rebuild their offense.
Wilson showed some improvement over his first two seasons — he logged career bests with 60.1% accuracy, an 8-to-7 TD-to-INT margin and a 77.2 passer rating. He also rushed for 211 yards at 5.9 yards/carry, and he directed fourth-quarter comeback drives in three first-half-of-the-season victories, over the Bills, Eagles and Giants. But most of his numbers and the Jets’ offensive metrics remained in the bottom half of the league rankings
Siemian’s numbers also were unimpressive, except for the two gritty victories, one in the fall-from-ahead-come-from-behind 30-28 win over the Commanders at MetLife Stadium and the other in the pullaway, losing-streak-snapping, season-ending 17-6 win over the Patriots in snowy Foxboro.
QB TriviaThe Jets divided their 17 QB starts among four different signal-callers: Rodgers in the opener, Wilson (11 starts), Tim Boyle (2) and Siemian (3). The only other time in franchise history they had four different QB starters in a season was 1989 with Ken O’Brien (12), Kyle Mackey (1), Pat Ryan (1) and Tony Eason (2). Green & White fans are rooting for Rodgers in 2024 to join Ryan Fitzpatrick in ’15 as the two most recent Jets QBs to start every game in a season.
