Aaron Rodgers put on a four-touchdown spectacle in the Jets’ season finale on Sunday, and Fox commentator Greg Olsen believes some teams will look at this tale of the tape as the league turns to 2025.
The 41-year-old quarterback delivered perhaps the best performance of his rocky Jets tenure, going 23 of 36 for 274 yards while tossing one interception and the 500th touchdown of his career in the team’s 32-20 home victory against the Dolphins.
As speculation continues to mount around Rodgers’ future — whether he wants to play next year and if it will be in New York — Olsen suggested Sunday “there’s a lot of teams around the league that are taking very close note” at the future Hall of Famer’s latest showing.
“We have talked a lot about can he still play,” Olsen said, as covered by Awful Announcing. “Can he move? Can he do all of the physical things? Coming into today, he had five touchdown passes through 17 weeks where he was under pressure or on the move. He has thrown four today, that’s the most by any quarterback the entire season.”
The Fox color commentator later added, “This is the best version of Aaron Rodgers we’ve seen all year.”
Rodgers’ Week 18 performance was something long-suffering Jets fans wished to see more of during the quarterback’s past two seasons in New York, the first of which was derailed four plays in due to a season-ending Achilles injury.
Even with Rodgers in the driver’s seat in 2024, not to mention the splashy addition of star wideout and longtime friend Davante Adams, the Jets continued to find new ways to lose as they finished the year at 5-12.
With the search for a new coach and general manager officially underway, it remains to be seen if the incoming regime will retain Rodgers, a decision that will be up to them, according to owner Woody Johnson.
“The coach will have to decide what the quarterback situation is. That’s going to be a very important job for the general manager and the coach – what do we want and when do we get it and what’s our timeline. Where does Aaron Rodgers fit into that?” Johnson told The Post’s Brian Costello exclusively.
Rodgers, who arrived at the Jets in April 2023 to much fanfare, said postgame he is “looking forward to those conversations” with Jets brass.
“It feels good to be able to do some of the things the last five or six weeks that I knew I was capable of doing even at 40, 41, but either way, whatever the decisions are, I won’t be upset or offended,” he said.
For the quarterback-needy teams keeping tabs on Rodgers’ stats — and perhaps Sunday’s tape — the 10-time Pro Bowler finished the 2024 season by throwing for 3,897 yards, 28 touchdowns and 11 interceptions through 17 games.
Rodgers spent the first 20 years of his NFL career with the Packers and won one Super Bowl.
