Bill Belichick certainly sounds like someone who wouldn’t be against giving Aaron Rodgers another chance under center.
The former New England Patriots coach wasn’t ready to toss the four-time MVP aside after his struggles with the Jets this season.
During the latest episode of the “Let’s Go!” podcast, Belichick, made the case for a bounce-back season from the 41-year-old Rodgers, who is playing his first season since rupturing his Achilles.
“[Rodgers] could easily rebound from that and be ready to play and have a good year next year,” Belichick said. “You look at all the quarterbacks in the league that are kind of on their second teams and they’re doing pretty well, Russell Wilson and Geno Smith and [Sam] Darnold, Baker Mayfield, you go right down the line, [Matthew] Stafford for that matter, Jared Goff.
“These guys that switch teams, they get in a different system, things are a little bit different for them, maybe they learn some things from whatever it was their previous experiences were. It changes. When a guy has a long career and a good career, sometimes one season is just a bump in the road. It’s not necessarily the end of the road.”
Rodgers has shown glimpses of his former brilliance and also looked like a shell of himself at times for the Jets, who are suffering through a 3-9 season. The former Packers star is completing just 62.6 percent of his passes for 2,627 yards, 19 touchdowns and eight interceptions.
More importantly, Rodgers has all too often had chances to lead the Jets on game-winning drives late in the game and has come up short each time outside of Gang Green’s win over the Titans.
Belichick’s praise of Rodgers will certainly perk some ears as he will likely be a top candidate for multiple head coaching jobs this offseason after a year in the media following being fired by the Patriots after 24 years and six Super Bowls.
He knows that deciding when an older player has nothing left isn’t easy and he learned the hard way with Tom Brady — who won a Super Bowl with the Buccaneers a year after leaving New England.
“That’s one of the toughest things to do as a coach in professional football, is to figure out when that right time is or isn’t,” Belichick said. “One thing you run into sometimes with players as they age in their career is the injury factor. And sometimes players can have an injury at the later point in their career and make it look like maybe it’s an age problem when actually it was an injury problem. And then once that injury clears up, then there’s a lot more good football left in that player.”
The Jets, who are in search of a new general manager and coach will have to make that decision with Rodgers.
