Aaron Rodgers Rumors: Jets Players Had No 'Realistic Belief' QB Would Return in 2023

Aaron Rodgers maintained throughout the past few months that he was going to attempt to beat every traditional recovery timeline for his torn Achilles and return to the New York Jets this season.

It never seemed realistic, especially as the Jets' season fell apart and they eventually were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. And despite Rodgers' public proclamations of his comeback aspirations, ESPN's Tim Keown reported Thursday that Rodgers' own teammates didn't particularly believe he'd be able to return:

"While the public and the Jets' front office might have bobbed along with the ebbs and flows of Rodgers' weekly teases—the hope for a Rodgers' return might have kept the team from pursuing a non-Zach Wilson/Tim Boyle/Trevor Siemian/Brett Rypien option at quarterback—the tone in the locker room was more subdued. None of the several Jets I spoke with expressed any realistic belief that Rodgers would return to save the season, even after he was cleared for noncontact practice and continued to target Christmas Eve for his return."

The fact that Rodgers has somehow remained one of the central talking points of New York's season despite playing just fours snaps this year was perfectly encapsulated by the team clearing a roster spot for him this week, releasing fullback and special teams contributor Nick Bawden in the process.

The team, at least, signed Bawden back to the practice squad on Thursday, per NFL Network's Ian Rapoport. But the decision to elevate Rodgers to the active roster despite the fact that he won't play the remainder of the year was met with eye rolls:

Would the Jets have perhaps addressed the quarterback situation earlier in the season had Rodgers not maintained he might be able to return? It's hard to say—paying another quarterback when Rodgers and Wilson were already on the payroll was never ideal.

The hope was that Wilson, armed with a summer working around a future Hall of Famer like Rodgers, might have shown some level of progression. If that had happened, maybe the Jets would have been able to tread water for an improbable Rodgers' return late in the season.

Instead, the combination of Wilson and Boyle was nothing short of horrendous. Meanwhile, a player the team easily could have signed, Joe Flacco, helped save the Cleveland Browns' season.

And now the Jets will miss out on the postseason for the 13th straight year, while their fans were forced to endure Rodgers admitting during his weekly appearance on The Pat McAfee Show Tuesday that it was actually "unrealistic to think that I would be 100 percent to be medically cleared at any point during the regular season."

Most people always figured as much, including Rodgers' own teammates, apparently. But it didn't keep the charade from playing out throughout the entire season nonetheless.