NFL Network Pundit Marc Ross: NY Jets Not Even Playoff Team, Let Alone Super Bowl Contender
NFL Network’s Marc Ross speaks exclusively to Rant Sport’s Mark Eckel about Jets
In the span of a week the New York Jets fired head coach Robert Saleh, lost a tough game to their top AFC East rival, the Buffalo Bills, and traded for one of the top wide receivers in the game in Davante Adams.
You can’t say the Jets, who have the longest playoff drought of any of the teams in the major four sports, aren’t trying. Are they making the right moves, however?
That’s a major no according to NFL Network’s Marc Ross, whose resume includes two Super Bowl rings with the New York Giants as the team’s assistant general manager as well as executive roles in personnel with the Buffalo Bills and Philadelphia Eagles.
“I’ve never been on this whole Aaron Rodgers as the GM,’’ Ross said. “I didn’t think they were a playoff team before the season, let alone a Super Bowl contender.’’
The Jets acquired Rodgers from the Green Bay Packers before the start of the 2023 season. The future Hall of Fame quarterback played just one series for them before tearing his Achilles. He’s back healthy this year and the team is 2-4 after six games.
“Last year they let him bring in all those former Packers players in,’’ Ross said. “They hired (Nathaniel) Hackett (as offensive coordinator). How did all of that work out? “Now they got Adams for him. Let’s see how that works.’’
Adams, who will turn 32 in December and has missed the past two weeks with a hamstring injury, was Rodgers No. 1 target when both were in Green Bay. The Jets sent the Las Vegas Raiders a third-round pick that could become a second-round pick in exchange for the wide receiver.
According to Ross, acquiring the talented Adams isn’t going to fix what ails the Jets. Because the problem is with the man who wanted him.
“He can’t do what he did anymore,’’ Ross said of Rodgers. “He’s half the player he once was. What made him great was how he could make something out of nothing. How he could extend plays and make a great throw. You see moments now. But for him to be good everything around him has to be perfect.’’
And the Jets are far from perfect. After firing Saleh, the team also demoted Hackett. In their first game after the moves they lost at home to the Bills, 23-20, on Monday Night Football. The game was a 60-minute version of Rodgers’ career. He looked good early, had a lull, threw a touchdown before the half on a Hail Mary pass and ended the game will an ill-advised throw that was intercepted.
“Even in his last few years in Green Bay when he was MVP he didn’t get it done in the playoffs, losing games at home (to Tampa Bay and San Francisco). Now he’s older and coming off an injury. It’s not going to happen.’’
