The Jets are openly looking for a veteran quarterback and Robert Saleh’s latest comments aren’t slowing down the Aaron Rodgers rumor mill.
The story of the offseason is already pretty clear even if the NFL season hasn’t officially ended yet. The Jets and the quarterback rumor mill certainly aren’t going to wait for a champion to be crowned in the Super Bowl.
New York was a popular destination to speculate for Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers to begin with. Then they hired his former offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett to run their offense. The fit is just too obvious not to discuss.
Head coach Robert Saleh only heightened the feeling that the Jets and Rodgers are an inevitability with his comments on Thursday.
“We do plan on bringing in a veteran quarterback,” Saleh told reporters after Hackett was hired.
When asked about the possibility of that veteran quarterback openly competing with Zach Wilson, what he chose not to say spoke volumes.
The very last question in Robert Saleh’s presser yesterday. “Is it plausible to go into next season with a Veteran QB and have an open competition with Zach Wilson” … Saleh says idk about that one and smiles. This tells me that’s it’s def a big game QB…. And not a Jimmy G pic.twitter.com/Zwpy9T02aO
— J. Gray (@JGrayJets) January 27, 2023
“Umm, I don’t know about that one. Let’s go through that process, you can ask me that one before training camp,” Saleh said.
It’s easy to read between the lines and conclude that a reporter might feel silly asking whether Wilson could openly compete with a quarterback like Aaron Rodgers.
Robert Saleh is just fanning the smoke around Aaron Rodgers and the Jets
Whether you want to read anything into Saleh’s answer or not, the link between Rodgers and the Jets aren’t going to go away, especially since New York is one of the few teams who could afford to add the quarterback.
On the Bill Simmons Podcast on Friday, Bill Simmons added to the dreams of fans in New York.
“I got intel last week that this is going to be the Jets,” Simmons said, calling the Raiders a backup.
His guest, Peter Schrager of Fox Sports, did nothing to pump the brakes.
“I’m not tamping it down at all,” Schrager said.
