The New York Jets failed to score a touchdown on Sunday and suffered a surprising 10-9 loss at home to the Denver Broncos.
The weather was cold, wet and miserable and QB Aaron Rodgers wasn’t at his sharpest, completing 57% (24-of-42) of his passes for 225 yards. He was also sacked five times.
Self-inflicted mistakes were also a significant factor in the Jets‘ offensive struggles. They committed five false start penalties Sunday, two each by running back Breece Hall and left guard John Simpson. Tyron Smith jumped early for the fifth penalty.
Following the game, New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh said the cadence on offense was an issue. Though he didn’t name Rodgers specifically, the quarterback is the one yelling out the snap count.
“We gotta figure it out, whether or not we’re good enough or ready to handle all of the cadence,” Saleh said. “Cadence had not been an issue all camp. Felt like our operation had been operating pretty good. Obviously, today took a major step back.”
As could be expected, Rodgers didn’t exactly agree with his head coach when he was asked about Saleh’s remarks and whether or not his cadence should be dialed back.
“That’s one way to do it,” the New York Jets QB said. “The other way is to hold them accountable. I mean, we haven’t had an issue. We’ve had one false start. Morgan [Moses] had one false start, I believe, until this.”
Not surprisingly, the post-game disagreement between the Jets QB and head coach became a major storyline since Sunday’s loss. Rumors began to swirl about a potential rift between Rodgers and Saleh, with some media talking heads going as far to say Rodgers is actually the head coach of the team.
New York Jets QB Aaron Rodgers Blames Teammates For Cadence Issues, Clears Air About Robert Saleh Relationship
On Tuesday, Rodgers joined the Pat McAfee show and touched on a few of the issues that have dominated storylines since Sunday’s loss.
When it comes to the cadence disagreement, the Jets’ QB doubled down on his outlook.
“I’ve used my cadence my entire career,” the New York Jets QB said. “I didn’t make it up, I stole it from the legend who was in front of me, I may have added some additional types of cadences to it. So you are always adjusting that.”
Rodgers then elaborated on why his teammates should be prepared and know the cadence at this point without jumping offsides and causing unnecessary penalties.
“Everything we do in games we do in practice,” Rodgers said. It was one of those games where we just jumped offsides five times. Before that, we had one false start in three games and nobody complained about the cadence. It needs to be a weapon, in order for it to be a weapon, we need to stay on sides. Nobody, not Robert or Hackett deserves any of the blame for that. It’s’ on the players, we’ve got to make sure we stay on sides.”
The New York Jets QB then specifically talked about his relationship with Saleh.
"Rob and I have a great relationship and we have since day one when I got here..
We have a good friendship" ~ @AaronRodgers12 #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/SrSc5Ef5cT
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) October 1, 2024
“There’s always going to be messaging and narratives out there,” Rodgers said. “Rob and I have a great relationship, we have since Day 1 since I got here. We have text message conversations, conversations outside of football. We have a great friendship.”
