The New York Jets made a lot of headlines last week. With the window to move Aaron Rodgers from injured reserve quickly approaching, they opted to activate the veteran quarterback despite having no intentions of him playing in games.
It was an odd decision for several reasons. Using an active roster spot for an injured player who won’t see the field is self-explanatory. It limits what the team can do, as that roster spot could have been better used for a healthy player.
With quarterback Zach Wilson suffering a head injury in Week 15 against the Miami Dolphins, it meant the Jets were carrying two players, at the same position, who wouldn’t be playing in Week 16 against the Washington Commanders. Someone had to lose their roster spot to make this happen as well, which drew the ire of many people.
The Jets said they wanted to activate Rodgers so that he could remain around the team. Had he not been activated, he would not have been allowed to practice. Activating him to get on-field work is something head coach Robert Saleh said was part of Rodgers’ rehab process, but every rep he takes isn’t going to someone else who will be playing on game day.
Earlier this week, another layer was added to the bizarre decision to activate Rodgers. During his weekly appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, the veteran revealed that he didn’t want to be activated at all.
“I asked them to be put me on IR … I didn’t want to take a spot away from a player … I was overruled,” Rodgers said about being on the active roster and practicing last week, via NYJ_Matt on X, formerly Twitter.
Rodgers admitted that he was still at least three weeks away from being healthy enough to participate in anything during his appearance on the show last week. Knowing he won’t play, it is a truly bizarre decision to use an active roster spot on him for what was the final three weeks of the season.
The Jets have been a circus for years and this is just the latest installment of that behavior. Rodgers didn’t want to take away the opportunity to be on an NFL roster from someone else, but the decision-makers for the franchise clearly felt differently. It is a bizarre situation we likely haven’t heard the last of, as the team is now carrying four quarterbacks on its active roster.
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