Aaron Rodgers and Woody Johnson (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
New York Jets owner Woody Johnson’s early-season plan for Aaron Rodgers has been revealed, and it’s pretty shocking.
The situation at Jets HQ is quite messy right now. The team fired general manager Joe Douglas on Tuesday, just six weeks after parting ways with head coach Robert Saleh.
However, it appears that things are a lot worse than everyone thought.
A report from The Athletic’s Zack Rosenblatt and Dianna Russini claims Johnson wanted Rodgers benched after Week 4 and suggested that Tyrod Taylor should start.
The Jets were a manageable 2-2 back then.
“The coaches had been called in to explain what happened with their units during the 10-9 home loss to the Broncos,” the report reads. “During the meeting, Johnson suggested to the coaches that they bench Aaron Rodgers in favor of Tyrod Taylor because he felt Rodgers’ performance was holding the team back. The coaches and Douglas, stunned at the suggestion, talked him out of it and convinced Johnson to stay the course and that benching Rodgers, with his pedigree, four games into the season would not sit well with the locker room.
“The coaches also felt it would embarrass Rodgers. The idea of benching the future Hall of Famer sounded so absurd that one coach asked whether the owner was serious — multiple sources from that meeting believed he was.”
Woody Johnson Has Been On The Warpath Since
While the Jets coaches were able to get Woody to change his mind on Rodgers, the owner decided to fire Saleh a week later without consulting Douglas. Now Douglas is out of a job himself.
Fox Sports insider Jordan Schultz noted that the former GM lost control of the team’s affairs from that point. Higher-ups within the organization were credited with the decision to trade for wide receiver Davante Adams and rework edge rusher Haason Reddick’s contract.
Given this latest scoop, it appears that Rodgers could indeed be benched by New York at some point. Or maybe he refuses to play now that the news is out there, who knows?
