Aaron Rodgers will have to do the impossible to extend his NFL career

Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets are parting ways.

After a tumultuous 2024 campaign, which saw Rodgers' individual productivity undermined by limited team success and his own albatross ego, the Jets are ready to go in a new direction. Aaron Glenn initially indicated the Jets were open to bringing Rodgers back, but this was always going to end with a nasty breakup.

So... what happens next for Rodgers? Last season was a struggle, but he played all 17 games upon his return from a major Achilles injury. He threw for 3,897 yards and 28 touchdowns, which are great numbers for half the league's other quarterbacks. Rodgers did not exactly have a successful support system around him. There's a world in which Rodgers signs with a new team and is better set up to stack dubs.

That said, league executives are extremely skeptical that Rodgers will take another NFL snap. He's 41, for starters, and the market for Rodgers' services feels awfully muted compared to where it was a couple years ago. In addition to longevity and durability concerns, Rodgers just carries a ton of personal baggage. He's a distraction off the field and quite demanding on it, essentially requiring complete control of offensive play-calling at the line of scrimmage.

Who will accommodate him in 2025? Odds are, no one.

Aaron Rodgers' pitfalls are expected to end his NFL career after Jets flameout

The issue with Rodgers is not his ability to impact winning. He's still a good starting quarterback. It's all the nonsense that arrives in the same package.

As a league exec told Mike Sando of The Athletic, smart GMs "will struggle with adding everything else that comes along with Rodgers."

He also thinks it's a simple matter of surveying the offseason landscape. Only so many teams need a new quarterback, and none of them figure to appeal to Rodgers' competitive aspirations.

"I bet he doesn’t [return to the NFL next season]” an agent told The Athletic. “He won’t want the teams that will want him."

It's not hard to deduct the logical Rodgers suitors. Giants? Raiders? Browns? Titans? None of them are dream landing spots for a 41-year-old with limited fuel in the gas tank and a long history of winning at the highest level. The best team with a QB void is Pittsburgh, but does Mike Tomlin want the distraction inherent to Rodgers? Probably not. Does Arthur Smith want to hand his offense over to the former Super Bowl MVP? Probably not.

The Jets were Rodgers' last, best chance to do something in this league with a front office crazy enough to have him. Now that front office has been hollowed out and rebuilt, and Rodgers upset owner Woody Johnson during their brief partnership. The future has never been more uncertain for one of football's true greats.

If this is the end, Rodgers will go down as a Hall of Fame talent who redefined how we talk about the quarterback position. Few have ever processed the field and pulled the strings on an offense like Rodgers. He was one of one. He did some boneheaded stuff off the field, for which he does not always deserve a pass, but the talent has forever been undeniable. If this is it, it was one heck of a run.