Mike McCarthy makes best case yet for Jets to hang onto Aaron Rodgers

Woody Johnson might be the only owner to be ridiculous enough to persuade Aaron Rodgers to play one more season with one final reunion. Thanks to another inept owner in Jerry Jones, who wasted everyone’s time and botched an extension for McCarthy, in a matter of hours, he’ll become a free agent. 

The only reason Johnson would be interested in interviewing, let alone actually hiring McCarthy, would be to salvage whatever he can from what has been an anti-climactic Rodgers era in New York. 

And truthfully, other than Jones, Johnson seems like the only owner in all of football who would be foolish enough to think this would produce results even remotely close enough to end the Jets’ playoff woes. 

Then again, that’s exactly why it could be a genius move. Johnson has a decision to make. He has to decide if Rodgers is worth keeping and if McCarthy is worth hiring. McCarthy isn’t going anywhere on a one-year deal.

So this move would have to be more than just keeping Rodgers around. Let’s be honest, the 2025 season will probably be his last if he doesn’t retire before the season starts. If McCarthy is really interested in running it back with Rodgers, then it’s worth it. But outside of that, Johnson better think long and hard before making a knee-jerk move. 

Woody Johnson is desperate enough to hire Mike McCarthy

If Rodgers does come back and decides he wants to finish his career with the coach he won a Super Bowl with, then he may have enough pull to convince Johnson to pull the trigger. But this is a short term answer to a problem that may never get solved. 

Rodgers already brought back his friend and former teammate from Green Bay in Davante Adams. Does McCarthy really want to put together a Packers reunion team in New York knowing it will probably go nowhere? 

I doubt it. If he couldn’t get a deal done with Jones to stay in Dallas, that means he wants to go somewhere he can build. Somewhere with good bones to put together into a contending piece. That ain’t New York. 

If McCarthy does end up anywhere, it feels like Jacksonville would be ideal. He’ll inherit a veteran team with good pieces to build around that could change course from the shipwreck it became toward the end of the Doug Pederson era. 

Chicago has already expressed interest in McCarthy so that’s obviously an option too. But is that really an ideal situation for a veteran coach? New Orleans and Jacksonville feel like the best fits. But thanks to Jones, McCarthy’s options are a bit limited.  Which leaves him with the Jets. If he wants to coach that bad, then sure, go for it. 

But having one final curtain call with Rodgers, most likely Adams and whoever else doesn’t abandon the dumpster fire in New York seems more of a fantasy than something that would produce real results. 

That said, Johnson seems about the only person crazy enough to pull the trigger on that move. And it would be another punchline for the never-ending joke that is the New York Jets.