Numbers Don’t Lie: Jets would’ve been better sticking with Zach Wilson

The New York Jets fell to 3-8 with a crushing one-point loss to the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. In what feels like a crowning moment for second-year Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson, we are left wondering what the future holds for Jets signal-caller Aaron Rodgers.

It's hard to come back from an Achilles injury at 40 years old, so we can hardly blame Rodgers for his substandard performance. He's still outplaying a good chunk of his peers and there is a commendable nature to his dedication to the sport (and to the Jets) in the face of adversity.

That said, Rodgers has worn out his welcome in East Rutherford. From all the off-field nonsense to the blatant lack of success now that he's healthy, this has been a trying couple of years for Jets fans. Rodgers was meant to drag the Jets out of purgatory and put New York back on the map. Instead, the Jets are crashing and burning in real time, with Rodgers' future seeming more uncertain with each passing week.

Rodgers' contract is not guaranteed for 2025. There's a world in which the Jets replace him outright or even dangle Rodgers in trades. That would be a shocking way for this whole affair to end, but with so little to celebrate in 2024, it's difficult to imagine the Jets simply running this back with a new head coach. Was Robert Saleh really the problem, or is it a much deeper rot infecting the organization?

Folks looking for light at the end of the tunnel won't find it here. In fact, the Rodgers era has been so bad that it's forcing us to reevaluate Zach Wilson, Sam Darnold, and the whole gauntlet of Jets flameouts at the QB position.

Stats show just how bad Aaron Rodgers era has been for Jets

Rest assured that you are reading the above information correctly. Rodgers has a lower win percentage in a Jets uniform than both Zach Wilson and Sam Darnold, the former top picks who preceeded him in East Rutherford. Rather than saving the Jets from this vicious cycle of unbroken mediocrity, Rodgers has perpetuated it — perhaps made it even worse.

Now, is Rodgers worse than Zach Wilson and Sam Darnold in a vacuum? No, of course not. There are other factors at play, none more glaring than sample size. Rodgers is halfway through his first season in a Jets uniform. Both Darnold and Wilson had years to establish their presence with the Jets. As such, these numbers shouldn't be taken as gospel.

That said, it's alarming to see the Jets fall so quickly to the bottom of the NFL standings despite all the money and energy invested in this Rodgers thing. New York poured countless financial and public relations resources into making this a team Rodgers would be proud of and comfortable playing for. So, in a sense, it is worse. The Jets could've stuck with Zach Wilson and held onto a few more draft picks instead of emptying the stores for Rodgers and ending up in the same bracket of the standings. That Davante Adams trade was a complete waste that never would've happened if the Jets were a few games below .500 with Zach Wilson.

So much of successful asset management in the NFL is accepting defeat for what it is. The worst moves often come out of ill-fated desperation. The Jets are (or were) under immense pressure to succeed with Rodgers. That pressure has led them astray more than once, and it's all going to end with another depressing teardown.