Should Jets fans be more upset with Aaron Rodgers for missing mandatory minicamp?

Mandatory minicamps are underway across the NFL, with teams beginning battle preparations for the 2024 campaign. 

With voluntary offseason team activities wrapped up, all further team practices are mandatory. That doesn’t mean that every player will be in attendance, however. This is time of year for high-profile players to holdout in search of a new contract, but some players don’t report for a variety of other reasons. 

The New York Jets had two notable absences from mandatory minicamp: outside linebacker Haason Reddick and quarterback Aaron Rodgers. 

The absence of outside linebacker Haason Reddick is odd. The Jets traded a conditional third round pick to acquire him from the Philadelphia Eagles, but they don’t seem too eager to give him the contract extension he has been asking for. 

The absence of Rodgers is even odder.

Jets tragicomedy begins: Aaron Rodgers misses minicamp

Rodgers attended voluntary workouts and reported to the facility on Monday for his physical and other team obligations. On Tuesday, he was gone. 

Jets head coach Robert Saleh told reporters on Tuesday that Rodgers would miss the two-day mandatory minicamp. His absences are not excused, and he’s subject to be fined in accordance with the 2020 Collective Bargaining Agreement.

“Aaron and I spoke before OTAs started,” Saleh said. “He’s been very good in communication. He’s been here the entire time. It’s unexcused, but he had an event that was very important to him, which he communicated. [Rodgers is] subject to the CBA fine schedule.”

Saleh, who looked visibly uncomfortable discussing Rodgers’ absence, added that Rodgers is subject to be fined in accordance with the 2020 Collective Bargaining Agreement for unexcused absences.

SNY’s Jets reporter Conner Hughes dismissed the unexcused absence as a non-story.

“Rodgers is skipping [minicamp] because of an event that’s important him — OK,” Hughes posted on social media. “But the Jets can’t ‘excuse’ an event he wants to attend because you’ll see others start finding events this week.”

That’s not necessarily true, however. Just two years ago, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers excused Tom Brady from training camp for 11 days as the 45-year-old dealt with personal matters. No other Buccaneers player attempted to take their own personal days — Brady’s commitment to the team was trustworthy, and his status as an all-time great quarterback afforded him the privilege of taking the time off. Rodgers and the Jets could have come to a similar understanding for his important event.

While the two-day minicamp absence is unlikely to have any significant impact on the season for Rodgers, there is plenty of hypocrisy in the absence. In January, Rodgers was critical of his teammates for allowing distractions into the locker room and demanded that the team “flush the bull----” and “focus on winning.”

"Anything in this building that we're doing that has nothing to do with winning needs to be assessed," Rodgers said, h/t USA Today. "Everything that we do has to have a purpose ... the (expletive) that has nothing to do with winning has to get out of the building."

Following the harsh criticism of the team, Rodgers spent the offseason flirting with a vice presidential bid, engaging in a blood-feud with late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, sharing controversial social commentary, and, now, skipping mandatory team workouts for “an event.”

The minicamp absence may not affect the on-field performance, but it does suggest that the future Hall of Fame quarterback’s leadership style can be best summarized with the admonition “do as I say, not as I do.”

In hindsight, perhaps everyone should have saw this coming. Rodgers was the perfect quarterback for the next saga of the Jets tragicomedy. These minicamp absences — and the way they’ve been handled — are quintessential stories for both the Jets organization and Rodgers. 

Rodgers is probably right about cultural issues that need to be fixed in New York’s locker room. After all, there's a reason why the Jets haven't seen the postseason in 13 years, the longest active playoff drought of any team in the four major North American sports leagues.

Meanwhile, general manager Joe Douglas is in a contract dispute with Reddick immediately after trading for him, and Saleh may have gotten into a very public spat with Jets owner Woody Johnson during the annual league meetings in March. 

Questions are beginning to arise in the Meadowlands, and another disastrous season or misstep could sound the death knell for the current Jets regime.