There is one person inside Jets Nation who chooses not to freak out about the offensive line calamity that stands between Aaron Rodgers standing on his own two Hall of Fame feet or staring up at Flight 23 from his back.
Aaron Rodgers.
For now.
For the time being.
I had asked Rodgers at his press conference after a joint practice with the Buccaneers on Wednesday what his level of concern is that the identity of his five best bodyguards is yet to be determined, with opening night against the Bills on Sept. 11 less than a month away.
“Pretty low,” Rodgers said.
Which is his old familiar way of advising everybody to R-E-L-A-X.
“I don’t have a lot of stress, a lot of concern about things,” he said.
For now.
For the time being.
But the clock is ticking, and you had better believe Rodgers knows it.
“It’s Aug. 16, I believe, is that right?” Rodgers said. “So we got some time. Also it’s coming up.
“I don’t get concerned heavily about things that I don’t have a huge role in yet.”
Yet.
“Now that might change. At some point I might say, ‘Hey I need the five who are gonna be in there to be in there with me for a solid week.’ But I don’t think we’re at that point yet because I don’t think there’s five guys that have earned those spots.”
Here he mentions the absence of left tackle Duane Brown, who is still on the PUP list, in addition to missing guards Laken Tomlinson and Alijah Vera-Tucker for the testy joint practice Wednesday with the Buccaneers.
“So I’m gonna have some patience with that, and also try and encourage and inspire those guys who are fighting for jobs to keep showing out every day,” he said, “because every day somebody notches up, somebody goes down, and that’s the beauty of training camp and position battles.”
The beauty of having a future first-ballot Hall of Fame quarterback is how much everyone, from Woody Johnson to general manager Joe Douglas to head coach Robert Saleh to the Five Angry Men who should crave serving as bodyguards for him, will listen to his wisdom.
“There’s some things that are totally out of my control,” Rodgers said. “Some things I have an input on.”
When it comes to the offensive line, he will — and should — have an input.
He didn’t come here, he didn’t take that $35 million paycut to be just another graybeard quarterback playing out the string. He came here to be for the Jets what Tom Brady was for the Bucs. He came here as the savior to lead the Jets back to the Super Bowl, 55 years after Broadway Joe Namath.
He didn’t come here to be poor Ron Jaworski wincing under siege from Lawrence Taylor.
In addition to Hall of Fame quarterback, Rodgers has played the part of player-coach and player-general manager and player-psychologist, making an effort to understand what makes each of his teammates tick.
Saleh took no prisoners taking the offensive line to task, as seen in “Hard Knocks” Episode 2, but the head coach prefers to put on a happy public face and play the good cop with his public remarks.
With so much at stake, for the Jets and for his own legacy, Rodgers’ most critical task now will be to reach, any and every way he can, the Five Angry Men who will be entrusted with protecting the crown jewel … and because of his status, if he has to play the part of the bad cop, in public and in private, so be it.
“We have to get to a level of communication in practice where we can get in a game situation and guys have the unspoken communication next to each other,” Rodgers said.
He said he didn’t have to recruit Dalvin Cook, but he wanted him, just as he wanted Allen Lazard and Randall Cobb and Billy Turner. What he would have given to bring Packers left tackle David Bakhtiari along for the ride. Maybe one day Mekhi Becton (knee) will be able to play a full game and be one of Rodgers’ Five Angry Men.
“I’m just trying to hold ’em accountable and test ’em every single day with cadence, with calls, with adjustments and just the normal stuff we’re gonna be doing,” Rodgers said. “Guys that can handle it are gonna be in there. Guys that can’t aren’t.”
The makeshift offensive line at one juncture surrendered six “sacks” to the Bucs in 10 drop-backs. Rodgers took the glass-half-full approach by opining that he liked the competitive level upfront and how the boys battled and stuck up for one another without bothering to volunteer why, under duress, he heaved a ball into the stands. But this purposeful reminder seemed directed at them: “There’s jobs up for grabs.”
The Jets crowd chanted “Aar-on Rodg-ers” when he hit Garrett Wilson, who sat out the Carolina practice, with a bomb against Carlton Davis.
“17 being out there just changed the dynamics of the whole thing ‘cause he’s so special,”Rodgers said.
And: “He makes difficult things look easy.”
And: “I told him I used to have a rule with Davante (Adams) where I’d give Davante a little extra tick because I know if I did that, he’s gonna get open, ‘cause he is really difficult to cover. And I have to give that to Garrett too. ‘Cause sometimes you give him just a little extra tick where you’re sitting on him, he’s gonna be really open.”
Alas, if Aaron Rodgers is running for his life, or on his back gazing up at the heavens, it won’t matter much if Wilson is running routes, or Becton is running them.
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