New York Jets’ Aaron Rodgers looked ‘rusty’ in loss 49ers | Pro Football Talk | NFL on NBC

as it relates to the game whether it's Christian mcaffrey Jordan Mason Devin mccordi Mike Florio or the guy that was selling hot dogs last night it didn't matter who was running the ball cuz they kicked the crap out of the Jets it doesn't matter what the Jets knew or didn't know because it was going to be the same outcome because they pushed them all over the place here's Robert Salah after the game on the difference between the Jets and the 49ers last night you know they're very very good up front and uh from an efficiency standpoint they they beat us up front plain and simple very efficient on their end in terms of getting rid of the ball pretty quick um never really gave us a chance there was a lot of third and short third and four third and five and uh third and twos and so we never really got an opportunity to get after the passer and um you know the opportunities that we did uh get a chance to get after the passer they they did a good job being efficient H hitting his back foot and get rid of the football so um credit to them I thought they executed very well today I feel like offensively we did a lot of really nice things we did you know it's just uh for especially for Aaron on his first game back um we'll definitely be better yeah look the good news is Aaron Rogers got through the game for the most part I mean there were moments where it was the old Aaron Rogers the offside the old Green Bay thing like you said earlier finds Lazard for the touchdown but I don't know whether he looked a little old or whether he looked looked a little rusty I'm going to say he looked a little rusty and why wouldn't he he played Four snaps of meaningful football since January of 2023 until he was thrown into it last night and everything happened so fast for you you you come back from when you got to get over the hurdle first of am I gonna get hurt again I don't care who you are I don't care what you've done it's still a little bit in the back of your mind a little anxiety of all right I'm back out here I'm sure for him psychologically let's get through the first three or four plays of game last year I couldn't do that was so much buildup now I'm back in California it's a whole 49ers thing where they could have drafted him instead of Alex Smith all of those other things are all in his mind and then eventually you get into the groove of the game and then it's a reminder of man I haven't been into the groove of a g of a game since 2022 That season so and then it's not like that season extended deep into the postseason so it had been such a long time before he just got out was able to go out there and play a full game and dig into a game and think about what happened on the last third down what Blitz package they come with what coverage like all of those things when you're trying to get over to other things they become a second thought but you see that back shoulder pass to Garrett Wilson right there that was on that third drive that was the Aaron Rogers that we know hits his back foot drifting back a little bit fires the ball in there so he still has that ability I think the biggest thing is this defense has to play a style that gets him the ball in his hands in that offense as many times as possible I think about playing back with Tom Brady you knew the best way to get Brady in a rhythm get turnovers get three and outs get the ball back to the offense because eventually if they keep getting the opportunity they're going to find something that works and then it's going to take off my fear right now of watching that offense was it was just way too many Bree Hall gett Wilson Bree Bree all right Wilson Wilson Wilson they have to expand more they have to get guys involved Lazard I know ends up with two touchdowns so when you look at the stat sheet you're like okay Lazar Lazar had a pretty good game but early in the game they throw it to him on a third down on a second drive he drops the ball and then for a stretch Aaron Rogers was throwing the ball I mean exclusively to hall or to Wilson it felt like over and over again so I think they want to open that up a little bit and I think Nathaniel hack is gonna have to do a good job with Aaron roders coming together and just having a plan of how to get other guys involved I don't know what that looks like I don't know if it's Gibson you know maybe short passes bubble screens just trying to find ways and I thought even brillan Allen getting in at the end of the game the way he ran the ball maybe it's an opportunity to get him in there maybe some two two back sets they're going to have to just do more because against some of these better defenses it's not going to be hard to just zero run on two guys and take them away and make you force force you to throw the ball or hand the ball off to other guys by the way brilin Allen youngest player in the Super Bowl era to get a touch in an NFL game last night when he got in 20 years old let me ask you this because I feel like when your defense is getting manhandled the way the Jets got manhandled last night I can only assume it puts even greater pressure on the offense to make something happen like if we're going to give up three or seven every drive and if you know the defense is going to keep us on the sidelines waiting and waiting to get back in it has to increase that urgency which might cause some members of the offense to press a little bit and that snowball just keeps rolling downhill of of course the the pressure of for one as an offense you feel how long you you sat on the sideline and then you get out there and you know whether it was like the Bree Hall fumble or it was a a three and out or something like that and you feel like man we're we're right back here and the defense takes the field and it's another 10 12 13 play Drive the next time you get on the field it's that kind of pressure of we need to score we need to either score touchdown fast or we need to have a long drive that for one gives us an opportunity to stay on the field but secondly our defense needs some rest it's the first game of the season nobody's played a whole game throughout the whole preseason guys are not used to being out there going rep rep snap snap after snap so you you look at all of that it was it's just the formula for really bad football you just don't want to play a game that way I think especially the Jets some teams have an explosive offense where like a Kansas City when you play and sometimes the time of possession looks a little off it's because they got the ball on of Miami Dolphins they got the ball in within three plays Tyreek Hill catches an over route runs by everybody and scores a touchdown so you don't get to see it but you see the production with points that's UL when it comes down you can't score if you don't have the ball for a lot of teams in this league and I think for the Jets you have to find a way I think for one offensively you have to continue to believe in this defense this defense has gotten you all the way here they've played well through some of the worst parts of your offense you got to keep believing in them and then they have to step up and do their part they have a chance against Tennessee coming off Tennessee a game where they really dominated and probably should have beat the Bears but turnovers change that game I think the defense should be kind of licking their chops coming off a tough game of saying all right this this is a game against a good offense and a team that played pretty well last week that we can get back in our groove maybe get some turnovers play good run defense and kind of show what we can do um but I think offensively you got to believe in that and you needed to come back in this second game like we need to see it actually happening to believe in it you can't just say hey we're going to blindly trust it's going to happen the NFL doesn't work like that you got to go execute getting it done and then guys will believe in it but I don't want to say this a must- win for the Jets but I think think this is a game you you go to Tennessee you don't want to lose to Tennessee and then come back and have to play the Patriots on a short week who when you look at the way they went to Cincinnati they're on a mission to prove everybody wrong of you think we're just this worst roster in the NFL and we're so bad those guys are going to play to prove hey gerro Mayo is a coach here we wanted him to be our coach and we're gonna prove that he is a a really good coach and it looked like that in week one against Cincinnati and again it was four snaps last September for Aaron Rogers that's the only football we had seen from him since he lost his Lambo field finale final week of the 2022 season to the Lions to miss the playoffs here's Rogers after playing his first full game with the New York Jets talking about his team's offense I feel like we didn't have any third and 10 pluses tonight so that's always a good thing we looking at the stat sheet but uh we didn't convert those third and mediums um you know we had a draft we had a couple uh penalties had a bad throw so um lot to correct but overall I feel you know feel good about our guys thought the protection was really good tonight um we just were a little bit off in the in the Run game couldn't get Bree going couldn't give him enough space um but a lot to build on we expect uh greatness when we step on the field um there were moments for sure the moments have felt really good um but not sustained you know um felt like if we could just get a first down we'd be rolling um and we had those three and outs which really hurt us but you know I think a lot of stuff's correctable which is great for coaches um it's frustrating for for players because we know how close uh we were SL are but no time for that we're going to move on to Tennessee quickly and then we got a game four days after that so this is a tough opener for us uh travel-wise and schedule wise but no excuses we got to play better I got to play better and U you know we'll bounce back next we you know unless he plays for a different team next year that plays at San Francisco that was his final career game in that Stadium I guess he could be back there if they make it to the Super Bowl next year too whoever he plays for Jets or someone else but he's he's processing I think the finality he spent a lot of time thinking about it and talking about it last year but as it relates to coming back to his home area the team he desperately wanted to play for the team that passed on him and went with Alex Smith that was his last chance and there was kind of a sense maybe he had a little something for the 49ers but what when the best thing you can say about the offense is we didn't have many third and longer than tens that's really stretching for a silver lining Devin but interesting they were six of 10 on third down they were 60% as a defense you usually say if we can keep a a team at 25 to 30% we feel pretty good defensively they were at 60% they just they didn't get enough they didn't get enough possessions they didn't get enough plays on offense to feel good and then you put that with the two turnovers they had that really lets you know yeah the defense played poorly and then the two turnovers like you can't turn the ball over especially against the 49ers that team is too good to turn the ball over against but I do I agree with him that there were some good things that they're going to get be able to watch and see like hey we can like we can do this let's go and do this better let's do that but you know if I'm them the biggest thing I take away is hey if we get in third down we should be pretty comfortable that we can go and convert third Downs if we play that way we just need to get the ball back more but I do think it's interesting when I remember talking to him back in 20202 uh we lost in Green Bay and and coming on the field and I was like man it's been a lot of fun playing against you in your career you're obviously a great player probably the last time I get opportunity to play against you and I think for Aaron Rogers you're at that age where you do think about those things you're not thinking about it as much coming into the game but as that game starts to wrap up and you saw Tyrod Taylor came in for him and you're on the sideline you do start to think about man whatever I wanted to accomplish here playing in my home state and and being here and you know all of those things that might not ever happen again and I know a lot of people like well he's already accomplished a lot he's going into Hall of Fame he's won a Super Bowl but there's certain things for us as players that we just enjoy getting the opportunity to do my last year playing against the Jets I had two interceptions I played my high school football in New Jersey I played college football in New Jersey that opportunity to me was so special of being able to do that and perform at my home state and going and doing what I love to do well I'm sure for Aaron Rogers it's not the end of the season it's not the end all Beall but those are little things AC along this journey that you have you have in your sights and you want to do so I agree with you of him being in that press conference and starting to actually kind of think of those kind of special moments that you're going to start to lose as the season goes on and you might not get another opportunity to do because you get to that age where the football season and what happens next season isn't only determined by you it starts to be determined by your play how you look out there all of those things start to come in because for a good portion of our careers as players especially if you're a great player like Aaron roders a pretty good player like me is you know for a while I'll be back I will I'll get to do that again barring an injury you know but then you start to get to that ladder part where it's like I don't know if the team's going to feel quite the way that I feel about me coming back so I definitely think he's starting to process those things and it makes it harder each time you don't perform the way you want to perform yeah you rarely see a Joe flacko who will hang around on second or third spot on a depth chart as long as he can once the window closes on most franchise quarterbacks for starting that's when when they walk away and usually they walk away before that window has completely closed and with Rogers he said another year or two and I think a second year in New York is going to hinge largely on what they're able to accomplish this year and if he plays somewhere else next year it may it would be somewhere else not for the New York Jets all right well week one is done the challenge for all teams if you lost process it and move on if you won don't get a big head because you could one in one by next week at this time hi it's Mike Florio thanks for watching PFT on YouTube hit subscribe 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