With Aaron Rodgers back from a torn Achilles tendon that cost him all but one drive of 2023, the New York Jets wanted to go all in for 2024. A team with both the NFL's longest active postseason drought and Super Bowl aspirations planned to capitalize on the twilight of Rodgers's career to try and bring home the team's first Lombardi Trophy since Joe Namath roamed the field.
Those visions took a hit early when the Jets started 2–4 over their first six games of the season. Looking to invigorate a middling Jets offense, the team traded for wide receiver Davante Adams from the Las Vegas Raiders.
Unfortunately for the Jets, the chemistry between Adams and Rodgers, who combined for 7,529 yards and 68 touchdowns together over eight years on the Green Bay Packers, was not enough to offset the Jets' woes. In Adams's first game as a Jet, the Pittsburgh Steelers blew them out 37–15. Overall, the Jets have gone just 1–6 since trading for Adams, and stand at 3–10 on the season.
Adams maintains that in spite of the Jets' record this season, he made the right decision by leaving the Raiders for New York.
"It's just like you're going to war ... but you got a knife and everybody else got a rifle," Adams told Kay Adams on the Up & Adams show. "And somebody hands you a rifle ... and you go to shoot the rifle and it jams up. That's like saying, 'Oh, I should've just kept the knife.' No, you did the right thing by grabbing the rifle. It just didn't work the way you intended it to. Sometimes that happens. You gotta to live with that, and go from there, and that's where I am."
Davante Adams gave this analogy about leaving the Raiders for the Jets but not being able to win in NY 👀
"It's just like you're going to war... but you got a knife and everybody else got a rifle. And somebody hands you a rifle... And you go to shoot the rifle and it jams up...… pic.twitter.com/m3vGngOHlH
— Up & Adams (@UpAndAdamsShow) December 10, 2024
Instead of Rodgers and Adams once again creating magic on the way to a postseason run like they typically did in Green Bay, the duo has been left trying to find the words to explain what has gone wrong. Now, the futures of both Rodgers and Adams with the Jets are in question. Adams said last week that he doesn't have "an answer" on if he will remain a Jet next season.
Rodgers has stated that he would like to return to the Jets, but it's unclear if the franchise feels the same. Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reported over the weekend that the Jets might see Rodgers as a bridge quarterback, but likely not their primary option at the position going forward.
At the very least, one of the NFL's top quarterback-wide receiver duos over the last decade have four moregames together with the Jets.