The New York Jets may be facing a challenge even harder than their poor performance, missed chances, and costly mistakes.
Wide receiver Garrett Wilson suggested last Sunday that a “gene” could explain the Jets’ struggles to win, after the team dropped to 3-10 following a loss to Miami.
On Wednesday, Aaron Rodgers offered another possible reason. “I mean, it might be something like that,” the quarterback said about Wilson’s idea. “It might be some sort of curse we’ve got to snap as well.”
For years, frustrated Jets fans have joked that something negative has been working against the franchise since Joe Namath’s Super Bowl win in January 1969. That remains the only time the team has appeared in the NFL’s biggest game.
Rodgers has been to the Super Bowl once — and won — with Green Bay. The 41-year-old quarterback joined the Jets hoping to lead them back to the Super Bowl.
He even mentioned how lonely the team’s only Lombardi Trophy looked during his first press conference in New York 20 months ago.
Instead, Rodgers’ first season with the Jets ended early due to a torn Achilles tendon just four plays into the game, sparking the “curse” talk again among disappointed Jets fans.
With last Sunday’s loss, New York extended its playoff drought to 14 years, the longest active streak in the major North American sports leagues. The team will be looking for a new general manager and coach after this season, and Rodgers’ future in New York is uncertain.
New York Jets players in the 2nd quarter
“Whatever the case, this team, this organization is going to figure out how to get over the hump at some point,” Rodgers said. “The culture is built by the players. There’s a framework set down by the organization, by the upper-ups, by the staff. But in the end, it’s the players that make it come to life.”
“And at some point, everybody’s going to have to figure out what that special sauce is to turn those games that should be wins into wins.”
The Jets have led in the fourth quarter of five games this season but lost every one of them, including the past three. This led Wilson to propose the “gene” theory.
“I’m not exactly sure what he was talking about there,” Rodgers said with a smile. “I don’t know what the proper nomenclature is for the situation where we’ve lost some leads or haven’t been able to take the lead late in the game, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. We haven’t been great in situational football.”
“A lot of those games come down to the plays in the first and second, even third quarter, where if you make the play, the game is not in that situation. But in those situations, we haven’t been very good on offense or defense or even (special) teams.”
Rodgers explained that establishing a winning culture requires a “conscious effort” and includes leadership, practice habits, and setting standards both inside and outside the locker room.
Rodgers said this year’s Jets are “on the edge” of achieving that.
“We just haven’t quite figured out how to get that special sauce worked out, mixed up,” he said. “It’s close and a lot of great guys are in the locker room. There’s some good mix of veterans and young guys, but we just haven’t quite put it all together.”