For the second straight week, Aaron Rodgers took to The Pat McAfee Show to downplay an apparent rift between him and New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh.
New York lost 10-9 to the Denver Broncos on Sunday in a game that featured zero offensive touchdowns and five false starts. Afterward, Rodgers was asked to react to comments made earlier in the post-game press conference by Saleh regarding concerns over his pre-snap cadence.
“We gotta figure it out, whether or not we’re good enough… or ready to handle all of the cadence,” Saleh said. “Cadence had not been an issue all camp. Felt like our operation had been operating pretty good. Obviously, today took a major step back.”
When Rodgers was asked to react to those comments, he seemed to disagree with the notion that any change was necessary.
Aaron Rodgers seems to get annoyed when asked about Robert Saleh’s comments about dialing back the cadence on offense. “That’s one way to do it. The other way is to hold them accountable.” 😳#Jets pic.twitter.com/PUbM2WvCsK
— Optimistic Jets (@OptimisticJets) September 29, 2024
“That’s one way to do it. The other way is hold [players who commit penalties] accountable,” said Rodgers. “It’s been a weapon. We use it every day in practice. We rarely have a false start. And to have five today… It seems like an outlier. I don’t know if we need to make mass changes based on kind of an outlier game.”
Rodgers made his usual weekly appearance on The Pat McAfee Show Tuesday and said that the way the question was asked may have influenced the narrative that he and Saleh are at odds.
“I think the question may have been posed in a way that might not have been exactly what was said,” Rodgers said. “Listen, I’ve used my cadence my entire career. … Everything we do in the game, we do in practice. And that’s why I said after the game that it felt like, I used the word outlier, maybe a better word is anomaly.”
“Great question @OfficialAJHawk 😂😂
I’ve used my cadence my entire career and everything that we do in the game we do in practice..
It’s a weapon for us and we’ve just gotta stay onside..
The cadence is the cadence is the cadence”@AaronRodgers12 #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/VarQRk1D8d
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) October 1, 2024
“It was one of those games where we just jumped offsides five times. Before that, we had one false start in three games and nobody complained about the cadence,” Rodgers continued. “One of those was home, but two of those were on the road. We’re using various styles of cadences — we don’t just go on one every time. It’s been an advantage for us — we threw a touchdown Week 1 on an offsides [on the defense] on a silent count. In order for it to be a weapon, we gotta stay onsides.”
Rodgers does seem to have a point. The reporter who asked the question said that Saleh thought Rodgers’ cadence “might be something you guys have to dial back a little bit.” However, when you go back and watch Saleh’s presser, he does not use that specific language. He alludes to potential changes being considered, but never outright says they might have to “dial back.”
That aside, Rodgers was not required to answer the question as he did. And if there was concern that Saleh might be taken out of context, he could have said that he’d like to see exactly what his coach said or discuss it directly with him instead of giving what felt to many like a snarky reaction. He could have said “no comment” or just ignored the question.
That makes this a classic Aaron Rodgers conundrum. As he’s shown many times during his appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, he wants the ability to speak freely and say what he thinks but he doesn’t want consequences for doing so. That’s not how the world works for anyone, let alone the starting quarterback of an NFL team. And if you don’t want critique or commentary regarding what you said and how you said it…just don’t say anything.
It didn’t sound like the reporter was purposefully trying to mislead Rodgers. If anything, they likely interpreted Saleh’s comments to mean something and then expressed that. It’s a good reminder on the journalist side to remain specific when relaying information like that.
But again, the onus in this situation is on the person choosing to answer the question. And Rodgers will never not answer the question, especially when there’s a camera pointed in his direction.
