Jets coach Robert Saleh laughed at one moment in the team’s first training camp practice on Thursday.
The defense was trying to disguise its look but quarterback Aaron Rodgers was not fooled.
Rodgers looked at the safety and motioned with his fingers for him to come closer to the line because he knew that was what the Jets defender was about to do.
“He’s a coach that can still play football,” Saleh said.
Everyone around the Jets knew what Rodgers could do with a football in his hand but they have been blown away by Rodgers’ football acumen and his ability to teach.
Rodgers was asked about being a coach on the field on Thursday and he joked that he remembered watching Tree Rollins as a player-coach for the Orlando Magic when he was a kid.
“I don’t look at myself like Tree in that scenario,” Rodgers joked. “I do know that being an older player on the team that that’s part of the responsibility, to teach a little bit more.”
In a 15-minute session with the media on Thursday, Rodgers not only showed his age with the reference to a 1990s basketball player but also showed perspective.
Rodgers said he is not as hot-headed as he once was.
“I feel like I’ve grown a lot over the years,” Rodgers said. “Now, some of that is the well-documented plant medicine journeys that I’ve talked about. The other is perspective. As you get older, you see things a little bit clearer, I think. Hindsight is 20/20. Try to rectify some of the things you did a certain way that you feel like you could have done better. … Yeah, I would say maybe earlier in my career I was a little more easily angered. I feel like I’m a little less triggered as I’ve gotten older.”
Wide receiver Allen Lazard, who is now with Rodgers in New York after five years together in Green Bay, said he has seen Rodgers embracing the mentor role with the Jets more than he may have done with the Packers.
“I’m seeing it even more so with how he’s opening his arms, putting his hand out, trying to help guys, trying to teach. Not to say that he was hard to play with at first in Green Bay. He was a little bit more, ‘You guys have to pick it up,’ ” Lazard said, snapping his fingers. “He’s a little bit slower here in realizing there’s a lot of new players.”
Lazard was asked if the Jets are now running the “Packers offense” with him, fellow receiver Randall Cobb and offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett all coming from Green Bay as well as Rodgers.
“It’s the Aaron Rodgers offense,” Lazard said. “When he’s on the field, the whole playbook is open at any given time, even on Day 1 in practice.”
Lazard told a story about the team’s first walkthrough in training camp and Rodgers calling for something the team had not even practiced yet.
Rodgers said he is relishing being back with Hackett and in a system he knows so well.
“I’m not going to say it’s my offense,” Rodgers said when told of Lazard’s comment. “It’s one I’ve had success in, for sure. But back in 2020 it was a conglomeration of what Matt [LaFleur] wanted to run, what Hack had run in the past and what I had run in the past. We just kind of fit together. This is kind of an offshoot of that with maybe a little bit more West Coast flavor to it. But this is really Hackett’s offense that I’ve been able to collaborate with him on. There’s a lot of teaching for sure.”
Rodgers said he is enjoying every moment with his new team and even dropped one remark that made it clear he intends on being a Jet beyond the 2023 season.
“There’s a great feel to this team of guys who are young and super-talented on their first contract, many of them,” Rodgers said. “When you have so many great players on rookie deals, it’s exciting knowing you can do something, you’ve got a good window. It’s not just a one-year thing where you can be competitive.”