Despite Aaron Rodgers’ disappointing season, the Dolphins can’t overlook him or the Jets
The 2024 season has not been Aaron Rodgers’ best.
At age 41, the future Hall of Famer has begun to play like his age en route to what has been one of his worst statistical seasons to date. Case in point: Rodgers has produced a -4.9% completion percentage over expected this season, which ranks third to last in the NFL and would be his lowest since the Next Gen Stats era began in 2016.
But as the Miami Dolphins (5-7) prepare to take on the New York Jets (3-9), everyone refuses to overlook Rodgers.
“From when he first started playing to now, I feel like he’s still doing things that’s amazing,” outside linebacker Chop Robinson said Wednesday. “Especially at his age, he’s a little older now, so just doing the same thing he was doing back then, just not as much because of his age. But to me, he still looks like Aaron Rodgers out there.”
Robinson is right. Despite his newfound penchant for turnovers, despite his low passing yardage and despite the Jets’ dismal record, that is still Aaron Charles Rodgers. And one thing that opposing defenses should never do is underestimate him.
“He’s a stud,” defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver said Thursday, later adding that Rodgers has “all the arm talent in the world, a lot like [Matthew] Stafford where there isn’t anything he hasn’t seen. A lot of times, if you’re not great with your disguise on what you’re showing presnap, he’s going to figure it out. You’re going to try to do everything you can to try to affect him with your rush, because that’s probably the one thing that he can’t really control. I’m going to put a lot of onus on the guys up front to have a good game, and when we do bring pressure, it’ll be calculated.”
As Weaver alluded to, the Dolphins’ pass rush will be crucial to success against the Jets. Despite a rather disappointing season, the Jets do have talent on the offensive end in receivers DaVante Adams and Garrett Wilson in addition to running back Breece Hall. The best way to limit Rodgers’ ability to get his playmakers the ball is to put him on his back. A lot.
“When you have a quarterback that can make every throw and has done it a thousand times before, you’ve got to try to make him uncomfortable,” defensive tackle Calais Campbell said. “So you’ve got to get in his face, you’ve got to get him off the spot, you have to get him just kind in positions he doesn’t want to be in. Now he also makes plays in uncomfortable situations too, so he’s kind of a guy that you have to always worry about. But you give yourself the best chance to win by getting him off his spot, getting to him, get him down, hitting him — that’s always the formula in my mind.”
No team expects to stop Rodgers 100% of the time. He’s just too good; his 102.7 career passer rating isn’t an all-time career record for no reason. That said, the importance of defensive back play on the elite tandem of Wilson and Adams cannot be understated.
“They’re going to find ways to get them the football — that’s their game plan,” Dolphins corner backs coach Mathieu Araujo said of Adams and Wilson on Thursday. His advice to players was simple: “You got to be aggressive in the way of not allowing them just to feel move all down the field but at the same time but at the same time, when you do that, what does that give up? Now it gives them the opportunity to create space off the line of scrimmage so we got to be really good on the line with our technique.”
Added Araujo: “Everybody is extremely locked in because of that and it makes it great to prepare. There’s not many things that they don’t do well.”
Whether or not corner back Jalen Ramsey will shadow Adams is still up for debate.
“We’ll see Sunday,” Weaver said with a sly smile.
Added Ramsey: “It’ll be a matchup. I’m sure I’ll guard [Wilson], I’m sure I’ll guard ‘Tae.’ Same old, same old.”
Regardless of whether Ramsey shadows any particular player, the defensive back room will be excited if both Kendall Fuller and Kader Kohou suit up. Fuller has missed the last three games with a concussion while Kohou suffered a lower back injury against the Green Bay Packers that kept him out for most of the game. Their availably will be crucial in defending the Jets’ elite receiver duo.
“Fuller, he is appropriately within [concussion protocol], hoping that practice and then the part of the process after practice, hopeful that he’ll be through it this afternoon, so we’ll wait and see on that,” McDaniel said Friday. In terms of Kohou’s readiness, he was “optimistic” under the assumption that the nickel cornerback suffered “no setbacks.”
At full strength, the Dolphins can surely cause Rodgers and the Jets offense some problems – just as long as they don’t the signal caller’s lackluster season for weakness. Because between him and the elite receiver duo, they could put up points in a second.
This story was originally published December 6, 2024 at 3:46 PM.
