Skip Bayless claims Aaron Rodgers is less committed at 39 than Tom Brady at 43
Aaron Rodgers will enter the 2023 NFL season with extremely high expectations after joining the New York Jets via trade during the offseason. He was acquired to specifically elevate the Jets from being potential playoff contenders to a legitimate threat to win the Super Bowl this year.
While Rodgers certainly provides the Jets with a massive upgrade to their quarterback position, not everyone is so high on the team's chances of winning a ring this year. Skip Bayless is one of the biggest skeptics of the Jets' chances this year, questioning Rodgers' overall commitment to being the best quarterback he possibly can be.
Here's what Bayless had to say during a recent episode of Undisputed:
"I will just bet you that Aaron Rodgers at 39 will not be nearly as driven and committed as Brady was at 43. When during a pandemic, he wound up in Tampa for the first time, and he went down there possessed, obsessed, with showing Belichick and Robert Kraft how wrong they were. And you know what happened. I just don't get that feeling from Aaron.
"Green Bay hasn't been enamored of him for about three years mainly because he had home field advantage. And he lost to Brady in the NFC Championship game. Okay, so last year, he started to fall off the proverbial cliff, the quarterback cliff, because all of his numbers were down, down, down. Was it an unhappiness issue? Was it a beat up issue because he had this and the other going on?
"Because he's an older quarterback, and I don't think he takes care of himself quite the way Brady always fanatically took care of himself, or the way LeBron [James] takes care of himself. So, all of a sudden, are the Jets getting what they think they got? Because, listen, the expectations will be higher on Aaron Rodgers than they've ever been, of course to me. Yeah, because the Jets have never had a quarterback since Joe Namath right in the late 60s and early 70s."
Aaron Rodgers is surely no Tom Brady, especially when it comes to winning. Brady holds NFL records with ten Super Bowl appearances and seven rings. Rodgers has only been to one of them during his entire career, and it was more than a decade ago with the Green Bay Packers.
Rodgers will look to change the narrative around his legacy this year but will need to bounce back after a disappointing last season.
Did Aaron Rodgers fall off the QB cliff in the 2022 NFL season?
Aaron Rodgers entered the 2022 NFL season playing some of the best football of his career. He won two consecutive NFL MVP awards previously, while leading the Green Bay Packers to three straight years of 13 regular-season wins.
However, he followed it up in the worst way possible. In at least ten games, he threw for the fewest yards he had thrown in any season of his career while posting a career-worst passer rating and registering his second-highest interception total. He also failed to help the Packers reach the NFL playoffs for the first time since 2018.
The numbers clearly support the idea that Rodgers fell off the cliff during the 2022 NFL season. This doesn't necessarily mean that he can't bounce back from it, as playing for a new team this year could potentially alter his trajectory.