FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- Aaron Glenn wasted little time. Ten days after being introduced as the head coach of the New York Jets, he summoned quarterback Aaron Rodgers to New Jersey and fired him in a Feb. 6 meeting that turned contentious and lasted only as long as a halftime break -- less than 15 minutes.
"I respected it," one player told ESPN, reflecting on how he felt at the time. "It was like cutting off the head of the snake right away and setting the tone, saying, 'Hey, I'm going to do it my way.'"
There's a new Aaron in charge of the Jets, and his mission is to recapture the winning culture he experienced as a player in the late 1990s. Toward that end, he replaced Rodgers with a humble, soft-spoken quarterback who exudes youth and vitality with his uncanny ability to run with the football.
It's your team, Justin Fields.
While no one with a modicum of football knowledge would suggest that Fields is on Rodgers' level as a pure passer -- the latter is one of the greatest throwers in the history of the sport -- he does possess the leadership traits that embody Glenn's "move in silence" mantra.
Fields doesn't have a weekly platform on a popular TV show. He doesn't electrify news conferences with glib responses and razor-edged opinions. He's not a headline maker. He's a grinder, according to teammates and coaches. As Glenn said, "He's not trying to be a celebrity quarterback" -- something Glenn's mentor, Bill Parcells, said many years ago about what he doesn't want his quarterbacks to be.
The Glenn-Fields partnership has changed the vibe around the Jets. Five holdovers from last season, interviewed by ESPN, said there's more of a team feeling than before.
Translation: Previously, it felt like 52 players and Rodgers. This isn't meant to be a shot at Rodgers, who current and former Jets say was generally well-liked in the locker room, but there's no denying that he altered the team dynamic because of his stature and desire to be in the spotlight.
In Fields, 26, Glenn has a player that reminds him of his younger self. Glenn was doubted because of his size as a 5-foot-9 cornerback; he wound up playing 15 years. Fields' challenge is to overcome the checkered start to his career, trying to live up to the huge expectations that came with being a first-round pick by the Chicago Bears in 2021.
Glenn has demonstrated an enormous amount of faith in Fields, perhaps surprising to some because of the quarterback's inconsistent career, but he believes the coach-quarterback relationship is vital to a team's success. He cited the Bill Belichick-Tom Brady marriage, which produced six Super Bowl titles for the New England Patriots before the messy breakup.
"I don't know if [Brady] was an extension [of Belichick], but the thing is they understood each other," Glenn said. "To me, I think more into that aspect than anything else.
"Me and Justin talk every day. He's in my office during the days that he's here, and we make sure that that relationship between me and him is on point. We talk about football, like, constantly. That means a lot to me, and we're going to continue to grow that way."
FIELDS AND RODGERS will face their previous teams when the Jets host the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, CBS) at Met Life Stadium in the season opener -- a delicious matchup with a double-redemption angle. Perhaps no one in the stadium will understand the two quarterbacks better than Jets center Josh Myers, who spent two years with Fields at Ohio State and two years with Rodgers on the Green Bay Packers.
One day recently, after a steamy training camp practice, Myers was asked to describe their leadership styles.
"They're definitely different," Myers said. "That's a good question."
He paused for nine seconds.
"Aaron, he just had so much experience, you know," Myers said finally, breaking the awkward silence. "He could talk on a lot, even with the offensive line. Justin is getting there as well, too. I think it's a matter of time before he understands on that level. It's tough, too, because Aaron was in that offense for years and years and years, so it's a little bit different there."
Some current Jets players seem uneasy, almost hesitant to discuss Rodgers. It's as if they don't want to upset Glenn, who, going back to February, has offered little insight into his decision to part ways with the future Hall of Famer. He doesn't like talking about Rodgers. On Tuesday, he declined to answer questions about it. He wouldn't even comment on Rodgers' 2024 performance, saying, "It's not relevant to right now." One player, asked about not having to deal with the Rodgers media circus anymore, said, "No comment on that one."
"I would say Aaron's a little -- everybody knows who Aaron is," center Joe Tippmann said of the quarterback. "But Justin, he's a great, great dude, somebody you can tell is putting it on the line for the guys."
Safety Isaiah Oliver said: "They're two different players. But Justin, he's a great leader. Ever since the first day he got here, he was in that role."
Linebacker Quincy Williams, who admitted to being starstruck when Rodgers arrived two years ago, agreed there's a different vibe with Fields.
"Man, I feel like everybody's just making the thing about the team," Williams said. "That's the main thing."
For two seasons, Rodgers was the face of the franchise, even in 2023 when he tore his left Achilles four offensive snaps into the season. He was away from the team, rehabbing in Los Angeles, but he continued to make weekly appearances on "The Pat McAfee Show," essentially creating the narrative for the season.
When he returned to New Jersey to attend games in '23, he created viral moments two hours before kickoff, throwing in an empty stadium. Look! There's a 39-year-old legend, on one leg, defying the odds. It made for great theater.
Rodgers was especially well-liked by the defensive players, a source close to the situation said. There was tension on offense in 2024, especially after star wide receiver Davante Adams arrived in a midseason trade, two sources said.
Adams and Rodgers were close from their Packers days, and there was a sense that Rodgers favored him in the passing offense. In fact, Adams was their most targeted player over his 11 games with the team -- 25 more than Garrett Wilson over that span. Occasionally, Rodgers and Adams were heard talking between plays, with Rodgers soliciting input from Adams on what routes he wanted to run.
"That frustrated people at times," one source said.
On and off the field, Rodgers leaned on the players he knew best, notably Adams and Allen Lazard (another ex-Packer) -- seemingly a natural inclination. Now, in the aftermath of the failed Rodgers era, some wonder how it might have been different if the front office hadn't brought in the F.O.R. (Friends of Rodgers) crowd. Perhaps that would have created better chemistry with the other players.
"There were a lot of chiefs and not enough Indians" on offense, the source said.
Interestingly, there's a similar dynamic on this year's team, with Fields and Wilson having played together at Ohio State. Their reunion, which started in March when Fields signed a two-year, $40 million contract as a free agent, has generated plenty of headlines. Both are thrilled to be together again.
It's not quite the same as Rodgers-Adams -- Fields and Wilson have been apart for four years, and the Jets' offense is nothing like the one they ran in college -- but it leaves people wondering if they can re-create that connection.
Fields seems remarkably unfazed by it all. Publicly, he doesn't reveal much, though teammates insist that he gets fired up at practice when things don't go right. He said a recent spiritual commitment has allowed him to block the outside noise, which wasn't always the case.
Reflecting on his early years in the NFL, Fields said, "I think I would kind of let opinions shape my opinion."
And now?
"I'm glad I've grown out of that stage," Fields said, "and I'm glad that the only approval that I need is from my teammates, my coaches and God, ultimately."
A GLENN-RODGERS PAIRING would have featured two strong-minded individuals with distinctly different personalities. No one can say for sure how it would have worked. Based on their only meeting, it probably wouldn't have gone well.
After being released by the Jets, Rodgers went on McAfee's show and blasted Glenn, saying the coach failed to show "ample respect" in their sit-down. Rodgers said he expected a lengthy meeting to discuss his future with the team. There was no chitchat; he got a pink slip in the first minute. Rodgers also was upset that Glenn made him fly cross-country for the meeting when he felt a phone call would have sufficed.
The Rodgers ouster was "a tough spot for Aaron Glenn," according to NBC analyst Cris Collinsworth.
"When you're starting to talk about a new era and turning around the New York Jets, you wouldn't be looking for a one-year solution at the quarterback position," Collinsworth said in a media conference call. "Did I think it was a reflection of Aaron Rodgers? I really didn't. I just looked at it as this was a build-out that was beginning and not in the finished stages."
Rodgers passed for 3,897 yards and 28 touchdowns last season, both third on the Jets' single-season list, but they weren't reflective of his performance. The Jets finished 24th in scoring and the team went 5-12, missing the playoffs for the 14th straight year -- the league's longest active streak. Rodgers was 25th out of 32 qualified passers in Total QBR.
Instead of rolling with a declining, 41-year-old quarterback, whose return would have triggered severe salary cap ramifications in 2026 and 2027, Glenn decided to cut him loose. Part of it was Glenn wanting to create his own culture, according to people close to the coach. That would have been difficult with the lightning rod Rodgers, they said, claiming the quarterback's larger-than-life persona would have interfered with Glenn's vision for the team.
Fields isn't Rodgers in the passing game, although it's interesting to note that he has outperformed Rodgers in almost every major statistical category over their last 17 starts. To be fair, Rodgers played those games only one year removed from Achilles surgery. Fields also brings the running dimension, which the Jets believe will unlock their ground game.
Different quarterbacks, different styles, different vibes. Asked about the contrast, tight end Jeremy Ruckert, another Ohio State alum, described Fields' hard-nosed mentality, how he likes to finish runs aggressively and how he raises the competitiveness of those around him.
"He likes to let his play do the talking," Ruckert said.
