Aaron Rodgers acknowledges 'some sort of curse' Jets have to snap - ESPN

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Aaron Rodgers was supposed to be different. Unlike the other rent-a-legends that preceded him, he was going to be the one that flipped the New York Jets' culture, the one that turned them into winners.

And yet there he was on Wednesday afternoon, standing in the middle of the locker room with four games to play in a lost season, conceding that the job is too big to accomplish in one year, even for him.

«It might be some sort of curse we've got to snap,» Rodgers said.

Football players aren't supposed to talk about curses — that's taboo in their one-game-at-a-time world — but Rodgers has seen a lot in his short time with the Jets, and he certainly has learned plenty about the star-crossed ways of the franchise.

Nine straight losing seasons. Fourteen straight years out of the playoffs — the NFL's longest active drought. More than a half-century since its only Super Bowl appearance.

After blowing a fourth-quarter lead and falling to the Miami Dolphins 32-26 on Sunday, wide receiver Garrett Wilson said the Jets (3-10) have a «losing problem, like a gene or s---.»

The Jets acquired Rodgers in 2023 to change that, just like they tried with Brett Favre in 2008, Neil O'Donnell in 1996 and Boomer Esiason in 1993 — quarterbacks that won elsewhere. They tried it with several other past-their-prime future Hall of Famers, hoping some of their fading greatness would run off on them.

Nothing has changed.

Rodgers didn't get a chance to work his spell last season because he suffered a season-ending Achilles injury in Week 1. Now he's healthy, but the Jets will win fewer games than last season (7-10) unless they end on a four-game winning streak.

The future Hall of Famer's message on Wednesday wasn't all gloom and