While Louis Riddick thinks Aaron Rodgers will “light up” the New York Jets, former NFL cornerback Domonique Foxworth thinks the only player getting lit up Sept. 7 is Rodgers himself. Facing a strong Jets defense with a new defensive-minded head coach, Foxworth thinks the season opener could spell trouble for Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“If they can protect him, he can put up big numbers,” Foxworth said Wednesday on ESPN’s Get Up. “If they can’t, it’s gonna get ugly.”
Aaron Rodgers will get the national attention, but the determining factor runs deeper than that. Not only does protecting Rodgers involve keeping him upright against Will McDonald and company, protecting Rodgers entails requiring him to do less. A healthy and efficient running game will take more off his plate. He doesn’t need to purely manage the game but throwing 40 times isn’t a recipe for success.
Obvious as it sounds, the difference in winning when Rodgers stays upright versus when he’s under siege is stark. For his regular-season career, here’s his winning percentage when sacked at least four times compared to when he’s not.
Rodgers’ Winning Percentage
Sacked 4 Or More Times: .417 (22-31-1)
Sacked Three Times Or Less: .691 (134-60)
The Jets boast a defense with talent at all three levels. Last year, McDonald broke out and justified the Jets’ first-round investment in him, finishing with 24 QB hits and 10.5 sacks. Defensive tackle Quinnen Williams has made the Pro Bowl each of the last three years. Sauce Gardner remains one of football’s top young corners, though he’ll look to make more splash plays than the one interception he registered a year ago. Under the new coaching staff, Gardner is expected to shadow opposing No. 1 receivers like DK Metcalf as opposed to past years when he played on one side.
Even in a five-win season a year ago, New York still finished tied for 11th in sacks with 43.
The Jets’ aggressive mentality could work against them.
“Aaron Glenn’s gonna play a lot of man coverage behind. It’s hard with a quarterback as accurate as Aaron Rogers to cover receivers in man the whole game,” Foxworth said.
There was a time when Mike Tomlin was a fresh-faced former defensive coordinator turned head coach. Now, Aaron Glenn is in those shoes. At 53, he doesn’t have the youth Tomlin did in 2007, but he’ll look to replicate Tomlin’s first career outing: a win, which Tomlin’s Steelers pulled off by routing the Cleveland Browns 34-7 nearly two decades ago.
