New York Jets starting quarterback Aaron Rodgers has struggled this season, leaving some to wonder whether or not the 40-year-old is still able to play to his once-dominant potential. Six-time Super Bowl champion head coach Bill Belichick seems to think that he can.
During the most recent episode of the Let’s Go! podcast, Bill Belichick made it clear that he still thinks the future Hall of Fame quarterback can have “a good year next year” despite his struggles this season.
“[Rodgers] could easily rebound from that and be ready to play and have a good year next year,” Belichick told Jim Gray according to Pro Football Talk.
“You look at all the quarterbacks in the league that are kind of on their second teams and they’re doing pretty well, Russell Wilson and Geno Smith and [Sam] Darnold, Baker Mayfield, you go right down the line, [Matthew] Stafford for that matter, Jared Goff. These guys that switch teams, they get in a different system, things are a little bit different for them, maybe they learn some things from whatever it was their previous experiences were. It changes. When a guy has a long career and a good career, sometimes one season is just a bump in the road. It’s not necessarily the end of the road.”
Belichick went on to explain that it’s sometimes hard to know how much an older player has left late in their career.
“I think that’s one of the toughest things to do as a coach in professional football, is to figure out when that right time is or isn’t,” Belichick said.
“One thing you run into sometimes with players as they age in their career is the injury factor. And sometimes players can have an injury at the later point in their career and make it look like maybe it’s an age problem when actually it was an injury problem. And then once that injury clears up, then there’s a lot more good football left in that player.
“And I think that was kind of the case with Rodney Harrison. Rodney Harrison in San Diego was really a tough football player. He is very, very competitive. So he played through an injury, didn’t have a great year. And then when we signed him at New England he was healthy and he had multiple great years and helped us win Super Bowls,” Belichick said.
We’ll have to see whether or not Belichick turns out to be correct about Rodgers.
