As soon as Aaron Rodgers went down with a season-ending Achilles injury four snaps into his Jets career, speculation began that New York would be in the market for a veteran replacement quarterback.
And while Robert Saleh emphasized over the last two days that the Jets were now third-year former first-round pick Zach Wilson’s team, the most obvious, Super Bowl-ready available QB New York could have theoretically pursued was recently-retired GOAT Tom Brady.
But, at least according to the Athletic, the Jets do not have any plans to go after Brady. Citing multiple league sources, New York “won’t be checking to see” if Brady “has any interest in returning to football.”
Brady spent last Sunday, his first official game day of retirement, at Gillette Stadium reconnecting with the New England organization and its fans. TB12 went so far as to say during a halftime ceremony that he is a “Patriot for life.”
Apparently what happened to Rodgers barely 24 hours won’t be testing that sentiment. Because despite the need to add a veteran to the QB mix behind or in competition with the erratic, unproven Wilson, the Jets reportedly won’t even be looking into the possibility as to whether Brady might want to shoot to win another Super Bowl with a third team, something that’s never been done in NFL history.
The Athletic did note that New York began to reach out to other veteran free agent QBs on Tuesday, just not apparently the best one available and the only one who could come close to sliding into the conductor’s seat of the Jets hype train that had picked up so much steam this offseason with the arrival of Rodgers in a trade from Green Bay.