26 September 2023 , 22:03
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Aaron Rodgers has issued a rallying cry to his New York Jets teammates and fans to keep the faith amid the team's struggles following his season-ending injury.
The Jets did recover to beat the Buffalo Bills 22-16 in dramatic circumstances with an overtime touchdown in their opener but morale has since dropped. A torn Achilles sustained by Rodgers after just four plays seems to have cast a long shadow and they have now lost two games on the spin.
Their 15-10 defeat against the New England Patriots followed a 30-10 loss versus the Dallas Cowboys, with the Jets seemingly struggling. Despite his injury, stricken quarterback Rodgers has now called on his teammates to turn things around after two disappointing results.
Speaking on the 'The Pat McAfee Show' on ESPN, he said: "I think we need to hold our poise a little bit better across the board. Just offensively, we need to not have some of those things happen on the sideline and to be a little better and to be a, just be a little better competitors."
One cause for concern for the wounded star was the demeanour of his teammates during their loss to the Patriots, with Garrett Wilson and Michael Carter having been caught in heated discourse with coaches. In one instance, Carter was seen in a particularly fraught exchange with running backs coach Taylor Embree.
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He said: "[There were] too many little side conversations, and we just need to grow up a little bit on offense and lock in and do our jobs and not point fingers at each other. Don't point fingers at the coaching staff, don't point fingers at each other. Just get back to work and get the job done."
His quarterback stand-in Zach Wilson has struggled during the last two games and the Jets' offense has managed just two touchdowns in that time. Rodgers admitted that he feels he could have done better than his replacement, saying: "I feel like if I was there, some of those things wouldn't be happening.
New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh has put his faith in quarterback Zach Wilson (Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)"[I'm] not sure we'd be 3-0 -- I don't know that. I'd like to think there's a possibility of that, but it's more the side stuff that I don't like and that I want to see us stick together through the tough times."
Of course, a lot of criticism has been levelled towards the struggling QB, not least by Jets legend Joe Namath, who called his Patriots performance 'awful'. However, Rodgers seemingly did not appreciate the discerning comments from Namath when asked about them.
He instead called on former players and fans to stick together, adding: "When we're not having success, how do we respond? How do we respond to adversity? And that goes for our fan base and former players as well. You're not helping the cause.
"I'd like to see everybody stick together - our fan base, our former players and our current players because there's too much negativity and the world is crashing down after three weeks. [It's] a long season, a lot of time, a lot of things that can happen."