Desperate times called for desperate measures.
Four snaps into Aaron Rodgers’ debut with the New York Jets in Week 1 of the 2023 season he went down. Rodgers blew out his Achilles and was forced to miss the entire year.
Legendary quarterback Ben Roethlisberger revealed that the Jets reached out to his agent about a possible NFL comeback.
“Yeah when guys go down your agent will get a call. When Aaron got hurt in New York with his Achilles, my agent would be like ‘any interest?’ I’m like zero,” Roethlisberger revealed on “The Nateland Podcast” with Nate Bargatze. “We were watching the game and he went down. I was like uh oh and sure enough I get a text, ‘before I get any calls, any interest?’ I’m like nope, I’m playing golf.”
Roethlisberger Explains What Would Have Happened Had He Said Yes
We know Big Ben said no and instead the Jets relied on Zach Wilson to replace Rodgers in 2023. Spoiler alert, it didn’t go well.
Four different quarterbacks played for the Jets that season: Tim Boyle, Trevor Siemian, Rodgers, and Wilson.
Roethlisberger had previously announced his retirement on January 27, 2022. When the Jets reached out to gauge his interest in a football comeback, he was 41 years of age.
“Your not going to go play the next week. It would have been like hey give me a month, give me 30 days and I’d come halfway through the season or something like that. That is probably what it would be. Some guys maybe would be ready to go right away but even that it would be hard to play the next week unless you were familiar with an offense. I was already a year removed. If you were a guy that just retired [maybe that would have been different],” Roethlisberger explained.
The former Miami of Ohio product spent his entire 18-year career with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He won two Super Bowls and was a 6-time Pro Bowler.
Roethlisberger finished with 64,088 passing yards, completed 64.4% of his passes, and had a 418 touchdown to 211 interception ratio.
Now the Jets Will Rely on a Different Ex-Steelers QB
Roethlisberger won’t be coming to save the Jets in 2025. Instead they will be relying on a different former Pittsburgh passer, Justin Fields.
Fields has been wildly inconsistent during his career in the pros. Some of that can be attributed to his less than stellar coaching staffs he has worked with and the questionable supporting casts but Fields has to take some of the blame too.
Longtime former scout and current NFL media analyst Bucky Brooks believes Fields “can become a superstar” with the Jets.
“Four years after Justin Fields was selected with a first-round draft pick, we’re finally going to have a chance to see him realize his potential as a superstar,” Brooks said. “With a creative new coordinator [Tanner Engstrand] poised to take the offense to another level after tapping into the notes compiled throughout his time with the Detroit Lions, the Jets could emerge as a heavyweight — and Fields could be leading the charge.”
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