New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers was benched late in his team’s 40-14 loss to the Buffalo Bills despite chasing a milestone 500th career touchdown pass in the contest.
The 41-year-old made it clear that he had no qualms about being benched given the circumstances.
In fact, Rodgers may have been the one to broach the subject of heading to the bench early in the fourth quarter with Jets interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich, as he explained during a postgame news conference.
‘I mean, it was 33-0,’ Rodgers detailed. ‘We were sitting there and I said at some point, ‘Probably go to [backup quarterback] Tyrod [Taylor] here, huh?’ Then the next play [the Bills] threw a screen for a touchdown, so it was 40-0.’
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At that point, Rodgers was removed from the game and Tyrod Taylor played the rest of the way. The 35-year-old veteran led the Jets on two touchdown drives with the game already decided to make the final score slightly more respectable.
Rodgers didn’t seem upset about coming out of the game even despite his chance to become the fifth player in NFL history to join the 500-passing touchdown club. He was more focused on the Jets’ inability to compete at a high level on Sunday – and throughout the 2024 NFL season.
‘It’s kind of like the season – it just got away from us,’ Rodgers told reporters. ‘Too many games got away from us. This game got away from us. We were moving the ball well, and then we just hit a wall. And that’s been kind of the season too.’
Rodgers still managed to make NFL history with his performance against the Bills. Buffalo sacked him four times, bringing his career sack total to 568. He passed Tom Brady (565) to become the most sacked quarterback in NFL history.
‘Yeah, I got Tom on that,’ Rodgers responded with a wry smile upon being made aware of the ignominious mark.