The message from Aaron Rodgers on Wednesday was to keep calm and carry on.
Or, as he might put it, keep calm and dance on.
“I think at times, people think the season is like you’re out in the prairie or the desert and you’re running around trying to find water,” Rodgers said Wednesday as the Jets came off a season-opening defeat to the 49ers. “But it’s more like a nice, slow bolero where we’re just swaying with the music and reacting to whatever comes to us and through us. Just not trying to get too high with the highs or too low with the lows.”
It’s not quite the same as when Rodgers famously spelled out R-E-L-A-X 10 years ago after the Packers started the season poorly.
But it’s close enough.
“The league is a lot different than when I said relax years ago in that there’s so much more coverage that there’s so much more opportunity for overreaction. I get it. We want to win, our fans want to win, organization wants to win. But the process has to be the same. If it’s good enough in week one, it’s good enough in the playoffs.”
Rodgers, who threw for a touchdown and 167 yards in the loss, struck a mostly nonplussed tone, saying the defeat was “not super frustrating” and stressing more than once that it’s a long season and the Jets will get better.
Wednesday was the one-year anniversary of his Achilles tear, which he was only reminded of by a text Wednesday morning, having gotten through any memorializing last week.
“It’s never as bad as you think it is and never, unfortunately, as good as it feels sometimes,” he said. “There’s a lot of stuff to clean up but like I said after the game, I thought the pass protection was good. I thought we were good on the checks, we just missed some stuff in the run game, missed a couple throws, could’ve kept the drives going.”
Only five different receivers were targeted, with Garrett Wilson (11) and Allen Lazard (nine) seeing slightly over two-thirds of throws, including the final drive when Tyrod Taylor was under center.
Rodgers would like to see those numbers tick up for everyone — even Wilson.
“Would love to get [Conklin] involved and [Jeremy Ruckert] involved and [Xavier Gipson] involved, Mike [Williams] involved. Lot of that’s just plays,” Rodgers said. “You only have 49 plays, you have a certain amount of opportunities.”
