{"id":324947,"date":"2025-08-28T20:52:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T20:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/324947\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T20:52:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T20:52:10","slug":"jets-edge-rusher-going-to-try-to-sack-friend-aaron-rodgers-with-every-fiber-of-my-being","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/324947\/","title":{"rendered":"Jets Edge Rusher Going To Try To Sack ‘Friend’ Aaron Rodgers ‘With Every Fiber Of My Being’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aaron Rodgers recently downplayed the revenge element of<\/a> the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 Week 1 game against the New York Jets. He spent the last two seasons with the Jets, and things didn\u2019t go well. However, despite the team\u2019s failures, many Jets still hold a lot of love for Rodgers. While it felt like there might\u2019ve been a little bad blood between the two sides, it doesn\u2019t look like that\u2019s the case. Despite that, Jets edge rusher Jermaine Johnson II is still focused on bringing Rodgers down.<\/p>\n

\u201cAaron is a great friend,\u201d Johnson said recently on talkSPORT USA\u2019s YouTube channel.<\/a> \u201cWas a great teammate when he was here. But when I put that helmet on, and that clock says 60 minutes, I\u2019m rolling. I\u2019m ready to go. And I\u2019m sure the same is for him. They got a good thing going over there, we got a great thing going over here, and we\u2019re excited to clash.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny, one of the first sentences I said to Aaron when he got here in 2023, I was like, \u2018I\u2019m excited to have you. I\u2019m just bummed out I won\u2019t ever be able to sack you.\u2019 But now I can, so I\u2019m super excited about that opportunity. With every fiber of my being, I\u2019m gonna try to make that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson was a Jets first-round pick in 2022, and he\u2019s had some success in that time. In 2023, he made a Pro Bowl after recording 7.5 sacks. However, last year, Johnson tore his Achilles in Week 2, ending his season.<\/p>\n

That injury helped Rodgers and Johnson bond. Rodgers tore his Achilles in 2023, so he has a lot of recent experience coming back from that injury. He provided Johnson with some help during his recovery, including lending the pass rusher his private jet to travel<\/a> for surgery.<\/p>\n

Despite that, Johnson doesn\u2019t plan on treating Rodgers like his friend in Week 1. That echoes the same sentiment of<\/a> other Jets players. They have nothing but good things to say about Rodgers, but they\u2019re also excited at the prospect of beating him.<\/p>\n

The Jets\u2019 defense has a lot of talented players, so they should be a good test for the Steelers\u2019 offense, especially their offensive line. Alongside Johnson, their defensive front also includes Quinnen Williams and Will McDonald IV, both talented players. The Steelers\u2019 offensive line has a lot of young and unproven players, and they\u2019ll have a tall task protecting Rodgers in Week 1.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll see if the veteran quarterback can bring down his old team. Protecting Rodgers will be one of the Steelers\u2019 keys to victory in that game.<\/a> Coming off an Achilles injury, Johnson might need a little time to shake the rust off. However, he\u2019ll be motivated facing his former teammate.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aaron Rodgers recently downplayed the revenge element of the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 Week 1 game against the New York…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":257663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2051],"tags":[1586,7,7537,226,1917,255,2321,2097,6,57],"class_list":{"0":"post-324947","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-jets","8":"tag-aaron-rodgers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-jermaine-johnson-ii","11":"tag-jets","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-jets","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkjets","16":"tag-nfl","17":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115108376991255024","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}