Former Super Bowl champ thinks Jets’ Aaron Rodgers playing final game on Sunday

Mark Schlereth won three combined Super Bowls as an offensive lineman in Washington and Denver. During a December FOX production meeting, the color analyst spent some time with another Super Bowl champion, Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers. And Schlereth said Thursday he thinks this week might be the quarterback’s final NFL game.

Schlereth said Thursday morning on FS1’s Breakfast Ball that whether Rodgers retires after the Jets (4-12) host the Dolphins (8-8) on Sunday (4:25 p.m. ET, FOX) depends largely on the quarterback’s ability to separate his professional life from his personal life.

“The deal is that he’s been able to separate his professional life, because from a professional perspective as the New York Jets quarterback, this has been abysmal. It couldn’t be any worse,” Schlereth said. “Being able to separate that from what really matters in your life, you can have perspective especially as you get older.

“I sat with him two weeks ago and talked to him about this and asked him the question, ‘Are you done?’ He told me it would have to be the perfect scenario for him to come back and play. And happen to feel after these two years, he’s in a good place. Obviously, personally he’s in a good place. Professionally, it hasn’t gone well. I feel like I feel like he’s done. I feel like he may retire. I feel like he will retire.”

Throwing just one touchdown pass on Sunday might help Rodgers with that monumental decision. That’s because he enters Sunday with 499 career touchdown passes. Only four players in NFL history are in the 500 Club: Tom Brady (649), Drew Brees (571), Peyton Manning (539) and Brett Favre (508). Plus, one of his best friends, Jets wide receiver Davante Adams, might be on the receiving end of that historic pass. Adams also caught the quarterback’s 200^th and 400^th career touchdown passes. Earlier this week, Rodgers reflected positively on his time in New York.

“It’s been the best two years of my life,” said Rodgers, a four-time MVP who spent 2005-22 in Green Bay before the Jets acquired him in a 2023 trade. “That perspective adjustment that happened I think at some point there in the rehab process last year. Just the excitement of falling back in love with the game, getting to know these guys in here, getting to know the great men and women that work here. It’s been a lot of fun. You know, obviously, on the field has been short of expectations, no doubt but, this game is more than just that.”

Rodgers (62,678) also needs 115 passing yards to eclipse No. 7 Matt Ryan (62,792) on the NFL’s all-time list. Plus, he enters Sunday ranked No. 1 all-time with a 102.6 career passer rating, ahead of Lamar Jackson (102.1), Patrick Mahomes (102.1) and Joe Burrow (101.3).

Miami won’t give him anything, though. The Dolphins need a win to avoid guaranteed postseason elimination. Sunday’s game takes place at the same time as the Kansas City-Denver contest. Regardless of the Miami outcome against the Jets, Denver can clinch the AFC’s final playoff spot with a win against the Chiefs, who’ll start backup Carson Wentz at quarterback.

For more information on the Jets and Dolphins, visit the N.Y. Jets and Miami team pages at ProFootballPost.com.