Marquand Manuel performed for six groups over eight NFL seasons as a defensive again, together with one because the teammate of a second-year backup quarterback named Aaron Rodgers with the Packers in 2006.
The Jets’ present safeties coach was “as devastated as everyone else” when Rodgers tore his left Achilles 4 offensive performs into his first season with the crew in Week 1 towards the Payments.
However Manuel lauded Rodgers’ maturation earlier this week, and he believes the four-time league MVP continues to drastically impression the Jets as they play on with out him and with Zach Wilson because the beginning quarterback.
“I thank Aaron — and I informed him this, and he is aware of this — day-after-day for what he’s finished for us,” Manuel stated Thursday. “Me as a participant, and now as a coach … you see the maturation strategy of who Aaron is now, everyone understands that. … It’s the worth of him with every little thing he’s discovered in all his years and pouring it again into everyone on this crew.
“He’s doing 1,000,000 issues that you simply guys do not know, that he planted seeds and he added one thing, a distinct dimension, that we couldn’t simply carry. Everybody fed off precisely what he was, and so they nonetheless are, and that in itself is what’s serving to us.
“So simply to observe his maturation course of, it makes me smile.”
Because the Jets ready for his or her sport Sunday towards the Patriots, the 39-year-old Rodgers remained away from the crew whereas recuperating from surgical procedure final week to restore his Achilles.
Rodgers stated throughout an look Friday on “The Pat McAfee Present” that he received’t return to the Jets’ facility in Florham Park till he’s capable of stroll.
However Manuel stated the veteran quarterback’s presence continues to be felt at One Jets Drive.
“I wouldn’t say he’s not right here,” Manuel stated. “The actual fact of what he put in and poured into everyone — whether or not it’d be a joke on the aspect, or what play you would have made, or the little small issues that Aaron does — that has helped us all. And that very same creed, we nonetheless work with that each single day.
“I can’t say sufficient about him, man, as a teammate, as a person, and seeing the maturation course of from once I performed with him and towards him, he’s finished an exceptional job and 10 occasions greater than we might have ever anticipated. For not simply the sturdiness of our crew, however for the mentality which we carry and we take on the market to the observe area day-after-day.
“I can’t say sufficient constructive phrases a few man that I admire, what he’s finished for us and what he’s persevering with to do for us.”
