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Cam Newton Believes Aaron Rodgers Can Still Play MVP-Caliber Football

'First Take' discussed the future of the New York Jets.

Kyle Koster

Cam Newton still believes in Aaron Rodgers
Cam Newton still believes in Aaron Rodgers / First Take on X
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The New York Jets have newfound optimism after hiring Aaron Glenn away from Detroit. They must now decide if they want to continue on with Aaron Rodgers as soon as Rodgers decides whether he wants to continue his NFL career. ESPN's First Take dove into to the topic on Thursday and Cam Newton took the opportunity to offer one of the more optimistic event horizons we've heard for the franchise.

"I think Aaron Rodgers still has MVP-caliber football in him," Newton said.

"Every single MVP quarterback has this one thing that they get from the opposing sector of football: oppportunity from their defense," he continued. "If you give any quarterback enough opportunity, they're going to put up points ... I'm looking at a quarterback if you give him a top-15 defense let alone a top-10 defense, what will Aaron Rodgers be able to do and that changes the whole dynamic."

Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen, the two favorites to win this year's award, benefitted from scoring defenses that ranked 9th and 11th respectively in the NFL. Jackson, who won it last year, saw the Ravens defense finish best in the league. Patrick Mahomes won it in 2022 while the Chiefs were ranked 16th. When Rodgers took the crown in back-to-back years the Packers were 13th and then 14th.

The Jets defense was 12th in Rodgers' first injury year and 20th in 2024.

While it's undeniably true that football teams benefit from complementary play, Newton may be oversimplifying things just a bit. In 2024, the Dolphins, Bears, Steelers and Cardinals all fielded top-15 defenses without a resulting MVP candidate at quarterback. So did the 2023 Patriots, Browns, Jets, Raiders and Saints.

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Kyle Koster
KYLE KOSTER

Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.

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