Jets Allen Lazard out to prove he can be great regardless of Aaron Rodgers

The last time Allen Lazard went into a season under the assumption that anyone other than Aaron Rodgers would be throwing him the ball, he was on the Jaguars practice squad trying to make it as an undrafted free agent.Text with Brian Costello all season as he brings Sports+ subscribers the latest Jets intel from on the field and off.

That was eight years ago, which gets to the heart of why Lazard is still a Jet, while Rodgers is a Pittsburgh Steeler.Lazard was brought to the Jets because of his familiarity with Rodgers and then-offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, and was widely assumed to be going to the Steelers this offseason because of Rodgers.The Jets even gave Lazard’s agent permission to look for a trade partner in March, but nothing materialized.Instead of going to the Steelers, Lazard stayed with the Jets, taking an $8.5 million pay cut in the final year of his deal, in no small part to prove he can do it without Rodgers.“That’s pretty obvious,” Lazard said Tuesday in his first public comments since last season.“My success isn’t determined off of who’s throwing me the ball [or] how we’re trying to approach it,” Lazard said.

“I want to go out there and be great regardless of the other 10 guys out there.It’s the pride that I have by putting that jersey on, wearing the name on my back and also representing the organization that I’m playing for.“So whoever’s throwing me the ball, I’m gonna go out there and compete the same way that I did whether it was Aaron or not.

And I’ve done that my whole career, not just the NFL: college, high school.There’s a reason why I’m still here.

It’s not just cause I had Aaron Rodgers throwing me the ball my whole life.”Though Lazard is seen as likely to make the roster, it’s not necessarily a guarantee.The receiver room is crowded — with Josh Reynolds, Tyler Johnson, Arian Smith, Malachi Corley and Xavier Gipson all jockeying for position alongside Lazard and Garrett Wilson....