Rock: Rodgers’ reign likely over, but he went out his way

If this is it for Aaron Rodgers — and it very well may be here at least — he knew how he wanted it to be scripted.

In the fourth quarter, he had a chance to run the ball into the end zone but pulled up at the last second and fired a sizzling spiral to the back of the end zone where his football soulmate Davante Adams was waiting.

Another touchdown for the duo. There probably won’t be another.

And after they were congratulated by others, the two former Packers walked back to the bench area, Rodgers’ arm around Adams, the prized football tucked under Adams’ arm.

They waited for each other again after the game, strolling off through the tunnel together, Rodgers giving the crowd an appreciative wave after throwing four touchdowns in the 32-20 win over the Dolphins.

“Just in case,” Adams said.

Two years ago, Rodgers made that walk with Randall Cobb at Lambeau Field. On Sunday he did it with Adams at MetLife Stadium.

This was one last chance for Rodgers to call the shots for the Jets, and he took advantage of it. In a game in which he entered one touchdown pass shy of the 500th of his career, Rodgers looked as if he was determined to reach 600, as well.

Did that mean force-feeding the ball to some of his former Packer pals, Adams and Allen Lazard? You betcha, as they might say in Green Bay. They were the targets on 15 of his 36 pass attempts with Adams getting 12 of them. Did it mean emptying the playbook and calling some gimmicky attempts at backyard fun? How else to explain the pass Lazard tried to throw to Rodgers in the third quarter . . . and Lazard was begging for him to call again.

Even during the national anthem, the three of them — Rodgers, Adams, Lazard — stood at midfield arm-in-arm while the rest of the team gave them their space.

No one admitted it was the end. Everyone just acted that way.

Well, almost everyone.

Breece Hall, the running back who may well have caught the final touchdown pass of Rodgers’ career late in the fourth quarter, hadn’t made that connection on his own. “Damn, that’s crazy,” he said when it was brought to his attention.

Even Rodgers himself said he will take some time to reflect in ways only he can before deciding if he will retire or if he wants to play more.

One thing is very clear, though: After two years here in New York — one of them spent rehabbing and the other playing, neither of them with much winning — Rodgers’ reign of running things is over. No more recruiting buddies or orchestrating the coaching staff to his liking, no more being the largest figure looming over the organization. The Jets tried that and it didn’t work.

With the offseason beginning, the Jets go back to being something else. Something even more ominous. They return to being Woody Johnson’s team. He’s the one in charge.

Uh oh.

Johnson is the one who will spend the coming days and weeks interviewing and hiring head coaches and general managers. He is the one who will ultimately decide whether Rodgers ever plays again for the Jets.

He’s the one who will try once more to shape the organization into a winner even though his previous efforts at such sculpting have resulted in mostly abstract clumps of green Play-Doh.

Of course he was also the one who pushed for Rodgers to come here. Having him in charge is certainly not encouraging.

But it only takes one or two good hires to change the perspective of an organization. Just look at what has happened in recent years to the Knicks. They matched the right management with the right coach and the right players.

At some point Johnson will have to decide what is more important to him: Winning or having a big say in how things are run. The two have been mutually exclusive for most of his time owning the Jets.

The Jets’ best course of action will be to hire smart, shrewd, experienced football people and let them do their thing . . . on their own.

Johnson stopped for a quick comment on the season after emerging from the locker room with his now famous teenage sons after the win.

“Everybody thought, not just me, that this was a talented team],” he said. “All the networks that are paying millions of dollars, they put us in six primetime games. Everybody thought this was going to be unbelievable.”

It was. Just not in a good way.

“We didn’t live up to that early opinion of virtually everybody,” Johnson added, “but we ended up well. I don’t care about anything else, but a win at the end was good.”

His next draft of Jets history will be very different in terms of who is here and who is not.

The results? We’ll see.