It’s been a long stretch marred by fumbles and five-win seasons, failed drafts and clumsy coaches.
It’s not just that the New York Jets went a dozen years without reaching the playoffs, it’s that the parade of humiliation of the past two decades wasn’t just losses on the field. , but nonsense off the pitch. Foot fetish videos. Sexting scandals. Fights in the locker room. Mom’s friend.
That’s why it’s so important that the Jets loaded an army of coaches, team executives and even team owner Woody Johnson onto a private plane on Tuesday and flew to California for a face-to-face meeting. to face with Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
Maybe New York can convince Rodgers to come and play with the Jets, by initiating a trade with the Packers. Maybe they can’t.
If nothing else, the Jets have gone all-in, in every way imaginable, in pursuit of a four-time MVP quarterback who they believe can make them an instant contender in the AFC.
A not very serious franchise has suddenly become extremely serious.
With a dominating defence, plenty of young talent and a no-frills head coach, they are not just wishing and hoping for this overdue opportunity to shake things up. They are trying to make that happen.
They’re not just heading West to convince Rodgers that the franchise is worthy of his talent and leadership, or that he can thrive by ending his career in another shade of green. They will stop him from telling them no. If not, it won’t be because they were distracted or incompetent or just didn’t try hard enough.
Landing Rodgers will be expensive. Not just because he’s owed $58 million next season (perhaps requiring cost-sharing with Green Bay), but because the Packers will demand significant compensation via players and/or draft picks.
New York doesn’t seem to care. It’s been treading water for far too long, spending too many seasons as a hiker and bottom dweller to worry about being too aggressive.
The Jets only won seven games last season, but there was so much promise.
The defense allowed fourth-fewest points in the league and earned three stars on first- or second-team All-Pro. That includes Defensive Rookie of the Year Sauce Gardner, who appears to be Darrell Revis’s second coming back when the Jets really mattered.
The problem was the offense, although he also had Offensive Rookie of the Year in wide receiver Garrett Wilson. New York has been held back by the erratic play of quarterback Zach Wilson, the No. 2 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.
Zach Wilson was a classic Jets mistake, cheated by outrageous pro-day pitches and a senior game-of-the-year strip against weak competition after the COVID-19 pandemic kept his BYU team from playing against key opponents of the conference.
What New York tries, however, is what good franchises do – rectify a mistake rather than let it continue to drag them down. Maybe Wilson can bounce back and still be something. You don’t risk this list hoping it happens next season.
It is the Jets, after all, who still yearn for their next Joe Namath.
Instead, they pursued Rodgers and the Packers by any means available. It is now the home stretch.
So, according to ESPN, on Woody Johnson’s plane were Johnson himself, general manager Joe Douglas, head coach Robert Saleh and offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, who worked with Rodgers in Green Bay at the during his last two MVP seasons.
Rodgers is a joker, eccentric and unpredictable. He recently contemplated his future via dark retreats and podcast talks. He likes attention, dragging decisions even though he says he doesn’t want to drag decisions. All this affair, all this gesture, seems to speak to him.
Might as well go big then. Might as well go big. As much to show that the Jets, of all franchises, are finally serious this time.
About Rodgers landing. About winning games. And maybe more.