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Can Aaron Rodgers Actually Pull This Off?
The Jets are taking a massive gamble that Rodgers can replicate Tom Brady's immediate Super Bowl run with his new playoff-starved team.
If you can't get the real GOAT, store-bought is fine.That's what the New York Jets are hoping, as they look to end a 12-year playoff drought by bringing in one of the other best quarterbacks to ever play the game.
The spirits were high at Florham Park last week as Aaron Rodgers was introduced as the Jets' new starting quarterback, but the expectations are higher.
After a standoff that started to seem like it might never end, the Green Bay Packers finally shipped Rodgers to the Jets in return for a second-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, and a conditional second-round pick in next year's draft that can easily become a first-rounder,
Even with Rodgers' massive contract included, it's a small price to pay for the chance to win a Super Bowl, something the Jets haven't done since Broadway Joe was delivering on his legendary guarantee more than 50 years ago.
But can Rodgers actually pull it off?
I mean, he's a four-time NFL MVP right?
And didn't Tom Brady just do this exact same thing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers a few years ago?
It's true, of course, that Brady signed with the Bucs in 2020 after 20 unfathomable years with the New England Patriots, joining a team that hadn't been to the postseason in — you guessed it — 12 years, and immediately led them to a Lombardi Trophy in his first season with the team.
But to expect the same thing from Rodgers in New York requires ignorance of much context.
For starters, Brady had already won six Super Bowls in New England, a long track record of proving his team could get the job done when it mattered most. Rodgers has just one ring to show for his 18 seasons in Green Bay, and that came more than a decade ago. Since then, Rodgers' teams have made it to the conference title game four times, and lost all of them. The last one was a home loss at Lambeau Field to Brady's Bucs.
For all of Tampa Bay's struggles prior to Brady's arrival, Bucs general manager Jason Licht had actually built an incredibly strong roster on both sides of the ball, a huge selling point that helped convince Brady to sign with them in the first place. Brady had one of the NFL's best wide receiver tandems in Pro Bowlers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, one of the best offensive lines in the NFL, his Hall of Fame buddy Rob Gronkowski at tight end, and a star-studded defense that stifled Rodgers and Drew Brees on the road in the playoffs before holding Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs without a single touchdown in a Super Bowl blowout.
Brady may have faced his own opposing-quarterback gauntlet in the playoffs that year, but it might pale in comparison to what Rodgers will have to navigate in the AFC this year. Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Trevor Lawrence and Justin Herbert will all have something to say about Rodgers and the Jets waltzing their way to a conference title.
Now, the Jets aren't without talent, by any means. They have some of the most promising young players in the league in cornerback Sauce Gardner, defensive lineman Quinnen Williams, wide receiver Garrett Wilson, running back Breece Hall, and offensive lineman Alijah Vera-Tucker. They have some solid returning veterans in linebacker C.J. Mosley, defensive end Carl Lawson, cornerback D.J. Reed, and some others. They even added some quality help in free agency, particularly at wide receiver with Allen Lazard (Rodgers' former teammate in Green Bay) and Mecole Hardman.
But to compare that group to Evans and Godwin and Gronkowski and Lavonte David and Shaq Barrett and Vita Vea and Ali Marpet and Ryan Jensen and Jason Pierre-Paul and Ndamukong Suh and Antoine Winfield Jr. and Tristan Wirfs and Carlton Davis III and Jamel Dean . . . well, that's a stretch, to say the least.
It's worth pointing out that the Bucs didn't even have to trade for Brady, and he signed a fairly team-friendly contract that allowed them more salary cap space to keep adding pieces around him. Yes, they pushed dead cap money to future years (something they're paying for this season), but they didn't have to give up premium draft picks for him.
If this doesn't work, the Jets will have given up way more than the Bucs did, mortgaged more of their future than the Bucs did, and without the same prize to show for it.
I can't blame Woody Johnson for looking at what Brady did in Tampa Bay and saying, "I want that." And if anyone's got a shot to replicate that kind of immediate success, Rodgers is probably the guy.
But these Jets aren't those Bucs, and Rodgers isn't Brady.
Maybe they'll surprise us. Maybe some unsung heroes will emerge, and maybe Rodgers will dig deep and find whatever extra it takes to push his team over the top.
But to expect anyone, even Rodgers, to do what Brady did, feel's like an expensive fool's errand.
