For 40 Days and 40 Nights, long-suffering Jets fans hoped for the best but expected the worst news about whether Aaron Rodgers really came into town as the savior who could lead them out of the darkness that engulfed the franchise.
And now they can celebrate, because as of this moment, Aaron Rodgers will be wearing No. 8 — like Daniel Jones — for the New York Jets.
And now Jets fans can dream.
They can dream that impossible Super Bowl dream.
Hoo-ra-rod.
For some, given all the Jets surrendered in the deal—swap first-round picks, a second-rounder, and a conditional 2024 second-rounder who becomes first if he plays 65 percent of the snaps, not to mention moolah Rodgers owes his fifth-rounder in 2023—the mandate for the 2023 season will be Super Bowl or Bust.
I understood of course. And that should be the expectation now inside the Atlantic Health Gates Training Center, starting, of course, with Woody Johnson. Who got his leg.
Joe Douglas got his man.
The planes got their man.
Rodgers does not guarantee Super Bowl appearances or championships. Not in this AFC.
But that means the Jets, now 14/1 to win the Super Bowl, belong in the conversation and are ready for a Super Bowl heavyweight contest.
No excuses now for Rodgers, or for everyone in Mr. Rodgers’ neighborhood. End this suffocating and frustrating 12-year drought once and for all. This is the minimum bar.
Trade Aaron Rodgers to the Jets
On Monday, after months of speculation and rumors, the Jets and Packers reached agreement on a deal that would bring four-time NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers to New York.
The trade immediately promotes the Jets from rookie team to playoff contender in the hopes that Rodgers will help break one of the longest active postseason droughts in sports.
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Jets receivers: Aaron Rodgers, No. 15 pick (2023) and No. 170 pick (2023)
Packers receive: #13 pick (2023), #42 pick (2023), #207 pick (2023) and a conditional 2024 second-round draft pick transferred to a first-rounder if Rodgers plays 65% of the Jets’ plays in 2023.
What comes next
The trade still needs to be finalized—the terms of Rodgers’ contract need to be worked out—and sent to the NFL.
Both teams will start feeling this deal as early as Thursday in the 2023 NFL Draft.
For the Packers, it’s now about fourth-year QB Jordan Love getting ready to take over. With Gang Green, it’s about getting a whole bunch of new faces offensively on the same page.
Where is Rodgers now?
The 39-year-old was out in Calabasas, California when he got news of the trade, everyone smiled as he picked up coffee and groceries. For Rodgers and Jets fans, we hope this is just the beginning of their good times.
Read more coverage from The Post’s Aaron Rodgers
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The Jets are now primed to jog a 39-year-old Hall of Fame quarterback who can stand eyeball-to-eye with the young guns filling the conference — Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, Justin Herbert and Lamar Jackson, once he’s kissed and made amends with the Ravens.
Dream of an AFC Championship game in Arrowhead, a shootout unfolding with Mahomes, and Aaron Rodgers refusing to blink.
This means that Robert Saleh’s planes are no longer ready for prime time players.
Airplanes are exciting again. Aircraft relevant again. Aircraft fear again. Airplanes are a national attraction again. Maybe six times on prime time TV.
Somewhere in there, Sonny Werblin, who signed Joe Namath out of Alabama for $427,000, might be wearing a green-and-white cheese cape.
Werbelin once said, “When Joe Namath walks into a room, you know he’s there. When any other expensive upstart enters, he’s just a nice-looking guy. He’s like Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig or Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris.”
Rodgers may not be Broadway Aaron… but he’s more than just a nice-looking guy when he walks into the room. Especially his new room. Page Six Aaron, anyone?
Bill Belichick hasn’t had to sleep over a Jets quarterback since Brett Favre emerged as a reluctant one-year gunslinger in 2008.
Favre’s arm betrayed him down the stretch and the Jets missed the playoffs—a careless Chad Pennington made it, of course, with the Dolphins—but he didn’t have the team around him that Rodgers will now. He did not have a Bryce Hall. He didn’t have Garrett Wilson. It didn’t have Gardner and Quinn Williams sauce.
The Jets have leaned back to lure Rodgers — adding offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett and WR Allen Lazard, wooing Odell Beckham Jr. — and they’ll spend every waking hour continuing to do everything they can to make an offer he can’t refuse to play. 2024. Keeping him happy on the court will outshine any potential media digs in New York.
If he wins, they win, and that in itself could force him to believe that life begins at 40. Like I did with Tom Brady.
Rodgers wanted the Jets because he saw an opportunity to:
sticking to the Packers, who are tired of the drama king and decide it is time to start the era of love in Jordan;
enhance his legacy. Arguably the most talented football pitcher in NFL history, Rodgers must be excited to finish with more than one Super Bowl ring to his credit.
Last season, Rodgers threw 26 TDs for 12 INTs, penning a broken thumb and a loss to WR Davante Adams. He was only two years removed from back-to-back league MVPs.
See, it’s a big gamble. Big risk. But when you’re the Jets, you’re taking a risk because after three years of waiting for Sam Darnold, after two years of waiting for Zach Wilson, after 12 years of waiting for the playoffs, after 54 years of waiting for the Super Bowl — you desperately need the big payoff. Nor should you be afraid to dare to be great.
The date was January 2, 1965, when Namath signed with the Jets.
We feel that with getting Joe, we’ve got the No. 1 football player in America, and with him we’re going to give New York fans the best team in America. This is the beginning of many championship years for the Jets.”
Well, it was just one. was the last. the only. One would suffice from Aaron Rodgers.
Hoo-ra-rod.