The 2023 season was another disaster for the New York Jets after star quarterback Aaron Rodgers suffered an injury on the team’s fourth offensive snap of the season.
All of their eggs were put into his basket as no contingency plan was in place behind him. Heading into the 2024 campaign, Tyrod Taylor presents a much better alternative as the backup to Rodgers than Zach Wilson, Trevor Siemian and Tim Boyle last season.
But, if the Jets want to reach the heights they believe capable of, they need the future Hall of Famer to stay healthy.
He has worked very hard this offseason, putting in reps during the spring and training camp to get himself ready for the regular season. He essentially hasn’t played in two seasons, which is concerning.
Returning from an Achilles injury is difficult enough. Doing it at 40 years old would be an unprecedented feat.
Of course, New York doesn’t necessarily need the MVP version of Rodgers to show up. Even the version that was leading the Green Bay Packers in 2022, which was underwhelming by his astronomical standards, would be a massive upgrade for the franchise.
Heading into Week 1 of the season, expectations remain sky-high. Some people are a little more measured in their approach, such as Cody Benjamin of CBS Sports.
He shared his quarterback power rankings heading into the regular season opener, and somewhat surprisingly, he doesn’t have Rodgers in his top 10. The Jets star came in at No. 12.
“Returning from an Achilles injury that robbed him of all but four snaps in his anticipated Jets debut, Rodgers is a beautiful mystery, as he might say. At 40, years removed from elite play, what can we expect? It's still hard to deny his track record of pinpoint accuracy, coupled with New York's talent,” Benjamin wrote.
Benjamin’s reasoning is valid; there are legitimate concerns about how things will turn out this season. But, it still doesn’t seem quite right seeing Rodgers behind some of the players ahead of him on the list.
Justin Herbert of the Los Angeles Chargers, Matthew Stafford of the Los Angeles Rams, Jordan Love of the Packers, Dak Prescott of the Dallas Cowboys and Jalen Hurts of the Philadelphia Eagles are all right ahead of him, ranked 7-11.
This could be more bulletin board material for Rodgers, who responded with back-to-back MVP seasons in 2020 and 2021 when Green Bay selected Love, signaling a change of the guard coming in the near future.
Motivated and surrounded by some legitimate talent, don’t count out the veteran. It would be more shocking if he struggled than put together a solid campaign for Gang Green.
