Jets' season already teetering on brink of collapse with Aaron Rodgers out for year
Turns out, it was too good to be true.
Aaron Rodgers was supposed to lead the New York Jets to the promised land and now his season has crashed with One Jets Drive…and one ruptured Achilles tendon.
This happens. Murphy’s Law has always had jurisdiction in the NFL, and it has struck again.
Super Bowl or bust?
Well, suddenly it’s back to the drawing board for coach Robert Saleh and the Jets, with their best-laid plan to win a championship blown up just minutes into the much-anticipated debut at MetLife Stadium on Monday night. Rodgers lasted all of four plays, with zero completions. What a nightmare.
Talk about a darkness retreat.
“I don’t know why people are trying to put an obituary under our team name,” Saleh said during a news conference Tuesday, hours after an MRI exam confirmed the extent of Rodgers’ injury. “Aaron is an unbelievable piece to this whole thing and we love him. But I think there’s 52 other guys in the locker room plus 16 practice squad guys that believe we can do a hell of a lot of good things here.”
Rodgers, 39, was taken out by Buffalo Bills defensive end Leonard Floyd when his lower left leg buckled as he was corralled to the ground. By NFL standards, it was hardly a violent hit. Yet also by NFL standards, it was a result that instantly affected the course of the season. It’s fair to wonder whether the injury was caused by the synthetic “Field Turf” or if a body entering a 19th NFL campaign, with Rodgers ramping up to full speed after nursing a calf injury in training camp, isn’t as sturdy as it used to be.
In any event, it gives the Jets a new, hard-knocks reality after going all-in on A-Rod.
Zach Wilson? Maybe the young quarterback, after an offseason as Rodgers’ understudy, can wind up winning big like another former New York quarterback, Jeff Hostetler, who led the Giants to a Super Bowl triumph during the 1990 season after replacing an injured Phil Simms.
More recently, Nick Foles came off the bench for the Philadelphia Eagles after Carson Wentz late in the 2017 season and helped win a Super Bowl.
So, there are precedents. The best one was Tom Brady, who took over for an injured Drew Bledsoe in Week 2 in 2001, then finished the season as Super Bowl MVP, winning the first of his six rings with the New England Patriots.
As the Jets demonstrated with a thrilling, 22-16 overtime victory, there’s still a formula that can take them very far. It’s called “team” football. “Complementary” football. Start with the fact that New York, which forced four Josh Allen turnovers and collected five sacks, has one of the NFL’s most dominant defenses. Still.
The special defense, with stars on every level including D-tackle Quinnen Williams, linebacker C.J. Mosley and cornerback Sauce Gardner, ranked fourth in the NFL in 2022 for yards allowed while giving up the fourth-fewest points in the NFL. There’s every reason to believe the unit will be even better.
Meanwhile, the remarkable, 3-yard TD catch by second-year receiver Garrett Wilson in the fourth quarter was another example of his emerging NFL stardom. And the 1-2 punch in the rushing attack provided by Dalvin Cook and Breece Hall, who ripped off an 83-yard run and finished with 127 yards, seems poised to carry the new identity the Jets offense must assume, post-Rodgers.
Of course, special teams represents the third component of the game. And it showed up with the game-clincher as undrafted rookie Xavier Gipson won it with a 65-yard TD off a punt return.
Wilson, drafted No. 2 overall by the Jets in 2021, can consider himself fortunate that he steps into a role with such a formidable supporting cast. The team has been characterized by some as a “Dream Team” when considering players who came aboard this season to join Rodgers in an envisioned Super Bowl mission. But it is hardly a fly-by-night scenario. The roster was carefully constructed by Saleh and general manager Joe Douglas, bolstered by impact drafts.
Yet Rodgers was the missing link that was supposed to put the Jets over the top. Even with the suspect O-line that now must protect Wilson. It was Rodgers’ leadership, moxie, craftiness and experience, along with that rocket arm, that fueled so much hope and hype. Now that’s gone.
“While the outside world can go ahead and write whatever story they want,” Saleh added, “there’s still the true story being written in this building.”
Maybe Wilson, who passed for just 140 yards on Monday night, has grown by osmosis. It couldn’t hurt to have the opportunity to learn under Rodgers' wing for several months since the Jets obtained the four-time NFL MVP from the Green Bay Packers in a monster trade. But even with Wilson at his best, he will be so hard-pressed to fill Rodgers’ shoes when it comes to quarterbacking and presence.
Wilson undoubtedly has to be his own man because nobody is a Rodgers clone. Until proven otherwise, though, it’s a stretch to expect that Wilson is much better than the highly touted yet disappointing passer the Jets were eager to replace as they lured Rodgers.
With many of the same elements in place last year, including that stud defense, the Jets managed to finish 7-10, which put them in last place in the AFC East.
Sure, it’s a new year and the Jets are 1-0 as they get set to face the Dallas Cowboys in Arlington, Texas, on Sunday. It won’t all be on Wilson, who will be surrounded by a team and staff that will embrace him with support. At some point in any given game, however, a quarterback has to make the plays – some laser throws and/or deft runs – that will push his team to victory. Conversely, the quarterback also has to not make the plays to lose, as Buffalo’s Allen proved on Monday night.
In a deep AFC loaded with premier quarterbacks, the odds that Wilson is the one to keep the Super Bowl vision intact are so long.
That’s why Rodgers came. And it’s why, with Rodgers down for the count, it will take a miracle for the Jets to salvage their Super Bowl dream without him.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: New York Jets' season on brink of collapse after Aaron Rodgers' injury
