Aaron Rodgers joined the New York Jets in the biggest deal of the offseason as he continues his search for a second Super Bowl ring; watch the Jets open their 2023 campaign against the Buffalo Bills in MNF live on Sky Sports from 1.15am in the early hours of Tuesday
Tuesday 12 September 2023 06:09, UK
Aaron Rodgers is counting on the grass being greener. An all-conquering Gotham green, to be precise, as he fronts the New York Jets' Super Bowl dream.
Green Bay to Gang Green became the story of the NFL offseason. And so too the tipping point of a prolonged nudge towards separation, set in motion three years ago when the Packers drafted their Hall of Fame quarterback's successor.
Rodgers isolated himself in a darkness retreat and spent four days without light or contact to the outside world while mulling over his future earlier this year. He determined his hopes of clinching a second ring lied elsewhere. And so upon returning to reality informed buddy Pat McAfee he intended on playing for the Jets, before booking a reunion with old buddy Nathaniel Hackett and heading for a New York bash he deemed so close to becoming Party of the Year that he added receiver buddies Allen Lazard and Randall Cobb to the guest list.
Now to step into the bright lights of Broadway. Now to hoist a team from its pit of quarterback oblivion. Now to win.
For an organisation long removed from contention, the quarterback bar remains historically high. The many that have tried and tumbled under center have Joe Namath to blame for as much, the transcendent legacy of the bedazzling Jets icon continuing to impose lofty expectations inside the Big Apple fish bowl.
Namath changed the game. He was a boundary-bludgeoning pioneer for the celebrity athlete, who mirrored his steely toughness and willingness to zip passes into the tightest avenues with a famed off-field bravado as a swashbuckling party boy who rocked oversized fur coats and paraded iconic hair, on both head and chest, while dating the most sought-after movie stars and featuring in commercials with his Hollywood smile.
In January 1969 he helped raise the curtain on a new era for football by guiding the underdog Jets to one of the greatest upsets in history as they beat the Baltimore Colts 16-7 at Super Bowl III, inflicting a defining blow to the NFL's supremacy as the first champions from the AFL. It would vindicate a full-time merger now presented in the two-conference NFL as we know it, and cement Namath's Jets in football folklore.
"The Jets will win. I guarantee it," Namath had famously predicted days earlier, such was his knack for a sound bite.
To understand Namath and his impact is to understand the expectations facing Rodgers. How he would love to defy much-ridiculed Jets misfortune by leading them to glory, while punctuating his own legacy in the process.
The Jets have not been back to a Super Bowl since upsetting Don Shula's mighty Colts, managing just 17 winning seasons out of 54 and entering the 2023 campaign with the league's longest active losing streak of seven straight years.
Namath's torch has meanwhile been passed between 37 different quarterbacks since his final game, from Ken O'Brien to Chad Pennington to Mark Sanchez to Geno Smith to Zach Wilson, before landing in the most capable hands of Rodgers.
The 39-year-old is coming off a 91.1 passer rating good for the lowest of his 15-year reign as Packers quarterback, having thrown a second-most 12 interceptions and a third-lowest 3,695 passing yards in his tenure as starter. But he is also just one year out from winning successive MVP awards having led the league in passer rating on both occasions and tossed 48 touchdowns to just five interceptions in 2020 amid back-to-back trips to the NFC Championship Game.
From 2019-2021 Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes led the way in EPA+CPOE composite, before the former plummeted to 20th in 2022.
He remains unequivocally one of the most gifted passers in NFL history, though, with his one-step-ahead diagnosis of defensive design and the spiral accuracy through crannies between which Indiana Jones might just about retrieve his hat.
"I think it brings hope," Jets head coach Robert Saleh told Sky Sports.
"Whenever you've got a guy who can sling it like him you know the game is never over, you're always in it. It brings hope.
"We've got a good mixture of veterans and youth, just to see the way he goes about his business and the standards he plays with and the expectations, I think it's beneficial for everybody."
A Rodgers-centric offense beckons as the four-time MVP teams up with former Packers offensive coordinator Hackett, whose resume upon being appointed Denver Broncos head coach last season had been largely built on a glowing testimonial from his talented quarterback after a successful spell together at Lambeau.
Ironically, a regression in numbers from Rodgers last season coincided with Matt LaFleur seemingly reverting to the Rodgers-approved West Coast scheme which he had previously run under Mike McCarthy. Rodgers favoured lining up in shot-gun where he would be granted a clear and head-on read of defensive play-design and formation, he favoured a tempo offense whereby he could rush opponents into lining up and catch them out when the time constraint made for disorientation. He wanted to limit pre-snap motion that most teams typically employ to unveil coverages, and to maximise his own ability to identify favourable matchups while gliding through his progressions.
LaFleur's approach derives from the Shanahan coaching tree, utilising zone blocking alongside pre-snap motion and play-action from under center in order to sell identical looks for both the run and pass with a view to keeping defenses in limbo. It was an approach that flourished during Rodgers' back-to-back MVP years, which saw him line up under center at a 10th-highest rate of 40.5 per cent while compiling a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 85-9 and a passer rating of 116.7 across successive 13-win campaigns. Last season saw Rodgers line up under center at the lowest rate since LaFleur's appointment as head coach as the Packers slumped to a losing record.
The exit of the league's, at least at one stage, best wide receiver in Davante Adams hurt dearly such had been the sixth sense gave Rodgers and LaFleur the luxury of commissioning option routes for the now-Las Vegas Raiders wideout. Lazard struggled to live up to an ambitious WR1 billing following Adams' departure, while rookie Christian Watson proved something of a slow-burner before his explosive play potential as a back-side flyer began to present itself slightly more in the latter stages of the season.
In New York, he gets himself a new number one receiver in Garrett Wilson, who made 83 catches from 147 targets for 1,103 yards and four touchdowns on his way to winning Offensive Rookie of the Year. Between the release disguise, the man coverage-beating route crispness and variation, and the expansive route tree, Rodgers has seen similarities with his old partner in destruction.
"I think Garrett's just - what an amazing kid," Rodgers told NBC during the Jets' Hall of Fame game against the Cleveland Browns. "I have so much love and respect for Davante and feel like he's the best receiver in the league, so I don't say this lightly, but there are definitely traits that this 17 has that that special 17 has as well."
"I'm not going to put him in that category yet. Davante is in a category by himself. But Garrett has the potential to be special in this league for a really long time. He's got all of the things you need. Incredible talent, he's got a great work ethic and he's a freaking great kid. He really is a good human being. He cares about it."
Rodgers and Wilson boast good company for good measure, with the Jets receiver room also offering up a two-time Super Bowl-winning Mecole Hardman alongside Lazard and Cobb. Breece Hall meanwhile features in the backfield as he returns from a torn ACL that derailed his shaping-up-to-be Rookie of the Year campaign, joined by the dual-threat back Michael Carter, second-year Zonovan Knight and rookie arrival Israel Abanikanda.
A defining cog lies in the trenches where the Jets' injury-ravaged offensive line surrendered a seventh-worst 35.9 per cent pressure rate last season, prompting them to sign Billy Turner and draft second-round center Joe Tippmann amid hopes of Mekhi Becton feasting on his awaited return from injury.
Among the glossiest peace offerings to the New York sell was Saleh and Jeff Ulbrich's young and top-tier defense; the Jets ranked fifth in DVOA and sixth in EPA/play last season, logging the third-highest pressure rate in the league (25.4 per cent) and a league-high 13.7 quarterback knockdowns per pass attempt while only blitzing a league-lowest 14.9 per cent of the time at a time when the most potent units need only rush four or five men. While Quinnen Williams took a sledgehammer to gaps up front on his way to an extension, Sauce Gardner stalked and hawked on the outside to present himself as a cornerstone at cornerback. With leaps to come from second-year Jermaine Johnson II and Micheal Clemons, and gyrating rookie edge rusher Will McDonald IV entering the fold, the Jets have compiled a contention-ready group. Rodgers knew it.
They now have the luxury of defending the Rodgers arm, mind and masterful if-not-infuriating hard count cadence on the practice field.
"He makes those throws that are hard to deflect and hard to intercept," Gardner told Sky Sports. "He gives me a good look every time.
"He's played in the league a long time so he's able to tell me ways teams will attack me and what he can see for me on the field.
"It's great having him. It's Aaron Rodgers. Future Hall of Famer. I've got to use him to my advantage."
In many ways, the Jets and Rodgers might have felt like they needed one another in equal measure. Not too dissimilar to Tom Brady's winning switch to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Rodgers arrives with the makings to serve as something of a missing final piece. In the case of Brady, it should be reminded that it took almost half a season for the seven-time Super Bowl champion to find his feet in Byron Leftwich's offense, though Hackett should offer some familiarity.
AFC-NFC disparity meanwhile remains a caveat, and Rodgers will have to knock off Josh Allen's banging-on-the-door Buffalo Bills and Tua Tagovailao's high-powered Miami Dolphins along with navigating the small task of stopping Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, Lamar Jackson, Trevor Lawrence and Patrick Mahomes on the road to Las Vegas.
Rodgers and the Packers last reached the Super Bowl together at the end of the 2010 season, since falling at the Divisional Round of the playoffs on five occasions and losing in four NFC Championship Games. One ring doesn't feel enough for one of the most skilled technicians to step foot in the league.
They help him land a second ring. He helps them to the Promised Land. That's the deal.
Watch the Jets open their 2023 campaign against the Buffalo Bills in MNF live on Sky Sports from 1.15am in the early hours of Tuesday. Stream with NOW.
