When Aaron Rodgers signed with the NY Jets in 2023, football experts across the country immediately made the team one of the favorites to make the playoffs, if not win the Super Bowl. Unfortunately, we all know what happened next. Four snaps in, Rodgers ruptured his Achilles and spent the rest of the season on the sidelines. A full year of play in 2024 brought little in the way of improvement and now the organization finds itself in a familiar position.
With Super Bowl weekend now here, there may well be a lot of Jets fans thinking about how to bet on Super Bowl markets – but any home team interest ended a very long time ago. The Jets haven’t made it to the postseason since 2010 and haven’t even enjoyed a winning season for 10 years. For a franchise that has never been one of the most successful, even current Jets fans are feeling downhearted.
But where do we look for salvation? After the disappointment of Aaron Rodgers, where is a winning season going to come from? Is there any point in even contemplating dreaming about the playoffs? Or should we consider winning more games than we lose and a second-place finish in the AFC East a success? Where do the Jets go from here?
All Change
After firing two head coaches in 2024, there were always going to be a lot of changes at the Jets during the offseason. In comes new GM, Darren Mougey just days after the appointment of Aaron Glenn as head coach. At this point, Jets fans would probably take any change as a positive but these do look like good decisions.
Mougey is only 39 and has already made some changes in the front office and will be expected to use his connections to change personnel on the field as well. Glenn is a former Jet, of course, and will help the team hopefully tap into his defensive qualities and revert back to the level of talent that was on show in 2023 but disappeared last season.
The Rodgers Question
The biggest unknown for the Jets at the current time is the future of Aaron Rodgers, of course. There is no doubt that his performances have been disappointing after the excitement of his arrival in 2023. Not all of that is his fault, however, and most fans will agree that he did improve as the season went on last time out.
The noises coming out of the Rodgers camp sound positive – if you are a Jets fan who thinks that he should stay at least for another year. That would cost money, of course, but he has already indicated that he is willing to take a pay cut and it would surely be a good idea to keep such an experienced Super Bowl winner on the roster. The fact that there is a lack of QB talent in the draft should also mean that we should expect to see Rodgers suit up later in the year.
Strengthen Offensive Line
Although Aaron Glenn will be more naturally defensively minded, it is the offensive line that should get his full attention at first. One of the problems that Rodgers experienced last year was that he just wasn’t getting the block protection that he needed. Even the greats are going to struggle if they can’t rely on their teammates.
Tyron Smith won’t be back and Morgan Moses will be a free agent. So taking someone like Will Campbell from LSU in the first round of the draft might be a good idea. If Glenn can implement a new vision for the line, now that Keith Carter is gone, this would help keep Rodgers on the field. Only seven teams in the entire league scored fewer points than the Jets last season, although many conceded more. It might sound simplistic but scoring more points will likely get the Jets some more close wins.
Use 2025 to Improve
As much as we would all love the Jets to turn things around completely next season, the truth is that the team just need to use 2025 as a stepping stone to improvement. This is a franchise that hasn’t recorded more than seven wins since 2015 and actually got worse last year when one of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of the game was able to play a whole season.
Winning nine games should be the first priority and the schedule for 2025 does suggest that it is possible. Meeting the AFC North teams is unfortunate, considering that it is consistently one of the strongest in the conference. But having the NFC South as interconference opponents gives the Jets the best chance to rack up some wins. Add to that the Jags and Cowboys and there is the potential for a winning season if games against our divisional rivals end in a positive manner.
Long-Term Goals
The question in the headline comes from a place of desperation and Jets fans everywhere will have experienced the same old feelings when Aaron Rodgers was injured so early in 2023. We just can’t have good things! But when the only way is up, improvement has to come next and the Jets are now in a position where that is possible.
Even if Aaron Rodgers isn’t around for longer than one more season, he will be able to improve performances on the field and also work with younger QBs and players as a mentor. That could be invaluable for rookies coming in, especially if the organization presides over a successful draft.
Getting the better of the Pats and Dolphins is the first task for Glenn this season and, from there, the mid-to-long-term goal has to be winning the division sometime soon. It has been over 20 years since that happened, so we should probably not get our hopes up too much. But any kind of postseason activity in the next few years should really be considered a bonus. That way, solid recruitment and stability off the field might just turn the Jets into something other than the punchline to a million NFL jokes.
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