Please, Jets, don't let the Aaron Rodgers of the past few weeks convince you for more

Aaron Rodgers played a terrific game on Sunday. He spent the afternoon in Jacksonville throwing, running, celebrating, smiling, commanding. And winning, don’t forget the winning. It was, as more than one person remarked, just like old times.

But the old times need to stay there, in the past, where they belong.

The Jets can’t allow themselves to get sucked into thinking that a strong finish to this season by their 41-year-old quarterback whose tenure with them has been a decided failure and who never even came close to making the kind of impact his arrival promised is some kind of indicator that their future together still can be successful. Nor should any of the would-be decision-makers lined up for the general manager job interviews that begin this week be fooled into believing that Rodgers is the answer to the myriad problems facing this organization.

The quicker they move on, the better they’ll be. Maybe not right away, for there could be immediate pain if the Jets begin a rebuild with a rookie quarterback, not to mention the financial wounds that need to be healed. For the majority of however long the next GM and head coach are around, though, it will be a blessing to be immediately rid of Rodgers. They should not be asked to begin their tenures in his shadow.

This doesn’t mean Rodgers’ recent resurgence shouldn’t be appreciated for what it is. In a season that mostly has been devoid of entertaining elements, getting the chance to watch Rodgers ply his trade at a functioning level for the next few weeks may be about the best thing New York football can ask for. It’s a blessing to us all that he’s making this December somewhat interesting . . . even if being interesting is what he does best at this point in his career.

It’s also good for the sport as a whole for him not to be wrapping up his career hobbling around the field in washed-up woe the way he was playing for most of this past fall. That was sad. Not even the most ardent haters should want to see that. He’s had a Hall of Fame career that deserves a dignified on-the-field ending.

He probably won’t get the sunset ride that Peyton Manning got by winning a Super Bowl or that Tom Brady got throwing for 351 yards in a playoff loss, but those kinds of grand finales are even more rare than the players who received them. And Rodgers already got the dramatic hero exit when he left Lambeau for the final time a few years back. Everything after that is not part of his narrative. It’s just the epilogue.

Even if he does play in 2025 — and remember, Rodgers has been flip-flopping on that idea for most of this season — let it be somewhere else.

So performances such as Sunday’s — 289 yards and three touchdown passes — need to be seen for what they are: bright spots and not norms. It also should be noted that this one came against the Jaguars, a team so bad it may be harder to lose to them than to beat them, which the Jets barely did. And his other top games this season mostly have been against other bottom-tier teams such as the Patriots, Titans and a depleted Texans squad.

Even if you believe Rodgers is still an elite quarterback when fully healthy, there is no guarantee of that being his default physical state for the immediate future. Between the major Achilles tear that ended last year’s campaign before it could even truly begin, and the ankle, knee and hamstring issues that now serve as explainers for his lackluster production for most of this year, Rodgers has spent much more of his time with the Jets dealing with injuries than not. Heck, his subpar 2022 season in Green Bay, his last one there before the Packers moved on from him, was thwarted by injuries, too.

So that’s three-for-the-last-three seasons his teams have not made the playoffs because he was too banged up to lead them there.

See a trend?

The Jets absolutely should.

The organization that didn’t stick with a young Geno Smith and a young Sam Darnold — both of whom have spent this season playing at postseason-worthy levels and with notable victories over the Jets — is now going to demonstrate that much-needed patience for an old Aaron Rodgers? One who is more susceptible to the beatings that NFL quarterbacks endure? To what end?

Rodgers was supposed to build a championship legacy for the Jets. He was going to be the one who avenged a half-century of futility, ended a decade-plus of postseason exclusion and lifted the entire organization to new heights. He didn’t do any of that. He got them a starring role on “Hard Knocks” and a bunch of prime-time kickoff slots.

When he came here, the Jets thought they were “a quarterback away” from a Super Bowl run. They still are . . . and then some.

It’s obviously not entirely his fault the Jets haven’t won on his watch, but that doesn’t mean he’ll be anywhere near up to the challenge by the time the rest of the keys of this team’s squawky piano are properly tuned.

So enjoy these next few weeks of Rodgers. Hope for the best from him. Hope he gives more thrilling throwback performances like Sunday’s.

Hope, too, that it doesn’t sway the Jets and that these games are the last you see of him around here.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.