Jets have potential in 2024, as long as they don't end up 'Jetsing' themselves
Aaron Rodgers throws during Jets training camp at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center in Florham Park, N.J., on Wednesday. Credit: Ed Murray
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Watching them take the field for the first practice of training camp on Wednesday, seeing the way things were supposed to be functioning all of last season but never quite did, it was hard to not get re-excited about what this Jets team might do in the coming months.
Even without the fans filling the bleachers that await them this weekend when the gates open to the public and roaring their approval, even with more than a half century of evidence at hand and the still raw scars of last year screaming otherwise, and even when Aaron Rodgers wasn’t looking his cleanest in late red zone snaps (hey, that defense is pretty darn good too, remember), the reality of what could lie ahead for this bunch was crystal clear.
Perhaps even more so than it was at this time in 2023 when the thrill of potential was first wafting through Florham Park. On paper and, more importantly, as of Wednesday, in person, these Jets appear better than even those ones were. They seem more prepared to carry this heavy burden of expectation, more used to the folderol that nearly swallowed them last summer, more comfortable wearing the still slightly absurd hopes of a forlorn fanbase.
“The goal is New Orleans,” Rodgers said bluntly, a reference to the site of Super Bowl LIX which will be played exactly 200 days from his declaration of the destination. “That’s got to be the focus, got to be the manifestation through our words and our actions, and everything needs to be intentional that we do on the field, in the meeting rooms… It has to be the goal.”
There seems to be only one thing that can possibly stop them short.
Let’s hope they don’t Jets this up like they always seem to.
To be clear, that verb — to Jets something — doesn’t mean just coming up short of a title. Losing to Patrick Mahomes in a late-round playoff game in Kansas City or getting bounced by Lamar Jackson and the Ravens wouldn’t qualify. No, Jetsing things up is something very different. Something much more spectacular. And, to be more specific, usually something of the team’s own doing.
Like, for instance, turning to a backup quarterback in whom no one in the organization could even feign confidence and asking him to replace the Hall of Famer who was injured after four snaps. Or having that veteran savior rush back from his Achilles tear at an historic pace to salvage the final weeks of the regular season — and perhaps even the postseason dreams — only to be eliminated from contention just as he is poised to return.
Sadly, perhaps predictably, there are already early signs of such self-sabotage that have become the calling cards of this franchise. It was hard to see them through the blinding glow of optimism that reflected off the helmets Wednesday, but they were there.
There is the mishandling of the trade-and-sign deal for Haason Reddick that still lingers with his holdout from camp, a normally seamless and straightforward procedure that the Jets somehow managed to bungle. Reddick may wind up being a great player and strong addition for this team, but right now he’s AWOL and the front office looks amateurish.
Speaking of unexcused absences, the Jets couldn’t help but turn Rodgers’ summer vacation plans into a hubbub when he opted to spend time in Egypt rather than at last month’s mandatory two-day minicamp. Instead of explaining it as a scheduling snafu the way Rodgers did on Wednesday — or wait, how about manipulating the schedule so the conflict disappeared! — they decided to throw the book at him, fine him for his Great Pyramid scheme, and create at the very least the appearance of a rift.
Rodgers said they’re all cool now, even if he is more than $50,000 lighter, but that didn’t stop him from reporting on Tuesday wearing a t-shirt from the very trip in question along with a knowing grin that was more Cheshire than the regal feline printed on his chest. Whether that souvenir statement was aimed at his employer or his critics we may never truly know. Probably a combination of the two. And as we all know, Rodgers’ grudges are preserved better than the mummies he visited.
The Jets reportedly spent a good deal of the offseason looking for an offensive mastermind to come in and oversee their less-than-coordinated offensive coordinator but wound up without anyone filling that spot so they’ll rely once again on Nathaniel Hackett. Good luck.
Heck, are we even certain that Rodgers, at age 40 now, coming off his very serious injury, having not played fully healthy or at an MVP level since the early depths of the pandemic, can still be the quarterback he was? Imagine if after all the organization put into acquiring and rehabbing and kowtowing to Rodgers they never even get to see him at anything close to his best and he becomes the reason this whole plan busts?
Now that would be Jetsing things up.
That wasn’t the case on Wednesday, though. Wednesday was still, overall, a very good day.
“Excited about the season,” Rodgers said with the final words of this latest media availability, echoing the sentiment so many undoubtedly share.
So it’s onward. Toward New Orleans . . . or wherever else these Jets will guide us over the next 200 or so days.
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.
