Aaron Rodgers on Jets' hype train: All aboard!
Jets QB Aaron Rodgers speaks during training camp at the team's training facility in Florham Park, N.J., on Thursday. Credit: Patrick E. McCarthy
FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Aaron Rodgers is welcoming anyone who wants to jump on the Jets’ bandwagon this season. There probably are some spots still available.
The hype surrounding the Jets is at an all-time high, and Rodgers loves the energy he’s feeling not only in the building but away from the facility.
Rodgers encountered a large number of passionate Jets’ fans during last week’s celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe. The quarterback also has had fans shout encouraging things at him from their cars or the streets while he’s walked around downtown Manhattan.
Rodgers played for a team with a huge national fan base in Green Bay, but he said there is nothing like New York and what he’s experienced.
“I think it’s exciting for everybody involved,” Rodgers said Thursday. “Love seeing more Jets stuff out there when I’m walking around. We want everybody to jump on the wagon now.”
The Jets haven’t made the playoffs since the 2010 season and last played in a Super Bowl in 1969. These Jets don’t care about that history. They want to write their own super ending and believe their chances are good.
Rodgers’ first practice — in front of a much larger media contingent than past Jets' camps — was hardly a scintillating one. The Jets’ defense had something to do with that.
The Jets are going to need to be great on both sides of the ball to reach the goal that they’re so openly talking about now.
Allen Lazard, who caught passes from Rodgers in Green Bay, said he thinks about holding up the Super Bowl trophy.
Garrett Wilson said that’s what the Jets are striving for this year, and they are embracing all that comes with that.
“I’m not going to beat around the bush: we want to win a Super Bowl,” said Wilson, the second-year receiver and last year's NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year. “You don’t make moves in the offseason like we did unless you’re trying to get there. That’s the mindset. We want to have those expectations as athletes. No one wants to feel like no one expects anything out of you. We love that. That’s the mindset that we’re embracing in our facility. We know where we want to get.”
Hearing that his teammates are saying these things brought a smile to Rodgers’ face.
When the Jets acquired Rodgers, he said that he wanted everyone to outwardly speak about what they want to achieve in hopes of manifesting it. Now, on Day 1, the Jets are saying they believe they can still be practicing in February.
“It’s spectacular,” said Rodgers, a four-time MVP and Super Bowl champion. “That’s what you want. You want to be a part of a place that has high expectations. There’s a lot of positivity around here, which I think is a good thing. We’ve got to temper expectations during camp and focus on the little things to get there.”
Those were Robert Saleh’s sentiments exactly.
The coach's message, in part, to his team was, “Embrace the attention, love the attention. It’s for good reason because we have a heck of a locker room.”
Saleh also stressed the importance of staying in the moment and attacking each day. Rodgers and his Hall of Fame arm alone won’t lead a magical season.
“He has brought a lot of juice,” Saleh said. “He’s brought a lot of hype and it’s awesome because we want all of it. The presence of [the media] means we’re about to go do something. But you have to go do it and you have to go do it day in and day out.”
The Jets haven’t played a game yet, so everything is mostly positive. Rodgers said it’s going to be critical for the Jets to be able to navigate all “peaks and valleys” of a season. The Jets didn’ do that t last year, when they were in the thick of the playoff race at 7-4 before losing their final six games.
“An old coach of mine said our greatest difficulty is going to be handling success,” Rodgers said. “I think that’ll be true this year for us as we get into the season and have some success, we got to handle it the right way. Last year, they had a good start to the season and couldn’t finish it off. If we want to be playing in January, we got to be consistent throughout the season.”
Al Iannazzone covers the Jets for Newsday after spending nearly two decades on the NBA beat with Knicks and Nets.
