When we’re discussing the quarterback position with the Jets, which we almost always are, who’s going and who might be coming and which mistake they might be about to make with one in the draft, it is always best to reference the wisdom of Larry David, lifelong Jets fan, on this subject:
“They would have found a way to screw up Mahomes.”
Now comes the hot conversation about Aaron Rodgers, No. 12 of the Packers, who may really be leaving Green Bay this time, and whether or not the Jets should pay a king’s ransom, in money and draft choices, to get him, even though he’s 39. Well, of course they should, because Rodgers, even at 39, would be the best they’ve ever had, and that includes Joe Namath, their No. 12, the iconic Hall of Fame quarterback who won them their one and only Super Bowl, but who also threw more career interceptions than touchdown passes.
Joe didn’t come close to having the kind of seasons that Rodgers has had in Green Bay. No Jets quarterback ever did, including Brett Favre, who stopped here once for a cup of coffee while he waited to get to where he wanted to go after leaving the Packers, which means the Vikings who, you might remember, he came within one bad interception away from going to another Super Bowl.
It is why there is a chance that Rodgers, who at his best did play the position as well as it’s ever been played, could come to the Jets, with all the young talent they have in place on both sides of the ball, and go where another No. 12 — the Brady guy — went in his first year in Tampa, which means the Super Bowl.
You think it’s crazy? It’s not.
The year before Brady got to Tampa Bay, the team was 7-9, and that was with Jameis Winston throwing almost as many interceptions (30) as he did touchdown passes (33). Of their nine losses that season, six of them came by a touchdown or less. They needed a better quarterback than Jameis to become a real contender. They sort of found one in Brady. When he got to the Bucs, he was four years older than Rodgers is now.
You know what happened to the Jets this season, who ended up at 7-10, pretty much the same record as the Bucs had before Brady. But four of those losses, with Zach Wilson and Mike White and Joe Flacco at quarterback, were by five points or less. What do you think the record would have been with a healthy Rodgers, or even Rodgers with a bad thumb on his throwing hand?
If you can get Rodgers, you get him, no matter how much money it would cost Woody Johnson, because no Jets fan worries about that, and probably thinks that at this point Woody should be paying them. Even at this stage of his career, Rodgers would be the third legitimate star the Jets have had playing quarterback: Namath, Favre for a blink, Rodgers.
And on the subject of Favre? People act now as if that one season he played with the Jets was some sort of calamity because they fell down over the last couple of months the way the Jets did this time. And they did. They were also 8-3 in 2008 when Favre, ex-Packer, was also 39. Favre was the one who ended up throwing as many picks as he did touchdown passes, which means 22.
But would you like to know how many times since Favre the Jets have won more games than they did with him as their quarterback?
Two.
The year after Favre left the Jets and got with a much better team in Minnesota, he threw 33 touchdown passes against seven picks and was on his way to the Super Bowl when he threw an absolutely classic Favre-ian pass that the Saints’ Tracy Porter picked off late in the NFC championship game. The math is simple. He was 40 that year, the same age Aaron Rodgers will be next December, whether he’s still playing for the Jets or the Packers or somebody else; or if he’s decided to retire.
You know, of course, because people in outer space know at this point, about the Jets’ endless quest for the next young Namath, even though the best year they’ve gotten out of all the quarterbacks since Namath was Vinny Testaverde, who nearly took them and Bill Parcells to the Super Bowl in January of ‘99 when he was 35 years old and had originally come to the Jets as a backup to Glenn Foley.
Testaverde threw 29 TD passes that season against seven picks. He was as valuable a player as there was in the league for Parcells, and had Jets fans believing, truly, that they were on their way to their first Super Bowl since Namath before things went wrong in Denver in the second half of the AFC championship game and John Elway and the Broncos went to the big game instead.
Rodgers is old. Favre was old when he got here. Vinny was old, though not quite as old as them. And Touchdown Tom Brady was really old by the time he got to Florida, just not down there to retire, just to get himself one more ring.
But what is really old, as old as the river underneath the George Washington Bridge, is the subject of the Jets never quite having enough at quarterback, which is where they are right now. Again. All dressed up with all that young talent, including a kid like Garrett Wilson who is going to be a total star, and no place to go except up in the AFC East.
Again.
There is more wisdom on this from Ernie Accorsi, one of the great football men, who really broke into the NFL as a Johnny Unitas guy.
“There are exceptions to this, for sure,” he’s told me more than once. “But most of the time you’re never better than your quarterback.”
We absolutely would not be having this conversation if the Jets hadn’t won a couple of meaningless games at the end of another lost season under Adam Gase, and blew their chance at Trevor Lawrence. Lawrence is with the Jaguars now, and before too very long he will win it all with them the way he did at Clemson. The Jags got him. The Jets got Zach Wilson. There is still time, a lot of it, for Wilson to prove Joe Douglas was right about him.
At the very least, the kid has a lot to learn. He could learn by watching Rodgers for a couple of years the way Rodgers learned watching Favre. I still don’t believe Rodgers is leaving Green Bay. But if he is, the Jets have to go after him as hard as they can.
STILL PLENTY OF QUESTIONS ABOUT DANNY DIMES, DOLAN THREATENS BOOZE BAN & DON’T TAKE A LOAD OFF …
And while we’re on the subject of quarterbacks and the local football teams:
I love what Daniel Jones did the second half of the season, brought along brilliantly, and patiently, by Brian Daboll.
I love that he played his best game in his biggest game, against the Vikings.
But it was the Vikings, who acted shocked that Jones could run with the ball as well as he did, as if somebody had stolen all their Giants game film.
All of this is why people need to pump the brakes on having Jones be the lead float in the Super Bowl parade someday.
This is still a young guy who threw 15 touchdown passes in 16 games in the modern NFL.
Going forward with his contract, he needs to be realistic about where he fits into the whole grand scheme of things.
And the Giants need to be realistic about how much they pay him, and for how long.
Again: Jones is more of a quarterback than I thought he was going to be off what we saw from his first three years.
But it’s not as if he answered all questions about him forever by finishing the way he did.
Here’s my question about the kid:
If he does leave, where’s he going?
My pal Stanton is wondering if Nathaniel Hackett might swing and miss with two Wilsons.
Now Jimmy Dolan, big boss at the Facial Recognition Garden, says he might not sell alcohol at some upcoming Rangers game because he’s in a playground stare-down with the State Liquor Authority.
That ought to show them.
The SLA has basically called out Dolan for targeting perceived enemies — there’s lots and lots of them in Jimmy’s mind — and now he’s threatening to once again hold his breath to get what he wants.
He was quoting Michael Corleone on television the other day, but frankly sounded a little bit like Fredo.
I hope Patrick Mahomes has two good legs underneath him against the Bengals on Sunday, so we can get the kind of Mahomes vs. Joe Burrow show we all want, in a game with stakes like these.
I’m sorry, but load management in the NBA has become a clear and present danger to the overall product.
You watch the Knicks fight as hard as they do, even when they’re blowing games — like they do — and keep thinking that they are still stuck in the middle.
And still waiting for some big star somewhere to get unhappy and want to come play on the Knicks’ side of the big bad city.
Finally today:
I would like to officially welcome Charles Michael Lupica, our first grandchild, to the world.
He showed up last Saturday night, and father and mother and baby aren’t just doing good, they’re doing great, because they are great.
You hit the jackpot, kid.
Now go live a life full of adventure.
We’ll keep trying to make the world better for you while we watch you grow up.
“The House of Wolves,” the latest collaboration from James Patterson and Mike Lupica, is No. 3 at both the New York Times and Publishers Weekly in its second on-sale week.
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Source: Berkshire mont
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