Jets’ task for Aaron Rodgers is now simple: close the deal

Steve Serbian

NFL

From Steve Serbian

March 15, 2023 | 9:27 p.m

Out of the darkness, from Aaron Rodgers’ lips to all Jets ears:

JETS JETS JETS JETS!!!!

Fifty-four years and two months after Broadway Joe and Super Bowl III, now 12 straight years without a playoff appearance, here comes your Dark Knight in shining armor.

“I think my intention since Friday was to play, and my intention was to play for the New York Jets,” Rodgers said Wednesday on The Pat McAfee Show.

The jets need a HEXorcism.

The only hope, the only hope, the HEXorcist.

The Big Cheese – Aaron Rodgers – will become quarterback, New York Jets once the Packers and Jets stop trying to win the leverage fight and strike a deal that is in the interest of both teams.

If Jets GM Joe Douglas has to give up the 13th pick of the 2023 NFL draft, so be it.

It’s now the first target for Woody Johnson and the Jets.

A touchdown pass from Aaron Rodgers wins the game.

And giving Woody Johnson his best shot at winning that elusive second Super Bowl championship in franchise history is giving him his best shot at winning his first championship since forking over $635 million in January 2000.

You can’t be all-in on Aaron Rodgers like Johnson is all-in and commit what would now be the biggest buttfumble in Jets history.

Come on to the end zone.

Complete the contract.

Forgive Johnson if he’s practicing a Lambeau jump somewhere at Atlantic Health Jets Training Center instead of off the roof. Same with Douglas. The same goes for Robert Saleh. Ditto for Cheesehead Burner Sauce Gardner and all the others whose 2022 playoff dreams were dashed by Zach Wilson’s implosion.

Open the Super Bowl window and let the light in.

Johnson flew with his henchman to a meet-and-greet with Rodgers last week. “It was a simple conversation,” Rodgers said.

The Jets haven’t spent much time being feared since January 12, 1969.

Aaron Rodgers will make them feared again.

Especially when he’s motivated to pin it on the Packers and show them they gave him up too willingly and unceremoniously. “They don’t want me to come back,” Rodgers said.

No matter how long it takes — two years would be nice — the Jets will no longer be anyone’s homecoming game.

Everything is changing for them now, for all of them, just as it changed for the Mets when Buck Showalter showed up in the dugout. Changes perception and reality for the jets.

It changes for Joe Douglas and Robert Saleh. Rodgers referring to him as “Rob” and noting that “Rob” was interested in his retreat into darkness is positive, right?

In games to win, ALL PASS NO BRAKE could become Saleh’s new mantra.

Douglas passed the 2022 draft with flying colors but upset Wilson. If he had been right about Wilson, there would have been no despair for Rodgers.

Saleh is 11-23 to date – guilty with an explanation – but it’s no longer enough to trumpet how he’s changed culture and how much his players love playing for him.

With Rodgers and this defense, the worst-case scenario expectations should be a deep playoff run.

Super Bowl-or-Bust is a daunting expectation given the number of young guns littering the conference.

But it’s no longer an impossible dream.

And here’s what we need to see from Aaron Rodgers — the same belief in his teammates that his teammates who recruit him hard on social media have in him, the kind of commitment necessary when your only admirer is you makes you believe that the grass is greener on the other side of 39.

The Jets moved to make the transition smoother for Rodgers by hiring his trusted former offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett on Jan. 26. “For people to say this was just done to bait me is an absolute disservice to Nathaniel Hackett for what he’s accomplished in his career, the kind of person he is,” Rodgers said.

And then on Tuesday Douglas signed Rodgers favorite wide receiver Allen Lazard, because who needs a retreat into the dark when you’ve got Garrett Wilson on one side and a known big target on the other? That reported wish list Rodgers handed to the Jets? “Ridiculous,” he said.

I was there when hyperventilating Jets fans saw Brett Favre in his familiar No. 4 as the victorious hero. “I’m here for a reason, I’m here to help the Jets win,” he said.

So it will be when the Dark Knight rides into town in shining armor on his green and white horse.

Even at 39, Rodgers is in much better shape than 2008 Favre, who let his 39-year-old shoulder betray him on the track back then. Favre rose for one last hurrah as a Viking.

Rodgers may have some gray in his beard now, but he’s not a Graybeard quarterback.

He may appear as Aaron Oddgers to some, but Jets fans too young to remember young Namath will be privy to what a Sunday Hall of Famer’s right arm looks like.

In their never-ending search for a franchise quarterback following Namath’s departure, the Jets drafted six quarterbacks in the first round.

Joe Willie, who so desperately wanted The Next Joe Namath to arrive, was 25 when, against all odds, he won Super Bowl III. He will be 80 years old on May 31st. He has given the Jets permission to retire his jersey so Rodgers can continue to wear his 12. “I saw what Joe said,” Rodgers said. “There will be time to talk about this later.”

The road to the Super Bowl.

For the Aaron Rodgers Jets.