How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Aaron Rodgers Coming to the AFC East
I hear all the talk. The Jets won one fewer game than the Patriots last year with the worst quarterback in the league. Aaron Rodgers makes them an 11-win playoff team, at least. The AFC East is now the toughest division in football. The Patriots are the worst team in it, with the worst quarterback situation. I get it. And right now, two days before the draft, I won't even argue the truth of all of it. On paper.
But if anyone think yesterday's trade is going to cause me or anyone else who has been through the good times and the bad to rend our garments and give in to panic, you've got another thing coming. As the Stoic philosopher Epictetus put it, “He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.” And what this particular Masshole rejoices in having is a coach that has overcome far greater challenges than facing a 39-year-old ayahuasca enthusiast twice a year.
Not only should we not be at all willing to despair over Aaron Rodgers in a Jets uniform, we should be embracing it. Let me count the ways:
The Jets got hosed in this deal.
I'll concede the painfully obvious: The Jets are significantly better. Frankly, any slightly below average QB would've been a vast improvement, and Rodgers is one season removed from an MVP. Even in the game where he got Pick-6'ed by Jack Jones, Belichick said the difference in the game was Rodgers completing passes no one else can. I beg to differ that it was the defense's inability to stop Aaron Jones (110 yards) and AJ Dillon (73 yards, 24 of them on the game-winning drive in overtime). But that's neither here nor there.
Still, this was a bad trade by any objective measure. As good as Jets fans feel today, it's just a sugar and caffeine rush, like chugging a quart of Mountain Dew. And when they come down off that high, they'll realize this was an absurd price to pay. :
Especially when they had all the leverage, and squandered it:
Pro Football Talk - They chose not to say to the Packers, “This guy is never playing for you again. What are you going to do, pay him $60 million to sit on the bench? We’re in no hurry. He knows the offense. He doesn’t like to participate in the offseason anyway. We can do the deal at the start of training camp. We can do it at the start of the regular season, if need be.” …
Rodgers was never going to play for the Packers, ever again. The Packers got a two, a future one (most likely), and an upgraded first-round pick this year — with no protection to the Jets if Rodgers retreats to a dark room with a pot of ayahuasca and decides to retire after the 2023 season. …
Team owner Woody Johnson asked on Twitter after the news emerged, “How’s everyone feeling?”
Packers fans should be feeling great. For Jets fans, the answer is simple.
“Not too good.”
The kind of trade that poorly run organizations make when they're desperate. Which invariably is what causes their desperation in the first place. Which leads to more bad decisions. And it makes the whole franchise a perpetual Ouroboros of suckiness, eating its own tail.
The swap of 1st rounders benefits the Patriots.
In the normal course of things, the Jets moving back from the 13th pick to the 15th wouldn't be that big a move. The sort of drop down that will get you an extra 3rd round pick this year or a 2nd next year. But in this draft, it's huge. Because the team being leapfrogged here is New England, sitting at 14. That matters because the Jets biggest need just happens to be the Pats as well. And that is offensive line. In a draft that features three elite Round 1 talents at offensive tackle, followed by a significant drop off to the Day 2 prospects, the importance of taking a team off the board who's going to be shopping in the same aisle as you can't be overstated. The consensus in Green Bay is their priority is tight end, whereas the Pats have two established veteran TEs and I've got them looking to draft and develop someone later on. In all likelihood, the Rodgers trade just gave Mac Jones his outside protector for the next 10 years.
At least the Patriots-Jets games will worth watching.
Don't get me wrong. I enjoy a good laugher as much as the next guy. Nobody takes more perverse pleasure in seeing yet another franchise savior eating ass, seeing ghosts, and throwing picks all over the place. But it gets to the point where you'd like something else to make those Sunday at 1 games slightly compelling. We're all about winning here, but sports is also supposed to be entertaining. And the Rodgers vs. Belichick chess match has always been a must-watch. They've faced one another four times since 2010, they've split the series, and three of those games were decided by five points or less. At the very least, Rodgers represents a nice bonus for the loyal season ticket holders, who'll actually have a reason to freeze their asses off in December.
I won't sugar coat the challenge of trying to claw out of the well in the basement of the AFC East the Pats find themselves in right now. I say again, on paper. But overcoming such situations is what started the greatest sports Dynasty of the 21st century. It's what sustained it. And it's what will have to be done to bring the glory back. It's a loser mentality to hope your opponents keep failing. I prefer my franchise to beat the best. And Belichick has my full and unwavering confidence that by sticking to his way of doing things, and watching teams like the Jets bankrupt their future for short term gains, my faith will be rewarded.
Kiss the rings.
