At some point, the idea gets twisted. After Tom Brady got the Tampa Bay Buccaneers going and Matthew Stafford made the Los Angeles Rams a reality, this market overcorrection occurred with devastating consequences. The Cleveland Browns joined forces with Deshaun Watson and cemented the worst (and not for nothing the most morally repulsive) trade in NFL history. The Denver Broncos sold their deal for Russell Wilson in what was, not for nothing, perhaps the funniest trade in NFL history. These teams are currently either digesting – or preparing to find a way not to digest – some of the largest amounts of dead money ever created. It’s going to take a long time to clean out the garbage, both literally and emotionally.
The Browns and Broncos have realized that these moves won’t work unless everything else is already aligned and there is careful scrutiny of players. Personnel. Processes. Coaching. Disaster management. Quarterbacks are critical and indispensable, but they are rarely mystical, able to transform an entire building into something it isn’t or never was.
And so at the end of this madness, we have a New York Jets team that bet everything on Aaron Rodgers. It wasn’t that costly from a financial or draft equity perspective, and shouldn’t be mentioned in the same breath as Watson or Wilson in terms of weight or importance. But it had an ideological toll and an inherent risk for a team that has historically struggled with high-wire heartbreak.
Rodgers gave the Jets something they’ve lacked for generations – a respectable quarterback who could potentially stem the snickers and bring the rest of the roster into line. In return, they pledged their eternal support and were willing to live with his age, his potential decline in performance, his offense, some of the players he prefers to play with, and the feeling of standing on a cliff in a high wind – and accept the decision that comes with such a decision.
Monday’s 32-19 loss to the San Francisco 49ers was the Jets’ first real glimpse of that life: They got their first taste of falling and wondering whether or not there was a parachute in their bag.
It’s difficult to draw any sweeping conclusions because, when you think about it, the task was monumental: Take a roster that includes a 40-year-old quarterback and two 33-year-old tackles, a recovering No. 2 wide receiver and a still-absent edge rusher, and send (most of them) across the country to face a team that has been more efficient than a NASCAR pit crew for the past decade and played in the Super Bowl a few months ago. Their coach, Kyle Shanahan, used to be under the Jets’ contract with Robert Saleh, which was probably an advantage. The 49ers have a larger number of talented players at the skill positions and a stronger defense, though not by much.
Putting aside the positives — that Rodgers led a rollicking, nearly flawless touchdown drive to take an early lead and looked somewhat chipper — it didn’t go well. The Jets had one of the worst running game success rates in the NFL this week, dropping passes and being flat under Jordan Mason, the 49ers’ backup plan for Christian McCaffrey, who rushed for 147 yards on 28 carries. And so began the agony of what the Jets didn’t have to feel last year, when Rodgers was recovering from a torn Achilles and everyone was still dreaming of what would be possible when he finally came back to fix everything like all the other fortune-telling quarterbacks do.
To be clear, we should never blame the Jets for trying. They had to make this trade. But now that it’s happening, what will it say about the team, the way it was built? In the dream: Sauce Gardner and Garrett Wilson – former offensive and defensive rookies of the year -, Quinnen Williams and CJ Mosley, Breece Hall… how could this not all fit together seamlessly? How could it fail?
In reality, there was a clear difference between the teams the Jets want to face with a trade for Rodgers and the team the Jets currently are. For now, the Jets can simply call it a setback. They can argue that many good teams lost in Week 1, which is always a very variable event since you have months to prepare for a single opponent. They can focus on beating the Tennessee Titans and New England Patriots in back-to-back weeks – a very likely event – and get back into the swing of things.
They can still dream that the Rodgers trade was done in the same spirit as Brady and Stafford – the final brushstrokes of a truly great work – and not Wilson or Watson. But the dawn is breaking, and soon the Jets will get a clear look in the mirror. What will the team find?
