There seems to be two potential outcomes for the Jets in 2024. Aaron Rodgers gets hurt again and the season goes down in flames, or he makes an incredible comeback from an Achilles injury at age 40 and turns the Jets into a championship contender. There's no in-between!
Here are 10 numbers to whet the appetite for Rodgers' return.
0: Rodgers tore his Achilles in last year's opener after just four plays and one incompletion. He's just the second QB in NFL history with 0 completions in a season after starting the season opener. Who could forget the other?!? Pittsburgh's Joe Gasparella in 1951.
364: Barring another injury, Rodgers will go 364 days between games when he suits up against the 49ers on "Monday Night Football" on Sept. 9 to open the 2024 season. That's a long layoff for anyone, but especially a 40-year-old. The only 40-year-old with a longer gap since 1970 was Steve DeBerg (1,750 days between 1993-98).
12-22-1: If Rodgers gets hurt again we've come to expect a lot of losing. Rodgers' backups have a 12-22-1 record since his first start in 2008. The collective includes Brett Hundley, Matt Flynn, Scott Tolzien, Seneca Wallace, Jordan Love, Zach Wilson, Tim Boyle and Trevor Siemian. New York at least upgraded its backup QB spot with Tyrod Taylor in 2024.
18: Just a reminder of how dire it was without Rodgers last year. The Jets had 18 offensive touchdowns, the fewest by any team in a season since the 2012 Chiefs.
1: You can look to one QB for the Jets' ceiling in 2024. Tom Brady is the one and only QB with 30-plus touchdown passes in a season at age 40 or older. He is also the only QB to win a Super Bowl after turning 40, and he did it twice.
25: There's one big milestone on the horizon for Rodgers. He is 25 touchdown passes shy of becoming the fifth QB to 500 in NFL history, along with Brady (649), Drew Brees (571), Peyton Manning (539) and Brett Favre (508).
1967: I'm sure the Jets would love to see him hit 500, or how about 4,000? The last Jets QB to throw for 4,000 yards in a season was infamously Joe Namath in 1967. Only the Bears have waited longer for a 4,000-yard passer. They've never had one in their 104 seasons.
25th: Rodgers could hit these milestones with improved protection in 2024. The Jets have three new OL starters (Morgan Moses, Tyron Smith and John Simpson) and they sure need it. Rodgers ranked 25th in EPA per play when pressured from 2021-22, vs. third when he wasn't. I explored this topic in more detail last month.
24-1: The Jets are still in the Super Bowl conversation, entering 2024 with the 11th-best odds at 24-1. They lost a little shine from 2023, when they entered with the seventh-best odds at 18-1.
13: At the very least, Jets fans have to at least be hoping to end the longest active playoff drought in the NFL. They've gone 13 straight seasons without a playoff appearance, which is also tied with the Buffalo Sabres for the longest active drought across the NFL, NHL, NBA and MLB.
