Monday Night Observations

Contemplating retirement, Aaron Rodgers spelunked deep into the recesses of his soul on an ayahauscha trip and emerged with a clear mind: he would play for the New York Jets.

Or at least that was the story. I knew at once something was off. Maybe he had overdosed. You never play out the string for the Jets. Then again he was guaranteed $75 million, and it was the Jets who ponied up $27M in guaranteed money for Le’Veon Bell’s carcass a few years ago, so who am I to calibrate Rodgers’ ayahauscha dose from the living room sofa?

I joke about Rodgers, who as you know is likely out for the year and perhaps done for good with a torn Achilles at age 39. Rodgers was an all-time great quarterback, Patrick Mahomes 1.0 at his peak, and a hero of mine for refusing to inject himself with pharmaceutical chemicals he did not want, despite intense pressure from the league and its media lackeys.

To remember what peak Rodgers looked like here are two consecutive plays from a playoff game against the Cardinals in 2016. (Youtube won’t let me embed this clip, but the link is worth clicking.)

In any event to lose Rodgers four plays into the year is so quintessentially Jets the way blowing a lead in the closing minutes is so Chargers. The personnel and coaching might change, but sometimes a franchise’s core identity stays ever the same.

Rodgers’ injury means QB1 is now the Jets starting quarterback, and after a bad interception, I thought he played okay. But make no mistake, this will be a run-and-play-defense team this year. I’m just happy QB1 is relevant again, to be honest.

Of coure, this hurts Garrett Wilson’s (5-5-34-1) value a good deal, incredible juggling TD catch notwithstanding. Instead of going late-first, I think Wilson goes early third now. So much for being thrilled about my Bijan Robinson/Wilson start in BCL3.

Breece Hall (10-127-0, 2-1-20) looked awfully spry off the knee injury. A podcast I listened to suggested maybe gambling on Hall being even 80 percent himself was worth it, but unfortunately, I didn’t listen. Dalvin Cook (13-33-0, 3-3-26-0) actually saw more work, looked fine to me, but was far less efficient. I think this will be a 50/50 timeshare for the foreseeable future as Hall works back from the knee.

You have to feel pretty good if you took Stefon Diggs (13-10-102-1). To put up that line in an ugly, defensive struggle on the road against the Jets stout defense bodes very well. Gabe Davis (4-2-32-0) and Dalton Kincaid (4-4-26-0) will get more involved when gameflow allows.

James Cook (12-46-0, 6-4-17-0) looked fine, and the six targets were nice. It was a little disturbing early when the Bills threw to Deonte Hardy, formerly Deonte Harris, (4-3-9-0) a few times instead of Cook. Why do players suddenly change their names so often? It used to be a name change was only in case of religious conversion.

Damian Harris got only one carry, while Latavius Murray saw two. Harris did have two catches for 16 yards, but he’s buried.

Josh Allen will get his. Two of the interceptions were on deep balls, one was on 3rd-and-long, so I wouldn’t be overly concerned. He moved well and scrambled deftly on the TD throw to Diggs. Just a rough matchup made rougher by Rodgers’ injury and the Jets need to slow it down. That last interception was bad, though.

What a finish for the Jets and rookie Xaiver Gipson bringing the punt return to the house in overtime. As much as it was so Jets to lose Rodgers, it was so not Jets to pull out the win. Whenever someone asks what pro sport I’d play if I had my choice, I always say baseball or basketball because the money/damage ratio is so much better in those sports than in the NFL. But there is nothing more glorious than taking a run, catch or return to the house in front of 80,000 people, and imagine doing that in your first game to win it overtime.

I’m still traumatized by the Giants performance Sunday night.