Last season was certainly a giant letdown for the New York Jets and their fans. After acquiring All-Pro quarterback Aaron Rodgers in a trade with the Green Bay Packers, the expectations for the Jets in 2023 were higher than they have been in a very long time.
But then the Jets’ history of being one of the most snake-bitten franchises in NFL history quickly caught up to them, as Rodgers tore his Achilles during his very first offensive drive in the regular season as New York’s starting quarterback.
Looking ahead to the 2024 campaign, Rodgers is expected to be fully recovered from his Achilles injury and the expectations for the Jets are back to being at a fairly significant level for a team that won seven games a year ago.
If Rodgers can manage to stay healthy for most of the 2024 season, some even believe New York has the potential to finish as the best team in the entire NFL.
Recently, ESPN’s Mike Clay shared that he thinks the Jets will end the 2024 campaign with a Super Bowl victory for just the second time in the history of the franchise.
To support his belief, Clay pointed out several reasons that New York could potentially win a championship next season, including an elite defense, a much-improved supporting cast on offense, a formidable offensive line, Rodgers returning to the field, the state of the AFC East heading into the 2024 campaign, a light strength of schedule and a manageable road to the Lombardi Trophy.
Clay makes some good points, but his prediction for the Jets might be a tad bit too ambitious. New York hasn’t even been in the playoffs since the 2010 season and now they’ve got what it takes to win it all?
This is also the Jets we’re talking about. Whether people want to believe in karma or bad vibes or whatever, New York has always managed to find a new way to prevent themselves from winning a championship each season. Why is that going to change all of a sudden?
Robert Saleh is still the Jets head coach, and the team hasn’t managed to win more than seven games in each of the three seasons with him leading the way. Is the return of a 40-year-old quarterback coming off of a torn Achilles really going to be what turns New York into a championship contender?
It is completely fine for Jets fans to be excited about their team’s potential for the upcoming season. But maybe the expectations, at least at first, should include goals that seem a little easier to accomplish, like, say, winning a single playoff game for the first time since 2010.
Start there and if New York is able to achieve that goal, then they can move on to bigger and better possibilities. But no one should be labeling the Jets as some sort of “Super Bowl or Bust” team heading into the 2024 season.
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