Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets are starting to play the kind of football everyone expected to when the Jets brought in the future Hall of Famer.
The Jets improved to 2-1 with back-to-back wins on Thursday, manhandling their division rival, the New England Patriots 24-3. Rodgers was exceptional, finishing the game 27-for-35 for 281 yards and two touchdown passes.
The only downside to the Jets’ success is that star wide receiver Garrett Wilson isn’t having the sort of production that many expected entering the season. After the game, Rodgers spoke to the media about why that was and threw in a not-so-subtle shot while he was at it.
“The entire focus of all three defenses we’ve played have been taking Garrett Wilson away. It’s been Mel Kiper’s worst nightmare. A lot of Cover 2, you know? And there’s times, you know, when we’re getting one-high we’ve tried to go to him but there’s a lot of two-high in all three games. They’re shading him even with corners… not a lot of single (coverage). It’s a tribute to Garrett and his talent.”
This comes after ESPN draft expert Mel Kiper said that the NFL should ban two-high safeties because of how effective it has been at slowing down offenses this season.
It looks like Rodger heard Kiper’s unhinged suggestion, and couldn’t help himself when he got the opportunity to poke fun at the ESPN analyst. Still, the Jets will need to figure out a way to get Wilson involved if they want to compete for championships.
Wilson has yet to gain more than 60 receiving yards in a single game, which is under his career averages.
It’ll be interesting to see if Rodgers is able to find the receiver more moving forward, and scary to think about the heights the Jets will reach if so.
