It’s first place or a dark place on the line for the Jets with Bills looming

This is a moment of truth for the Jets they were not expecting this early in the season, if at all. 

Aaron Rodgers will now be armed with a new head coach and a new play-caller for a game he and the 2-3 Jets need to win against the 3-2 Bills on Monday night to stop the bleeding and prevent a skid that could precipitate a crisis of confidence. 

First place, or a dark place. 

The new head coach, Jeff Ulbrich, must get his defense to continue to play with its hair on fire against a struggling Josh Allen to give Rodgers a chance to win the game in the fourth quarter if it is required of him. 

The new play-caller, Todd Downing, must get the plays to Rodgers quickly and decisively, and get Breece Hall involved more, particularly as a weapon out of the backfield, and get tight end Tyler Conklin more involved, so that Rodgers doesn’t have to target Garrett Wilson 22 times again. 

And Aaron Rodgers? Perhaps if he had been able to throw a touchdown pass against the Broncos, perhaps if he hadn’t thrown three interceptions — one a pick-six — in London against the Vikings, perhaps if the offensive line had kept him from consecutive poundings, Robert Saleh would still be his head coach. 

Woody Johnson sounded like late Jets owner Leon Hess, who said this when he hired Rich Kotite in 1995: “I’m 80 years old. I want results now.” 

Hess was 82 years old when he hired Bill Parcells after Kotite gave him 4-28 results. 

After a 12-year playoff drought, Johnson all but stood atop the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center and shouted, “I’m 76 years old. I want results now” when he made the blockbuster play for Rodgers 19 months ago. 

Sometimes these thunderbolt coaching changes can provide the spark that the owner is desperately seeking. 

But the reality is that we have seen MVP Rodgers just twice, once in winning time against the Titans and once against the Patriots, but more often this season we have seen the 2022 Green Bay Rodgers — the one with the career-low 91.1 quarterback rating. 

Ulbrich is head coaching material, but everyone is aware that offense is not his area of expertise. 

This is still Rodgers’ offense. 

If he doesn’t find his game, and find it soon, Ulbrich, Downing and probably GM Joe Douglas will be looking for work. 

It is all well and good that the Jets have spent so many hours since Bloody Tuesday looking in the mirror, but it is more critical that Johnson likes what he sees on the field. The team he has expected from the moment Rodgers marched into the facility. The team he gushed about on Bloody Tuesday. The team he expected when Douglas bolstered the offensive line. And most of all, the future first-ballot Hall of Fame quarterback he expected. Even after a season lost. Even two months shy of his 41st birthday. 

Allen and the Bills have owned the division for four consecutive years. It used to be Tom Brady and Bill Belichick who stood in the Jets’ way. 

Rodgers needs to play the kind of inspired game the rest of the team did when his Achilles shattered four plays into his Jets era in the 2023 opener on 9/11. 

No one probably should have expected Flight ’24 to soar in the early part of the season, but Rodgers is one more lousy performance and maybe one more bone-crunching hit from having to reach back for his R-E-L-A-X message from a decade ago when he was a young 30-year-old chasing his Super Bowl as a Green Bay Packer. 

Though it is true the Jets were forced to play catchup against the Vikings, in no universe is it advisable to have your already-wincing 40-year-old franchise quarterback attempt 54 passes. 

“We need to run the ball,” Rodgers said. Early and often. If only to try to keep Allen on the sideline. 

The blueprint, never a reality under Zach Wilson, still calls for Rodgers grabbing a lead so Ulbrich can unleash his predators on the opposing quarterback. 

Rodgers can still sling it with the best of them, but imagine if he underestimated how difficult it would be for him to return to the stratospheric standard he expects of himself? If scrambling away from Father Time were to prove that he isn’t as forever young as Brady was with Tampa Bay? 

The Jets last won a division title in 2002, the year that Rodgers was throwing 26 touchdowns to lead Butte College to a NorCal Conference championship. This season has always been their chance. It is time for them to wake up and seize the moment. 

First place, or a dark place.