Jets fans finally have a reason to believe

You’ll have to excuse Jets fans if they are being a little annoying this week.

Surely, you have someone who wears green and white in your life who has not stopped talking about the Jets since Thursday night. Maybe it is a co-worker or someone at school or the guy at the local deli.

Please forgive Jets fans. They’re a little bit excited and understandably so.

You may look at it and say the Jets are just 2-1 and they beat a bad Patriots team 24-3 on Thursday night. But if you are saying that, you have not sat through Jets games for most of the last decade-plus.

There is a saying in football that a player looks like he is running uphill. Well, there have been too many times the Jets have looked like their entire team has been playing uphill — like an Everest-sized hill.

So, seeing Aaron Rodgers in complete control at MetLife Stadium last Thursday has Jets fans a little giddy. It was not that Rodgers put up jaw-dropping stats. He did not even throw for 300 yards. It was how Rodgers looked. He looked like a quarterback that was in total control of the game. The term “game manager” has become a negative for NFL quarterbacks but I mean it in the most flattering of ways for Rodgers. He managed this game beautifully. It was like watching a conductor in front of a symphony orchestra with how he dissected the Patriots defense.

Rodgers has now thrown for two touchdown passes in each of the past two games. Again, you say big deal. Well, Zach Wilson threw for two touchdown passes a total of seven times in 34 games and only two of those came last season.

The Jets lead the NFL in third-down percentage at a 56.76 conversion rate. This one may be tough to convey just how stunning that is for a Jets fan to see. Last year, the Jets converted 25.96 percent of their third downs.

It felt so hopeless on third down that Jets fans wanted to adopt Canadian rules and just punt on third down.

Then, there is the red zone. The Jets are third in the NFL in touchdown percentage in the red zone at 75 percent. They were dead last in 2023 at 32.43 percent.

Look, all of this may not hold up for the entire season. Jets fans are realistic. I don’t think anyone believes this team is going to rival the Greatest Show on Turf, but this just feels so different than anything Jets fans have had to watch in a long, long time.

It feels like this is Jets Bizarro World. Up is down. Down is up. The Jets can push the ball downfield.

In a tie game in the fourth quarter at Tennessee, it felt like the Jets were going to win the game. When is the last time you could say that? It just felt like Rodgers would be able to move the ball down the field while the Titans would make a mistake.

It was Will Levis — the other team’s quarterback — who made a stupid fumble, not the quarterback of the Jets. After the Patriots game, it was Jerod Mayo, not Robert Saleh, answering questions about who his starting quarterback was going to be next week. The Dolphins are now the team dealing with injuries at quarterback and turning to Tim Boyle. Jets fans have seen how that movie ends.

It is a strange time in the Jets universe. There is legitimate hope around here. Jets fans being Jets fans, there surely is some degree of worry in the back of their minds that something dark is lurking around the corner.

But that is a worry for another day.

These Jets look like contenders with Rodgers at the controls, a strong supporting cast on offense and a defense that seems to have found its footing over the past six quarters.

Now, Rodgers and the Jets have to steal a page from Tom Brady and the old Patriots and continue to improve as the season moves on. Those Patriots always had hiccups early before rounding into form around Halloween and then cruising to the playoffs.

The Jets have some issues still to work out, but unlike previous years they have a quarterback who is giving them reason to believe they will.

Get used to that annoying Jets fan in your life. I don’t think they’re going to be quiet for a while.