It is a year later, the sports world’s most famous Achilles is healed, reinforcements have arrived, and so the mandate for 40-year-old Aaron Rodgers is the same as it was for 39-year-old Aaron Rodgers:
Go win a Super Bowl.
Go lead the Jets to the playoffs for the first time since the 2010 season.
Go lead the Jets to a division title for the first time since the 2002 season.
Go lead the Jets to that elusive first Super Bowl since Jan. 12, 1969.
Go find a way to beat Patrick Mahomes and deny him a three-peat if and when his Chiefs are standing in your way.
Be the savior you were hired to be a year ago.
Rodgers has been to hell and back waiting, with a stop-off in Egypt, to return to this moment, a moment when he can cement a forever New York legacy alongside Broadway Joe Namath.
When he can capture his own elusive second Super Bowl championship.
With his surrounding cast — Breece Hall and Garrett Wilson and a fortified offensive line he loves anchored by Tyron Smith, if he can stay healthy, and an elite defense and superior kicking game — Rodgers doesn’t have to be the MVP of yesteryear.
It doesn’t mean he can’t surgically destroy defenses again with his beautiful football mind and beautiful football arm.
And an age-old beautiful chip unrelated all these years later from draft day when his hometown 49ers made Alex Smith the first overall pick of the 2005 NFL Draft and he sat alone in the green room until the Packers threw him a lifeline with the 24th pick.
“I have a lot of pride in my performance, so when I take the field I expect greatness,” Rodgers said, “because I’ve done it before, so that’s the kinda standard I hold myself to.”
He played four snaps in the 2023 home opener against the Bills on 9/11 before Leonard Floyd, now an edge rusher for the 49ers, shattered his Achilles and his Jets dream, and he did not play one snap in the preseason games.
“I think you always have something to prove,” Rodgers said. “It just kinda changes who you’re proving that to, I think, the older you get.”
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He knows exactly who he needs and wants to prove it to.
“I’ve always kind of played with something on my shoulder,” Rodgers said. “You got to, you know, manufacture things from time to time. It kinda goes back to the prove it. Who would I need to prove to? Just myself at this point.”
His teammates see a hungry Rodgers. “I don’t think the chip ever left,” Allen Lazard told The Post, “obviously from dropping in the draft to the injuries he’s dealt with throughout his career, and the down years he’s had to the years that he’s won the four MVPs, and I think he’s always gonna have that chip on his shoulder regardless.”
No one around the Jets sees a 40-year-old quarterback. “By the way he’s on the field, you would have thought he’s 24, 25,” Lazard said, “the way he’s playing out there throwing the ball.”
C.J. Mosley: “He’s slinging it left and right, he’s moving around, he’s mobile, he’s a joy to be around and play with.”
Rodgers sees a maturity in a player-led team that will be better equipped to handle the inevitable adversities. “We can’t have any leaks or people jumping ship,” he said.
He understands that as the lead surfer he can’t be riding the euphoria-disaster wave of Super Bowl Jets or Same Old Jets headlines. “You gotta find a way to be a stability point for the team,” Rodgers said.
Rodgers will allow himself a moment Monday night at Levi’s Stadium to appreciate being able to again play this kid’s game that he missed so much and loves so much.
“There’s always a perspective moment during the anthem to collect your thoughts and kinda send gratitude out to the universe for the opportunity to be standing on the field in pads,” Rodgers said.
At the start of training camp, he told us that the goal was New Orleans, site of Super Bowl 2024. I asked him on Thursday if New Orleans was still the goal. “Of course,” Rodgers said.
Go win the Super Bowl.
