Expectations are high this season for the New York Jets. That much is beyond obvious at this point. Making the playoffs is the bare minimum now that Aaron Rodgers is in charge of the offense.
Well, we can chalk one person up at least that is really buying into the Jets this season. In his annual season predictions for USA Today, Nate Davis has the Jets finishing 12-5, second in the AFC East behind the 13-4 Buffalo Bills and claiming the No. 5 seed in the AFC playoffs. However, Davis believes the Jets will get the last laugh in the AFC, predicting New York to defeat Jacksonville, Buffalo and Cincinnati to win the Lamar Hunt Trophy as AFC champions and reach Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas before falling to the Philadelphia Eagles in the big game.
They were in the thick of the AFC wild-card race well into December until the league’s worst quarterback play torpedoed them with a season-ending six-game losing streak. That won’t be the case in 2023 amid the arrival of Rodgers, coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, WR Allen Lazard and other former Packers who are implementing an offense that helped the four-time MVP to two of those awards in 2020 and 2021. A merely passable offense will be a boon to a defense that ranked fourth overall last year despite getting little help. The readiness of second-year RB Breece Hall (ACL) and a challenging schedule will likely be early obstacles. But plugging Rodgers into this situation seems for more akin to Brady joining the Bucs or Stafford going to the Rams than the disastrous first year of Wilson’s marriage to the Broncos in 2022. If that proves remotely true, the Jets will have the best quarterback in club history (sorry, Joe Namath) and their first Super Bowl trip in 55 years.
Not only a trip to the Super Bowl but knocking off the Bills, who Davis predicts will be the No. 1 seed in the AFC, followed by Cincinnati and then Kansas City. That would be quite a run for the Jets in their first season with Rodgers, though it would be a very bittersweet ending to lose in the Super Bowl. In any event, Davis is predicting quite a season for the Jets.
