X-Factors

QB Aaron Rodgers

This isn’t too complicated. Rodgers is the biggest X-Factor to the entire season. The Jets don’t need MVP Rodgers but they need him healthy and to be one of the ten best quarterbacks in football to compete in a conference with Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen and Joe Burrow. Rodgers is special enough that if the Jets get into the tournament, he can be the best player on the field on any given day and allow them to truly be dangerous in January…if they can get there. He has the support here of two rising superstars in Breece Hall and Garrett Wilson, a surefire top ten (probably top five) defense and a rock solid offensive line. It has been far too long since we’ve seen Rodgers play ball - Now it is put up or shut up time for this entire deal.

EDGE Haason Reddick

Like it or not, this is where we’re at. If Haason Reddick reports and works out his contract in the week leading up to Week 1, the vibes are going to be off the charts. If he doesn’t, it will loom over the team until it’s resolved.

It’s one of the last open questions surrounding this team, and a relentless pass rush is the key to everything they want to do on defense. Bryce Huff’s production likely won’t be replaced by one body, but Haason Reddick is the Jets’ best chance of doing just that and then some. Make no mistake, he is critical to this team achieving their long term goal of a Super Bowl. They can win without him, and they can be a solid defense without him, but their aspirations to be #1 dictate that Reddick is a part of it.