The NFL has a lot of tortured fan bases, but only one has gone 13 straight seasons without seeing the playoffs, the NFL’s longest active drought entering 2024. Burned, scarred and betrayed so many times, New York Jets fans are wandering souls unlucky in love.
That’s how an empathetic Peter Schrager described the team’s situation prior to the Jets’ season-opening trip to San Francisco, a Monday Night Football showdown (8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN). It’s been a long line of Mr. Right candidates for Jets fans.
Aaron Rodgers? Get your Super Bowl tickets. Zach Wilson? Championship. Sam Darnold? He was the one. Even Geno Smith was a projected savior for Jets fans until resurrecting his career with the Seahawks.
But the Jets’ Super Bowl odds are much better this season and, as Schrager said Monday on NFL Network’s Good Morning Football, this is the year it’s all going to work out.
“I want to tell Jets fans that it’s OK to get back out there and try to be lucky in love, even if it hasn’t worked out … every single year since 1969.”
That was the last time the Jets played in the Super Bowl. They nearly returned in 2010, only to lose, 24-19, at Pittsburgh in the AFC Championship. And since Denver won Super Bowl 50 in 2015, every NFL team has made at least one playoff appearance.
Every team, that is, except the Jets. Schrager sees that streak going down like a Meadowlands sunset.
“This is the year it’s all going to work out and it’s OK,” Shrager counseled. “Not predicting the Super Bowl just yet, I’m not predicting MVP for Rodgers, but I’m not not! And that’s the beauty of getting back out there if you’re a Jets fan.”
The team’s biggest fan is Rodgers, and he’s on board, leading the team’s week-to-week focus with an ultimate Super Bowl appearance as the goal.
“It has to be the goal,” Rodgers said at the beginning of training camp, via SNY. “The beauty is, every single year there’s 8-12 teams —maybe, probably less — but 8-12 teams that can actually do it. We’re one of those 8-12.”
But what if Rodgers gets hurt again, asked Kyle Brandt.
“You can’t look at life like that,” scolded Schrader. “You have to get back out there. You can’t just sit in the corner and worry about the Bills and the Dolphins or the Patriots. I get it, but you’ve got to put yourself out there.”
Rodgers and the Jets should have their full complement of starters when they return to his native Northern California to close a phenomenal Week 1 NFL schedule.