3, 2, 1 … liftoff.
The most anticipated Jets season in recent memory has finally arrived.
After all the talk, clandestine plane flights, darkness retreats, predictions, “Hard Knocks” episodes and everything in between, the 2023 Jets will take the field Monday night to open the season against the Bills.
The Jets come into this season with Super Bowl expectations for the first time in more than a decade.
They are trying to end a 12-year playoff drought and go from the NFL basement to the penthouse.
The Jets have not run from those lofty expectations.
They have instead embraced them.
“It’s better than the alternative,” Jets coach Robert Saleh said. “You work hard to be able to put yourself in position to have a realistic shot at something. Now with that said, we haven’t done anything. We still have to go do it.”
The atmosphere at MetLife Stadium for the opener, which falls on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, should be electric.
The Bills are the three-time defending AFC East champions and have Super Bowl aspirations of their own.
The Bills have won five of their last six meetings with the Jets, but did lose last year at MetLife Stadium.
The Jets’ quarterback in that game was Zach Wilson.
Now, Aaron Rodgers is ready to make his debut and while there will be plenty of supporting actors in Monday’s game, everyone knows who the leading man is.
Rodgers, 39, has invigorated the Jets’ organization and its fans since coming over in a trade from the Packers in April.
It is hard to remember one athlete completely transforming the perception of a New York team like Rodgers has in the past five months.
For Rodgers, this is a chance to add to his legacy and elevate a team that has been a laughingstock into a contender.
He has acknowledged he will feel butterflies Monday night, and the stadium should shake when he is introduced before the game.
“It’s different,” Rodgers said of entering a season with the Jets. “I have been in one city for 18 years and now a new team, but it was good to get the pads on the last preseason game. So, it will be exciting, ‘Monday Night Football’ is great. You play in the league long enough, you want a lot of one o’clock games, but you don’t grow up dreaming about playing the one o’clock games, you dream of playing ‘Monday Night Football,’ ‘Sunday Night Football.’ So, it will be fun to start the season out on Monday night.”
NEWS CREDIT
