Are New York Jets fans to believe that—under no circumstances whatsoever—the team they so unconditionally love could not find 2025 season success? Based on some of the social media retorts, automated bot or not, many would say, “Yes, my team had no chance at 2025 success,” and there are many who hold steadfast to this belief.

Consider the following offense for a moment:

QB: Aaron Rodgers

RB: Breece Hall, Braelon Allen, Isaiah Davis

WR: Davante Adams, Garrett Wilson, Allen Lazard, Arian Smith

TE: Mason Taylor, Jeremy Ruckert

OL: Olu Fashanu, John Simpson, Josh Myers, Joe Tippmann, Armand Membou

When evaluating this offense with the Jets’ current staff, led by Aaron Glenn, I agree with the naysayers: It simply would not have worked.

Now, let’s evaluate the same offense with a singular key addition:

HC: Mike McCarthy

QB: Aaron Rodgers

RB: Breece Hall, Braelon Allen, Isaiah Davis

WR: Davante Adams, Garrett Wilson, Allen Lazard, Arian Smith

TE: Mason Taylor, Jeremy Ruckert

OL: Olu Fashanu, John Simpson, Josh Myers, Joe Tippmann, Armand Membou

Honestly, do the majority of football fans view this offense and think, “Oh, this unit could never lead a team to the playoffs?” If so, those folks have allowed their minds to reach a level of corruption that would make the “Batman Begins” version of Gotham blush.

This is a legitimate NFL offense, led by a legitimate offensive architect. Mike McCarthy is a damn Super Bowl champion. Aaron Rodgers is a Super Bowl MVP.

By the way, as told by Rodgers on “The Pat McAfee Show,” the reason Glenn didn’t want him was that the Hall of Famer might compromise his messaging. Yet, Glenn’s handpicked replacement, Justin Fields, is reportedly not interested in taking on a subpackage role due to injury concerns.

That is a real thing, correct? I have to make sure I’m not taking those crazy pills again, which happens more often than I’d like to admit.

What are we doing here, New York Jets?

For context, here’s what the Pittsburgh Steelers offense currently looks like:

OC: Arthur Smith (the offensive architect and play-caller)

QB: Aaron Rodgers

RB: Jaylen Warren, Kenneth Gainwell

WR: DK Metcalf, Calvin Austin, Marquez Valdez-Scantling, Adam Thielen

TE: Pat Freiermuth, Jonnu Smith

OL: Dylan Cook, Isaac Seumalo, Zach Frazier, Mason McCormick, Troy Fautanu

Again, what are we doing here?

Why does everything have to be so tricky, so convoluted to the point that the franchise is eager to do things the “harder way,” as opposed to floating like a butterfly and stinging like a bee?

Look at who the so-called “decrepit” Rodgers was throwing to on Sunday night. With DK Metcalf suspended, Rodgers threw for 294 yards and a touchdown on 31 of 47 passing, while targeting MVS and the corpse of Adam Thielen.

Does everybody understand what we’re watching? Arthur Smith and Todd Monken just decided to go blow-for-blow here, scheming up guys everywhere. The offensive play-callers just took over the game, bc it was that TIME in the game to do so (once the heart of the game fractured).

— Robby Sabo (@RobbySabo) January 5, 2026

Pat Freiermuth is a solid tight end, and the running backs are solid as well, but who, in their right mind (while not off their meds), could ever make the argument that the Steelers offense listed above is more talented than what the Jets offense could have been in this alternate reality of a distant universe?

It’s impossible. Yet, the Jets continue to chase their tail, believing a long, drawn-out rebuilding process is required.

How is it possible that a “washed” quarterback like this could win 10 games with so little help around him? Set aside the Holy Water for a moment: What sort of black magic did a witch unleash on Pittsburgh?

Maybe, just maybe, the old-man quarterback lifted the Jets as a team last year—as incredible as that may be. Then again, it makes all the sense in the world when the front office and coaching staff had been slowly but surely taken part—starting with Rex Hogan in January 2024.

Now, in January 2026, it seems the main goal is to enhance the talent on this roster.

Hey guys, here’s an unsolicited and plainly put heads up: The days of talent alone driving team success are over. What Jimmy Johnson did in the early 1990s occurred in a completely different world, one driven mainly by the absence of a salary cap.

These days, each roster’s talent is so evenly spread across the board that it’s scary. (And don’t think for one moment that the Pittsburgh defense is that much better than what the Jets defense had coming into the season, especially for those who are still tricked by Jalen Ramsey’s name-brand recognition.)

Romanticizing “the plan,” as opposed to merely fielding the best roster, coupled with identifying the head-coaching traits that provide the best chance at success, is all the Jets have targeted in the last decade and a half.

It should not be this difficult. The evidence that “big ships turn quickly” is grossly abundant across the league.

Thus, New York Jets fans have predictably found themselves near the ledge. A solid percentage of the fanbase actually believes the task of turning the franchise around is some herculean effort that could only be achieved in some storybook fashion.

It’s why the non-Jet, Rodgers, who’s so often villainized in the mainstream, was last offseason’s symbol of page turning.

It’s why any apparent Garrett Wilson controversy came back with all-out fury on the side of the “homegrown Jet.”

It’s why the Jets’ decision to hire Mike Tannenbaum and The 33rd Team, despite clear potential conflict-of-interest of the highest order, was so widely accepted.

It’s also why calls for Rex Ryan can still be heard from that very ledge—as anything resembling the team’s “last moment of success” is nostalgia-based.

It’s why a conquering Jets legend (Glenn) returning home to take on this herculean task sold so well.

Rodgers returning to the Jets isn’t even the point. That’s what’s so frustrating yet frightening here. The fact that he did win 10 games and the AFC North has nothing to do with the Jets’ failures.

Rather, it’s the Jets’ processes and decisions related to Aaron Rodgers that encapsulate the perfect example of what ails the Jets organization.

From the outset, once Woody Johnson’s New York Jets announced their most recent head coaching search, the process appeared to be off-kilter. With so much unnecessary noise surrounding the organization—fit for a midday soap opera—the idea that a “kick-ass dude” was required ran rampant.

Well, since Rex Ryan left town, coming off his fourth-straight failed season (as the league continued to change on him, with quarterbacks releasing the ball quicker, making it more challenging to hit home with those blitzes), all the Jets have targeted have been kick-ass dudes (for the most part).

Save for Adam Gase, every head coaching hire has come from the defensive side of the ball—in a league where offensive efficiency is, by far, the most impactful driver of success.

A year ago, Jets X-Factor pleaded with the Jets to seek “innovation,” instead of “motivation,” when conducting its head coaching search. Today, we preach from the same gospel.

For the New York #Jets, it’s simple: For the love of god, come to the realization that it’s no longer 2005. Whether it’s Aaron Glenn now or Robert Saleh before him, the organization’s mindset is forever stuck in an old-school-type mold that doesn’t fit today’s sport.

— Robby Sabo (@RobbySabo) January 5, 2026

Hope and a staunch belief in the process—a picturesque storyline imagined purely due to how incorrectly Herculean the organization believes this turnaround task actually is—is killing the New York Jets.

The truth of the matter is much simpler: It’s about logic, reality, and smarts. Trade in the belief and focus on the proper messaging for actual football smarts. That’s all it’s about these days—the days firmly featuring a drastically different sport.

Only once has this ownership group deviated from its usual defensive-minded, leader-of-men course. It happened in 2019, when Adam Gase was hired with the express intent of developing a promising young quarterback.

It was also in 2019 when Mike McCarthy didn’t “interview well” with the Jets, per reports at the time.

If that’s the case, wouldn’t one assume the organization is seeking the wrong things in coaches these days? After all, again, the guy is a Super Bowl champ, and he won 12 games three straight seasons under Jerry Jones.

Perhaps he couldn’t conjure up the proper run-through-a-wall emotions that Jets leadership believes are still critical in this all-too-foreign NFL. Robert Saleh sure could. We know damn well Rex Ryan did.

If Aaron Glenn didn’t, then what was it that drew them to the CEO-type head coaching candidate?

The Jets didn’t even interview Mike McCarthy last January.

Oh, sheesh, it just occurred to me that more than one alternate universe is possible. Just wait until Sam Darnold’s Seattle Seahawks get to the Super Bowl. I shudder at the thought, especially for those who believe “having a legit quarterback or not” is based purely on the individual playing the position.

“I am not going to waver on my beliefs of what I think wins games in this league,” said Aaron Glenn after the game.

That is precisely the New York #Jets problem—the head coach taking his preconceived notion of a specific way to play (or team identity) into the season, and…

— Robby Sabo (@RobbySabo) January 5, 2026

Forget about the touch of danger that is standing on the ledge. Joe Benigno may change his name to Jim Jones and lead a bungee-jumping party, having let go of the rope long ago.

Imagine Aaron Rodgers goes on a Cinderella run, only to take on Sam Darnold in the Super Bowl. Could you even dare to imagine such a thought?

Forget about Jim Jones. We will have then entered an alternate reality so unfathomably sick that it’s impossible to describe.

For the New York Jets, it’s time to forget about forgetting. If Woody Johnson firmly believes that “only looking forward” and never looking back at potential past regrets will bring the utmost positivity to his team’s future, there truly is no hope.

Coming to grips with these alternate realities is what could truly drive genuine change.