In the game of adding or subtracting from your roster this time of a National Football League season finds teams that think they are in contention picking up blue chip talent from squads surrendered that this is not their year.
In this duel for talent, the biggest mistake can be made by a team that thinks it is an add stage and willing to trade future draft picks and take on huge salary responsibilities that really aren’t in the running for a playoff berth.
Welcome to the New York Jets.
The team that wears green and plays their home games at MetLife Stadium is in a pattern where they think they can find success with athletes that have already passed their expiration date. Few things are more debilitating to a teams’ long term success than making mistakes while trying to recapture glory already spent.
Aaron Rodgers is a 40-year-old quarterback with attitude problems. He is no longer the kid that replaced Brett Farve in Green Bay and maintained the Packers excellence at quarterback for another generation. Still, the Jets saw highlight films and wanted those touchdown passes and victory streaks in a New York uniform.
When it didn’t work last year, the first season Rodgers was on the Jets roster, they attributed the problem, rightfully so, to Rodgers’ season ending injury in his first game action. But this year, after noticing that their expensive veteran quarterback would rather complete his overseas vacation than attend a mandatory off-season workout should have had their suspicions raised?
Should have, but the Jets blew it off.
Instead they continued to shower Rodgers with accolades, even fired their head coach in a move to appease the cancer on motivation. They also went out and committed more money than many will earn in a lifetime to take the contract of Davante Adams off the Las Vegas Raiders books.
You may recall, Adams and Rodgers combined in Green Bay to form one of the best passing combinations in recent NFL history.
But, that was then … this is now.
When a team adds a quality player and gives up something for him, the impact should be quickly realized. The Buffalo Bills acquired Amari Cooper from the Cleveland Browns and the talented receiver caught a touchdown from Josh Allen in his first game with his new team. The Kansas City Chiefs acquired veteran receiver DeAndre Hopkins this week, how he will combine with Patrick Mahomes is yet to be seen. But I’m betting it will be pretty good because this is Kansas City, and like Buffalo, they are an organization that knows what they are doing.
Then we have the Jets.
In his first two games with New York, Adams has caught seven passes for a total of 70 yards and no touchdowns and the Jets have lost both games. He had twice as many catches and a touchdown in the two games he played this year with the Raiders.
This week, they get one of those free spaces on the NFL schedule when they meet the New England Patriots in Foxboro. The only decisive win Rodgers has engineered this season, the Jets are 2 and 5 on the season, was a third week win at home against New England, 24-3. Now they are on the road and the point spread has New York favored by seven points.
A touchdown road favorite indicates a good team … which the Jets are not.
I have lived by this axiom my entire career: Good picks don’t always win, but bad picks always lose.
Qoxhi Picks: New England Patriots (+7) over New York Jets