New York Jets Would Be Better Off With Stafford

No, that’s not clickbait. No one is claiming that Matthew Stafford is better than Aaron Rodgers as far as talent goes. However, at the end of the day, the New York Jets should tell the Green Bay Packers to take a hike. They don’t need to trade for Rodgers. If Matthew Stafford is available, why not? After all, they’ve won the same amount of Super Bowls except Stafford has done so in recent years, not in his first couple.

The fact that Aaron Rodgers has been the best quarterback in his division, and maybe the best in his conference, and he hasn’t won multiple Super Bowls is a head-scratcher. I know, I know. It’s a team sport and blah blah blah. But if you’re going to go on and say you’re the best player in franchise history, bud, you better have the rings (plural) to prove it. He does not. He can claim he’s the longest-tenured Packer and I’ll throw an unenthusiastic round of applause his way. I’ll even throw in the complimentary eye roll for free.

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No one is denying Aaron Rodgers’s talent. The arrogance that comes with it, now that’s something the New York Jets should and could avoid by going after Matthew Stafford. How long before he’s throwing his new teammates under the bus like he did last year? How long before he’s calling out Robert Saleh on the sideline if he’s not getting the calls he wants? He hasn’t exactly been the poster child for professionalism over the past few seasons.

And for what? Almost 60 million dollars, no thank you. Say what you will about Matthew Stafford, but here’s a fun fact. He was drafted in 2009, while Rodgers was in 2005, and he’s just under 7,000 yards behind Rodgers. If Aaron Rodgers never played another down of football, based on yearly production Matthew Stafford would pass him in just under two seasons. Rodgers will be 40 by the end of the season. If both played until they were 40, at their current pace, Rodgers would finish with 62,335 yards. Stafford with 65,962 and could be had for a fraction of the price.

Don’t worry, I know the naysayers will point out the TD-to-INT ratio. Stafford has only thrown 333 TDs with 169 INTs (2 TDs for every 1 INT), while Rodgers has 475 TDs and 109 INTs (4 for every 1 INT) (according to NFL.com). And while Matthew Stafford has had talent like Calvin Johnson, he had plenty of bad seasons sticking it out with a bad Detroit Lions team. Aaron Rodgers was able to lift the Packers too much better seasons, but Calvin Johnson aside, he’s also played with much better talent.

So what does it come down to for the New York Jets? There is absolutely no need to take on that kind of money when he’s not going to be playing many more seasons. Heck, he’s already talking about retirement this year. Even if he wins a Super Bowl and then retires, you’re right back where you started next season, looking for your franchise quarterback. At least you’d know you can get a solid 2-3 seasons out of Matthew Stafford before he’d contemplate retirement. By then you could have multiple drafts under your belt to find his replacement. Taking on Aaron Rodgers just to sell jerseys and try to keep up with the rest of the division is just plain foolish.