In wake of trade for Aaron Rodgers, Jets GM Joe Douglas takes a pre-victory lap
Jets general manager Joe Douglas and Make-A-Wish recipient Kyle Stickles, answer questions from reporters during an NFL football pre-draft press conference on Tuesday, April 25, 2023, in Florham Park, N.J. Credit: Noah K. Murray
Before they introduced You-Know-Who, the Jets brought out a somewhat less recognizable new member of the team on Tuesday.
Kyle Stickles, a 13-year-old cancer survivor from upstate Ghent, sat beside general manager Joe Douglas for a few minutes of a photo op before heading off to Kansas City to announce the Jets’ first-round draft pick Thursday night as a Make-A-Wish recipient. This was, ostensibly, a previously scheduled predraft media availability, after all, not, as it turned out to be, something of a victory lap regarding the biggest headline the Jets will make no matter who they pick later this week.
Even a young teenager could read the room and tell no one really cared all that much about a silly thing like the upcoming draft. Asked what position he thinks he’ll wind up calling off the card he is eventually handed, Stickles cut straight to the pachyderm at the news conference.
“Well,” he said, “we definitely don’t need a quarterback.”
No. No they don’t. Not anymore.
The Jets took care of that situation Monday when they completed the framework for the deal that will bring Aaron Rodgers to Florham Park from Green Bay. That afternoon was spent celebrating, with plenty of hugs and high-fives, according to Douglas, at the final draft of a trade that had taken a month and a half to consummate. All of the hand-wringing and negotiating, the back channels and public statements, the specter of missing out on a player to whom they were so committed and had almost nothing of a backup plan in mind had they whiffed, was finally put aside with the Jets receiving what they coveted all along.
“Ultimately, our goal from the beginning was to add Aaron to the team and we were able to get that,” Douglas said.
The process had paid off.
Tuesday, though, brought a different kind of euphoria. No longer saddled with thoughts about how they could land Rodgers, Douglas and the Jets were finally permitted to contemplate, with a degree of certainty, what the trade means. They began to digest the acquisition of a player who instantly becomes the most accomplished quarterback in franchise history and, if things continue to go according to plan as they have, more or less, since the Jets first began daydreaming about Rodgers, has the potential to lift the organization to its second Super Bowl title.
Stickles isn’t the only one who gets to see his wish come true this week.
Behind the outward giddiness, there was an aspect to Douglas’ comments Tuesday that indicate he still can’t believe this is happening, that he woke up Tuesday and it wasn’t all a dream. He spoke, as he did at the league meetings last month, about being flattered (he didn’t say surprised, but it can be inferred) that Rodgers would even consider coming to the Jets. He talked about everyone — players, coaches, front office — having to raise their level to meet that of their new quarterback.
“There’s going to be a standard that needs to be met,” Douglas said.
Douglas wouldn’t make any promises or guarantees regarding the end result of this new albeit short era of a sprint toward the Super Bowl which he had just ushered in — “There’s not going to be any crazy statements or anything like that,” he said — but the big silver trophy with the football on top of it is certainly on everyone’s mind now.
Closer than it has been for better than 50 years, maybe.
There are still a few formalities to tidy up before Rodgers is officially and completely a Jet. He has to fly to New Jersey and undergo a physical. Some aspects of his contract need to be redefined to make the fiscal elements fit into the Jets’ salary cap. All of that should be wrapped up quickly.
That will leave just one person with whom Douglas will celebrate this trade.
Douglas, as of Tuesday’s news conference at least, hadn’t even spoken directly with Rodgers since the framework of the trade was finished. He’d been dealing almost exclusively with Rodgers’ agent, Dave Dunn.
“I think it’s going to be good to get him here and give him a big hug whenever he gets into town,” Douglas said.
That embrace will punctuate the party atmosphere that has permeated the Jets all this week.
After that, it’ll be time to go back to work.
Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.
