Aaron Rodgers isn’t the QB the Jets thought they had

What is a fair and proper sample size when assessing an NFL quarterback’s performance? 

Where does seven games fall into that analytic formula? 

Through seven games this season, the Jets are 2-5 with Aaron Rodgers at quarterback. 

Through seven games last season, the Jets were 4-3 with Zach Wilson at quarterback. 

Remember him? 

The Jets finished 7-10 last year in spite of a chaotic and dysfunctional revolving door at quarterback with Wilson going from starting to ineffective to benched and then injured and three other journeyman backups also playing games. 

Remember when those among us (myself at the head of the line) wondered aloud: Imagine how good the Jets would be if they just had a competent NFL quarterback? 

So, here we are with Rodgers, Hall of Fame-bound, former Super Bowl winner and four-time league MVP. More than competent. 

Plug in Rodgers and this team, with its talented defense and skill position players on offense, would improve to 10-7 at worst. 

That was the popular belief. But popular belief doesn’t always equate to reality. 

Through seven games last season, the Zach Wilson Jets scored 126 points. Through seven games this season, the Aaron Rodgers Jets have 128 points. 

Rodgers has thrown seven interceptions in seven games. In his 15 full seasons as a starter, Rodgers threw seven interceptions or fewer 10 times. He’s thrown double-digit interceptions, which is the direction he’s headed at the moment his season, only three times. 

All of those interceptions, of course, have not been the fault of Rodgers. Case in point: His third-quarter pick to Pittsburgh cornerback Beanie Bishop Jr. was completely the fault of receiver Garrett Wilson, who had the ball bounce off his chest and into the arms of Bishop. 

But still, I hear Bill Parcells’ voice inside my head with his oft-used phrase: “You are what your record says you are.” 

I also hear Parcells’ simple measure on how he judges quarterbacks: How often do they get their team into the end zone? 

The Jets offense has produced just 16 second-half points in the past four games, not coincidentally all losses. 

Maybe it’s a knee-jerk reaction and maybe it’s recency bias just a day after the 37-15 loss to the Steelers Sunday night to wonder whether the 40-year-old Rodgers still has it or not. 

But it sure doesn’t look like it at the moment. 

He doesn’t appear to have a lot of trust in the pocket and seems reticent to run, a weapon he’s used in a very effective and timely manner over the course of his career. 

There were a handful of times Sunday night when Rodgers had sizable openings to scramble for positive yards and he stayed behind the line of scrimmage as if it were protected by one of those invisible dog fences. 

Rodgers, too, has rarely thrown the ball downfield this season — other than his Hail Mary against Buffalo two games ago. 

As I rode back to my Pittsburgh hotel early Tuesday morning after the Jets loss, I wondered: With the hype that came with Rodgers returning to the field this season, have his teammates taken it for granted that everything was going to be all right now that he’s healthy and playing? 

Rodgers, after the loss in Pittsburgh, was asked how he can keep the team “believing,’’ responded: “Stop listening to you guys (reporters), number one.” 

He didn’t expand on exactly what he meant, and it sounded like one of those cliched player-blames-the-media rants. 

But I wonder if part of what Rodgers meant was for his teammates not to get caught up in all the things written about how good they should be with him at quarterback and all the other talent on the team. That could be a human-nature trap the Jets have fallen into. 

“The human nature around here is that we have a Hall of Fame quarterback behind us, so when the defense plays the way we can and we give Aaron just a little bit of a chance, we’re going to win the game,” defensive lineman Solomon Thomas said Monday. “But … it’s not basketball [where] one player can take over the game. Everyone has to execute. That has to be the standard. That has to be the way we go forward if we’re going to go where we want to go.” 

Interim head coach Jeff Ulbrich acknowledged on Monday that “it definitely raises the level of expectation when you put an Aaron Rodgers into the fold, and just all that he’s done in this league, all he’s capable of still doing.” 

Ulbrich said he “addressed” the team about that Monday morning. 

“We can’t just put it all on him,” center Joe Tippmann said Monday. “That’s something we’ve been harping on. If we’re not getting it done on the O-line, then he can’t go out there and do the things that he’s great at.” 

The Jets, who play the rebuilding and struggling Patriots Sunday and have a soft upcoming schedule, don’t need to be great right now. 

They need to figure out how to simply be good. And that starts with the quarterback.