Absurd Aaron Rodgers stat highlights major Packers failure

The New York Jets took a mallet to the New England Patriots on Thursday Night Football, emerging with a commanding 24-3 victory. It was by far the best game of Aaron Rodgers' brief Jets career. He completed 27 of 35 passes for 281 yards and two touchdowns, moving the chains without much issue all game.

It would appear that Rodgers is getting more and more comfortable on that rebuilt Achilles. He has been whipping gorgeous throws since Week 1, but Thursday's game saw Rodgers rolling outside the pocket more frequently and deploying his legs as a weapon. Even more impressive is the fact that this was New York's third game in an 11-day span. Rodgers, at 40 years old, still has some of his old magic.

We are far too early in the season for definitive takeaways, but man, Rodgers really made stuff happen against the (admittedly flimsy) Patriots defense. That trademark quick release. The pinpoint precision on deep routes up the sideline. It was all on display Thursday night. Maybe some of us were too quick to write off the four-time MVP.

Among Rodgers' many accomplishments on Thursday was his first touchdown pass to Garrett Wilson, the Jets' third-year wideout and former No. 10 pick.

Aaron Rodgers' first touchdown pass to Garrett Wilson is somehow an indictment on the Packers

There are plenty of valid complaints about how the Green Bay Packers handled Aaron Rodgers' historic career, but in the end, those will be fond memories in the fandom. Rodgers won four MVPs in a Packers uniform and reached the mountaintop in 2011. He is, point blank, one of the best quarterbacks we have ever seen. When we think of Rodgers a decade or two from now, it will be as a Packer.

All that said, of those valid complaints, few stick out more than Green Bay's refusal to invest in top-shelf wide receivers, especially late in Rodgers' stint. That 2022 season without Davante Adams just felt wrong.

Rodgers' connection with Garrett Wilson in New York has developed quickly, as we all expected. Wilson is just a nutty athlete, slender and explosive, capable of phasing through gaps in the defense and exploiting the slimmest of advantages.

That connection probably makes some Green Bay fans a bit jealous. It also comes with a completely absurd revelation. Thursday's touchdown pass to Garrett was the first time Rodgers has completed a TD pass to a first-round pick in his two decades of NFL football.

It's possible to find great wide receivers outside the first round (case and point, Davante Adams), but it is a bit difficult to comprehend the extent to which Green Bay did not invest premium assets in Rodgers' WR corps. That doesn't mean the Packers didn't do other things to help him out (O-line investment, RBs, tight ends, etc), but it does feel wrong that one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time didn't have a first-round pick to consistently throw to until his 20th season.

New York fans obviously don't care about what happened in Green Bay. It just matters that Rodgers is here now, in East Rutherford, with a strong complement of wideouts. The Jets look like a real threat, folks, in part due to the amount of resources New York has poured into Rodgers' supporting cast.