A 40-year-old Aaron Rodgers has a lot to prove this year, and he doesn’t have a lot of time left in his tenure! Moreover, he still has a Super Bowl dream to reach. Unfortunately, the window to bring a Lombardi home is eventually going to close. “I’m an old guy so I want to be part of a team that can win it all,” said Rodgers when he joined the Jets last year. There’s no need to say that he obviously fell short. However, this year is different and the good news is that Rodgers has a roster that can turn that distant dream into a reality.

Former New York Jets LB Bart Scott thinks this is a great time for the New York Jets. Remember BJ Raji’s pick six in the 2010 NFC Championship game? That might be the most memorable thing that happened in that season. However, in this era, though, the Jets’ defense is so strong that it might make that pick 6 look like child’s play. But as far as this new roster goes, Scott thinks that he “would put the personnel on this defense right there with them and say that arguably, it could be better.”

“I mean if I look at this roster and being honest, I can look at this roster and I can go over all the rosters in which Aaron Rogers had and I can arguably say that you know this may be as good a roster that he has had since the year he won the Super Bowl,” said Bart Scott on a New York Jets podcast.

However, he didn’t feel comfortable undermining what the veterans had done in the past and added, “I want to still respect AJ Hawk and Charles Woodson and Clay Matthews and BJ Raji. I want to respect those guys, but I would put the personnel on this defense right there with them and say that arguably, it could be better.”

The year in which the Packers won the Super Bowl was arguably the best defense they ever had in Rodgers’ tenure. Per Covers.com, the Green Bay team ranked 5th overall in the 2010-2011 regular season as they allowed 309.1 yards per game and had 47 sacks in the season. In the same season, the Packers gave away 15 points per game on average and also allowed 114.9 rushing yards per game.

Their soaring performance started declining from the 2011 season onwards. To put it bluntly, it was the worst that the Packers had ever seen. The Wisconsin team was giving away 22.4 points per game on average and 411.6 passing yards per game. They also allowed 111.8 rush yards per game and had a total of 29 sacks that season. The Packers ranked dead in defense in the 2011 season in the regular season.

Comparing that to present day Jets’ metrics, Bart Scott’s comments stand true. The Jets ranked third with 292.3 yards given away per game. The defense also had 48 sacks to account for in the 2023 season. Aaron Rodgers might score another MVP this season because of where the Jets defense stands this year.

Does Aaron Rodgers’ MVP dreams rely on the defense this year?

This may be true because even though Green Bay’s defense was on a decline after the Super Bowl season, they got it together when the playoffs came. Rodgers won his last MVP in the 2021 season where the Packers defense ranked 9 in the regular season. However, by some miracle, the defense stepped up and topped the league when the playoffs came.

Also, Bart Scott thinks Rodgers has a shot at MVP simply because his “supporting cast” is better now that what it used to be in Green Bay. “Aaron Rodgers now can win more with his mind than he has to with his body, and I think that’s the game,” said the former Jets LB.

“I mean, you think some of the guys that have won championships later in their career, it was this formula. He doesn’t have to be MVP Rodgers. I will take MVP Rodgers, but he doesn’t have to be because his supporting cast is so much better around him than when he won those MVPs.”

Per Pro Football Network, the Jets’ defense ranks first in 2024. The Jets ranked No. 3 in DVOA (Defensive-adjusted Value Over Age) last season. It’s slated to get even better because of All-Pro’s LB Quincy Williams and CB Sauce Gardner on their side. Also, the presence of Pro Bowlers like DT Quinnen Williams and DE Jermaine Johnson II makes more of a case for this defense.

Currently, the New York Jets are No. 1 when it comes to their D-Line, secondary and Linebackers, per Pro Football Network. With a roster like that, Rodgers’ chances of winning a fifth MVP aren’t too farfetched.