As the Jets limp to the end of a lost season, Tiki says, citing one of his favorite quotes he heard during his playing career, that Gang Green got burned by trying to take a “shortcut” with the acquisition of Aaron Rodgers.
“’The road to success would be a lot more crowded if people didn’t get off looking for shortcuts,’” Tiki said. “In real time, I couldn’t have said it was a shortcut, but going to get Aaron Rodgers was a shortcut. It was going around the grind and the development, the drafting acumen, the building of an offensive line and skill position players around it. It was a shortcut around what it takes to put an actual winner on the football field.”
Evan countered that taking a “shortcut” worked out very well for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers when they went out and got Tom Brady before winning a Super Bowl, but Tiki said Tampa still built it right before bringing in Brady to complete the puzzle.
“The Buccaneers also drafted Tristan Wirfs in the first round, they had Donovan Smith, who was the other tackle,” Tiki said. “They had two other leftover guards and a center who were really good on that team. And they had Mike Evans. They built it. They built it all. The shortcut for the quarterback wasn’t shortcutting everything else. The Jets still had problems.
“[Rodgers] was inevitably going to get hurt, because their offensive line was so bad. It’s proven to be so all season long. I’m watching Mekhi Becton, on run plays, step outside of the defensive end, and the defensive end just steps inside for a tackle for a loss…I see the same thing with Laken Tomlinson, who is the All-Pro on the offensive line, completely whiffing on a guy in front of him…it’s a disaster.”
