Mohamed El-Erian, one of the world’s great investment strategists, and a New York Jets superfan, has a word of caution about Aaron Rodgers—don’t let the race to win now ruin long-term stability.
“It will be crucial to supplement this short-term solution with a continued and comprehensive emphasis on a longer-term break away from too many years of disappointments,” El-Erian said in an email.
El-Erian is best-known on Wall Street as former co-CEO and co-chief investment officer at bond investment giant PIMCO, including during the turmoil of 2007-2014 when the firm made a killing buying up beaten-down mortgage-backed debt. The native New Yorker also helmed Harvard’s endowment and currently serves as chief economic advisor of Allianz and president of Queen’s College, Cambridge University.
El-Erian is also a big fan of Gang Green, and while not as demonstrative as, say, Fireman Ed, he isn’t above tweeting about games between posts on the economy.
“Ultimate success is for the Rodgers trade to act not just as a catalyst for immediate Jets out-performance but also for a transition to maintain and build on such out-performance in a durable manner,” the strategist added.
Like many Jets fans, he’s hoping past isn’t prologue. The current trade echoes the team’s moves 15 years ago. In 2008, the Jets passed up adding a long-term quarterback solution in the April draft, only to trade for Green Bay’s Brett Favre just before the start of the season. The team improved from 4-12 to 9-7 that year, but missed the playoffs. Favre played just that single injury-shortened season for the Jets.
Hindsight is 20/20, of course, but Jets fans recall how Chad Pennington, the incumbent starter jettisoned for Favre, led the Miami Dolphins to a better record that year, posting a career high in passing yardage. The Jets also passed on taking an early-round QB in a 2008 draft that saw Joe Flacco drafted well after the Jets’ picks that year. The best QB of that class, Matt Ryan, went just three slots ahead of the Jets’ first pick that year and presumably could have been attainable for the right price.
Instead, with Favre gone after one season, the Jets chose Mark Sanchez in the QB-weak 2009 draft. Sanchez had a respectable career as a game-manager type, but Jets fans will always wonder if the talented Rex Ryan teams of 2009 and 2010 could have advanced past the AFC Championship Game with a higher-caliber QB.
The Jets haven’t been to the playoffs since.
